Many times in Spanish spelling changes may occur in order to keep the correct pronunciation of the word.

1. c - qu

   Tocar to play (instruments)

   Preterit: toqué, tocaste, tocó, tocamos, tocasteis, tocaron
   Present subjunctive: toque, toques, toque, toquemos, toquéis, toquen

2. z - c

   Empezar (ie) to begin

   Preterit: empecé, empezaste, empezó, empezamos, empezasteis, empezaron
   Present Subjunctive: empiece, empieces, empiece, empecemos, empecéis, empiecen

3. g - gu

   Pagar to pay (for)

   Preterit: pagué, pagaste, pagó, pagamos, pagasteis, pagaron
   Present subjunctive: pague, pagues, pague, paguemos, paguéis, paguen

4. gu - g

   Seguir (i, i) to follow, continue

   Present indicative: sigo, sigues, sigue, seguimos, seguís, siguen
   Present subjunctive: siga, sigas, siga, sigamos, sigáis, sigan

5. g - j

   Recoger to pick up

   Present indicative: recojo. recoges, recoge, recogemos, recogeis, recogen
   Present subjunctive: recoja, recojas, recoja, recojamos, recojáis, recojan

6. i - y

   Leer to read

   Preterit: leí, leíste, leyó, leímos, leísteis, leyeron
   Imperfect Subjunctive: leyera, leyeras, leyera, leyéramos, leyerais, leyeran

In Spanish there are three main rules to applying accents.

1. Words that are stressed on the last syllable are called agudas. If an aguda word ends in a consonant other than n or s it is written without an accent mark. If an aguda end in a vowel, or n or s it carries a written accent mark.

   Examples: canción , aquí, detrás

2. Words that are stressed on the next to last syllable are called graves or llanas. If a grave word ends in a vowel or n or s it does not carry a written accent. If a grave ends in a consonant other than n or s it carries a written accent.

   Examples: ángel, lápiz, débil

3. Words that are stressed on the third to the last syllable are called esdrújula. All esdrújula words carry a written accent.

   Examples: católico, estómago, magnífico

4. Accent marks are also used to create hiato, that is to separate what would otherwise be dipthongs. Dipthongs are single syllables formed by the combination of a strong vowel (a, e, o) with a weak vowel (i, u), or two weak vowels. If the pronunciation of the word requires the weak vowel to be stressed, the weak vowel is accented.

   Examples: biología, país, púa
   Counter-examples: historia (dipthong, not hiato), miércoles (stress on strong vowel, not weak one, thus no hiato).

5. Finally, quite a few homonyms use written accent marks to distinguish between their meanings. These must be memorized.

   Examples: sí = yes / si = if, más = more / mas = but

1. Present indicative tense -ar, -er, -ir verbs

The present tense in Spanish is used to talk about actions that occur in the present or immediate future, or that commonly reoccur.

A. Some verbs require a change in the stem vowel of the present indicative, all forms except nosotros and vosotros.

B. In the present tense there are also many irregular verbs in only the first person: YO. They may or may not have stem vowel changes also.

The preterit is used to express an action in the past that has been completed. It also can be used to represent a specific moment in an action whether that action is ongoing or completed or not..

Formation of the preterit tense of regular verbs -ar, -er, -ir verbs:

A. In order to maintain the consonant sound of the infinitive, verbs that end in -car, -gar and -zar undergo a spelling change only in the YO form.

B. Other -er and -ir verbs whose stem ends in a vowel change the i in their third person singular and plural endings to y.

C. Other irregular verbs have the same endings for -er and -ir, with some irregularities. These verbs have no written accents.

3. Imperfect

The imperfect is known as the descriptive past tense. It is used to describe repeated or continuous actions in the past, with no referance to the begining or end of the action. In order to form the imperfect of regular verbs, you must add the folllowing endings to the stem of the verb. There are no stem changing verbs with this tense.

There are only three irregular verbs in the imperfect:

Remember the written accent mark for all -er and -ir verbs, also first person plural (nosotros) of -ar verbs.

Conjugate the present subjunctive by adding endings to the root formed by removing the ‘-o’ from the first person singular form of the present indicative (plain present tense). The characteristic vowel of present subjunctive endings is the opposite of the present indicative:

A. Stem changing -ar and -er verbs have the same pattern they have in the present indicative; -Ir verbs have an additional change in the first and second person plural forms:

B. Verbs that have irregular stems in the “yo” form of the present indicative use that root throughout the present subjunctive:

There is only one past tense in the subjunctive, the imperfect subjunctive. Form the root by removing the ‘-ron’ from the third-person plural of the preterit, then add endings as follows:

A. Any irregularities that applied to the preterit form will apply here; there are no additional irregularities.

Go to SUNY-Oneonta Home Page | Go to Foreign Language Dept Home Page | Return to Language Learning Resource List