Learning Spanish verb endings - Some basic tips
It seems to be best to learn the endings separately (you know: "-o, -as, -a, -amos, -áis, án " and "-o, -es, -e, -emos, -éis, én") and practice putting them on the ends of the verbs. Practice with many different verbs, but choose two common, easy ones (I always use "hablar" and "comer") and use those two to practice until you know them inside out. Use those same two verbs on the other tenses.
Future ( with "ir a")
If you already know "ir" ("voy, vas, va, vamos, vais, van") be sure to practice this tense like this (phonetically): "voya, vasa, vaa, vamosa, vaisa, vana" so that you don't forget to put in the "a" in structures like "voy a comer"
Present Perfect
(Using my two favorite practice verbs): first learn "-ado" (hablado) and "-ido" (comido) then memorize haber ("he, has, ha, hemos, habéis, han") and practice them out loud: he hablado, has hablado, ha hablado, hemos hablado...etc.
Future
OK, you've learned "he, has, ha, hemos, habéis, han", right? Well those are the future endings (except for vosotros) written without the "h". What you need to do with these endings is really, really exaggerate them when you practice them out loud. I find that the main mistake students make is to not pronounce the emphasized endings strongly enough. They say "comEre" instead of "comerE". It's really important to get the emphasis right in the future tense.
Preterite (Simple past)
Most students find that unlike learning the endings separately for the present tense, here it's best to learn an entire -ar verb and an entire -er or -ir verb. For example, learn "comí, comiste, comíó, comimos, comisteis, comieron" instead of just learning the endings and trying to attach them.
Imperfect
By the time you get to the imperfect, just remembering "hablaba" for -ar verbs and "comía" for -er and -ir verbs should be enough to get you going because if you think about it, after the first person singular you're just using the present endings again: comía, comías, comía, comíamos, comíais, comían.
Present subjunctive
When I first present the subjunctive endings, the word "subjunctive" never comes out of my mouth. I call them "opposite endings" and tell students they just have to do the opposite of what they've learned up til now: put the -ar endings on the -er and -ir verbs and vice versa. I also add that the "g" verbs (like tengo, pongo, hago, etc.) keep the "g" in this form.
Past subjunctive
I first tell students to repeat the third person plural of the preterite (hablaron, comieron) until it's coming out their ears, because then it's not a difficult jump from "hablaron" to "hablara" and "comieron" to "comiera".
I've left out comments on the irregulars here and tried to give some pointers on the basics. I hope this will help you speed up the learning process.
Brad
