The Endings Are One System

Spanish · Page 1 of 4

Name Date

DIRECTIONS: Chop -ar off each verb and add the six endings from the wheel. The top row is done.

Verbs ending in -ar — by far the biggest family

Check down each column: every “we” ends in -amos.

The Endings Are One System — The Other Two Families

Spanish · Page 2 of 4

DIRECTIONS: Three families: -ar, -er, -ir. Compare the reference rows, then fill in the chart below.

reference	I	you	he / she	we	you all	they
hablar	hablo	hablas	habla	hablamos	habláis	hablan
comer	como	comes	come	comemos	coméis	comen
vivir	vivo	vives	vive	vivimos	vivís	viven

Notice: I is always -o. -er and -ir differ only in we and you all. The underlined vowel comes from the verb’s own ending.

Which family is each one in? Then fill it in.

beber to drink · escribir to write · aprender to learn · abrir to open · caminar to walk

Spanish · Page 3 of 4

Why does Spanish not need the word for I in front of a verb, when English does?
You see the word cantamos and have never met it. Say who is doing it and how you know, without knowing what the verb means.
English puts this information in a separate word and Spanish puts it in the ending. Which do you think is easier for a learner, and which is easier for a reader? They may not be the same answer.
A wheel and a chart hold exactly the same information. Say what each one is better at — they are not better at the same thing.

Spanish · Page 4 of 4

Which column is the same in all three families, with no exceptions at all?
-er and -ir verbs differ in only two of the six. Which two, and why might a language let two families collapse into one nearly everywhere?