Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Glossary of grammatical terms
- Note on the text
- Short bibliography
- 1 Alphabet, spelling and pronunciation (Alfabeto, ortografía y pronunciación)
- 2 Definite and indefinite articles and gender of nouns (Artículos definidos e indefinidos y género de sustantivos)
- 3 Number (El plural)
- 4 Verbs (Los verbos)
- 5 Perfect tense and pluperfect tense (El [pretérito] perfecto y el pluscuamperfecto / antecopretérito [M])
- 6 Future tense and future perfect tense (El tiempo futuro y el futuro perfecto)
- 7 Imperfect tense (El tiempo imperfecto/copretérito [M])
- 8 Preterit tense or past definite (El pretérito indefinido / pretérito perfecto simple)
- 9 Conditional tense (El tiempo condicional)
- 10 Progressive tense or gerund (El tiempo progresivo o el gerundio)
- 11 The imperative mood (El modo imperativo)
- 12 Irregular verbs (Los verbos irregulares)
- 13 Ser and estar (Ser y estar)
- 14 Transitive and intransitive verbs, and reflexive verbs (Los verbos transitivos e intransitivos, y los verbos reflexivos)
- 15 Impersonal verbs (Los verbos impersonales)
- 16 Subjunctive (El subjuntivo)
- 17 Personal pronouns (Los pronombres personales)
- 18 Possessive adjectives and pronouns, relative and interrogative pronouns (Los adjetivos y pronombres posesivos, los pronombres relativos e interrogativos)
- 19 Indefinite pronouns (Los pronombres indefinidos)
- 20 Demonstrative adjectives and pronouns (Los adjetivos y pronombres demostrativos)
- 21 Adjectives (Los adjetivos)
- 22 Personal or distinctive a (La preposiciónacon el complemento directo)
- 23 Prepositions (Las preposiciones)
- 24 Prepositions por and para (Las preposiciones por y para)
- 25 Adverbs (Los adverbios)
- 26 Interrogative and negative sentences (Las frases interrogativas y negativas)
- 27 Numbers and measurements. Time and dimensions (Los números y las medidas. El tiempo [duración = la hora] y las dimensiones)
- 28 Comparatives and superlatives (Los comparativos y superlativos)
- 29 Word order (El orden de las palabras)
- 30 Augmentatives and diminutives (Los aumentativos y diminutivos)
- Model answers / Soluciones y modelos
- Index of grammar and vocabulary
- Subjunctive index
12 - Irregular verbs (Los verbos irregulares)
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Glossary of grammatical terms
- Note on the text
- Short bibliography
- 1 Alphabet, spelling and pronunciation (Alfabeto, ortografía y pronunciación)
- 2 Definite and indefinite articles and gender of nouns (Artículos definidos e indefinidos y género de sustantivos)
- 3 Number (El plural)
- 4 Verbs (Los verbos)
- 5 Perfect tense and pluperfect tense (El [pretérito] perfecto y el pluscuamperfecto / antecopretérito [M])
- 6 Future tense and future perfect tense (El tiempo futuro y el futuro perfecto)
- 7 Imperfect tense (El tiempo imperfecto/copretérito [M])
- 8 Preterit tense or past definite (El pretérito indefinido / pretérito perfecto simple)
- 9 Conditional tense (El tiempo condicional)
- 10 Progressive tense or gerund (El tiempo progresivo o el gerundio)
- 11 The imperative mood (El modo imperativo)
- 12 Irregular verbs (Los verbos irregulares)
- 13 Ser and estar (Ser y estar)
- 14 Transitive and intransitive verbs, and reflexive verbs (Los verbos transitivos e intransitivos, y los verbos reflexivos)
- 15 Impersonal verbs (Los verbos impersonales)
- 16 Subjunctive (El subjuntivo)
- 17 Personal pronouns (Los pronombres personales)
- 18 Possessive adjectives and pronouns, relative and interrogative pronouns (Los adjetivos y pronombres posesivos, los pronombres relativos e interrogativos)
- 19 Indefinite pronouns (Los pronombres indefinidos)
- 20 Demonstrative adjectives and pronouns (Los adjetivos y pronombres demostrativos)
- 21 Adjectives (Los adjetivos)
- 22 Personal or distinctive a (La preposiciónacon el complemento directo)
- 23 Prepositions (Las preposiciones)
- 24 Prepositions por and para (Las preposiciones por y para)
- 25 Adverbs (Los adverbios)
- 26 Interrogative and negative sentences (Las frases interrogativas y negativas)
- 27 Numbers and measurements. Time and dimensions (Los números y las medidas. El tiempo [duración = la hora] y las dimensiones)
- 28 Comparatives and superlatives (Los comparativos y superlativos)
- 29 Word order (El orden de las palabras)
- 30 Augmentatives and diminutives (Los aumentativos y diminutivos)
- Model answers / Soluciones y modelos
- Index of grammar and vocabulary
- Subjunctive index
Summary
Level 1
1.1 Irregular verbs (Los verbos irregulares)
1.2 Radical changing verbs (Los verbos con diptongación)
Irregular verbs
Irregular verbs have the habit of worrying people, for they seem to herald a long list of tiresome tenses to be learnt, when it would have been so much kinder if these verbs or their users had made an effort towards conformity to the types we already know. Certainly, Spanish irregular verbs are more complicated than English verbs, and there do seem to be a lot of them. However, many of them are quite rare, so that perhaps fifty irregular verbs need to be learnt, and others are compounds from shorter irregular verbs conjugated like them. Suponer comes from poner, devolver comes from volver, detener comes from tener, and so on. So, numerous Spanish irregular verbs are not unique.
Space does not allow a full tabulation of all Spanish irregular verbs. Good-quality dictionaries such as the Collins, the Oxford, or the Simon and Schuster contain all the necessary information. The Spanish Verbs by María Rosario Hollis (Teach Yourself Books) and 501 Spanish Verbs by Kendris (Barron's Educational Series) are also very helpful.
This unit is an introduction to Spanish irregular verbs, while it is suggested you refer to other units for irregularities in verbs when they are used in the future tense (unit 6), conditional (unit 9), imperfect (unit 7), perfect (unit 5), preterit (unit 8), and the subjunctive (unit 16) and imperative moods (unit 11).
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- Chapter
- Information
- A Student Grammar of Spanish , pp. 89 - 96Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2006