Stem-changing verbs

Live Session 1--FGC Spanish 2

Present tense of stem-changing verbs

A few simple things to begin:

• How do when know if a verb stem changes? Easy. Our course materials tell us. Otherwise, we'd have no way of knowing.
   
• How do we know what kind of stem change a verb has? Again, easy. Our textbook and Connect also give us that information.
   
• Once you're told, though, it's your responsibility to remember which verbs have which kinds of stem changes.

The basics: conjugating e to ie stem changing verbs in the present tense.

As always, when conjugating, we're only concerned with 2 things: 

• stem  
• ending

For regular stem-changing verbs, the only form that doesn't show a stem change is the nosotros-form:

In the other 4 present-tense forms, the stem "e" has to change to an "ie" before we can add a conjugated ending.

There are 2 other types of stem changes in the language:
e to i and o to ue.

• As always, the nosotros-form shows no stem change.
   
• Example: the verb "poder".
   
• Its nosotros-form starts with the unchanged stem: "pod"
   
• To this unchanged stem, we add the nosotros-form ending "emos" (because this is an -ER verb)
   
• That gives us the present-tense nosotros-form "podemos"
   
• Easy! It's just stem plus ending, like all present-tense conjugation.

The 4 forms of -ER verb "poder" where the stem "o" changes to "ue" are:

Practice Break:

• We'll focus on 2 sections of a Prueba de Práctica from a platform I use in at another college.

More conjugations with our stem-changing verbs:
 

• Los chicos____________(volver) [stem changes o to ue]
   
• Tú ___________(jugar) [stem changes u to ue]
   
• Yo ____________(entender) [stem changes e to ie]
   
• Mi hija ___________(servir) [stem changes e to i]
   
• Nosotros __________(perder) [stem changes e to ie]

VOLVER

• Los chicos ____________(volver) [stem changes o to ue]
   
• step 1: derive the stem: volv
   
• step 2: will the stem change? yes
   
• step 3: change the stem: vuelv
   
• step 4: add conjugated ending "en" for 3rd-person plural subject "los chicos"
   
• step 5: success! "vuelv" + "en"="vuelven", the correct form.

JUGAR

• Tú ___________(jugar) [stem changes u to ue]
   
• step 1: derive the stem: jug
   
• step 2: will the stem change? yes
   
• step 3: change the stem: jueg
   
• step 4: add conjugated ending "as" for subject "tú"
   
• step 5: success! "jueg" + "as"="juegas", the correct form.

ENTENDER

• Yo ____________(entender) [stem changes e to ie]
  
   
• step 1: derive the stem: entend
   
• step 2: will the stem change? yes
   
• step 3: change the stem: entiend
   
• step 4: add conjugated ending "o" for subject "yo"
   
• step 5: success! "entiend" + "o"="entiendo", the correct form.

SERVIR

• Mi hija ___________(servir) [stem changes e to i]
   
• step 1: derive the stem: serv
   
• step 2: will the stem change? yes
   
• step 3: change the stem: sirv
   
• step 4: add conjugated ending "e" for 3rd-person-singular subject "mi hija"
   
• step 5: success! "sirv" + "e"="sirve", the correct form.

PERDER

• Nosotros ____________(perder) [stem changes e to ie]
  
   
• step 1: derive the stem: perd
   
• step 2: will the stem change? NO
   
• step 3: keep the stem as it is: perd
   
• step 4: add conjugated ending "emos" for subject "nosotros"
   
• step 5: success! "perd" + "emos"="perdemos", the correct form.