The basic rule seems so simple: A singular noun takes a singular verb (such as es, tiene or estaba), while a plural noun takes a plural verb (such as son, tienen or estaban).
But if you've been studying Spanish beyond the basics, you know that the rules are seldom that simple. For example, does a word such as grupo (group), which is singular in itself but refers to more than one entity, take a singular or plural verb? How about a word such as ninguno or nada, which can refer to zero of something? These questions and more are answered in our lesson covering situations where grammatical number may not be obvious.
Just because the dictionary might tell you what a Spanish word means doesn't mean you can always translate it that way and still sound like you're speaking natural English. For example, seguir typically carries the idea of "to continue." So you could try translating "Siguen sin pagarme" as "They continue without paying me." But there's a more natural way of getting that idea across, as our lesson on seguir shows.
If you've learned anything about French pronunciation, you know that it is very common for sounds of words to be omitted as the sounds of one word flow into the next. The same thing happens in Spanish, but to a lesser extent. The process is known by linguists as elision. And, of course, we do the same thing in English, doncha know?
One way you can expand on the words you already know is by using prefixes. Here are lessons we have on various families of verbs that come from the same root word but with varied prefixes:
You might have noticed that all the root verbs above except vivir are conjugated irregularly. The good news is that once you learn the conjugation of the root verb, it applies to all others in the family.
