Back to: Main verbs Part 1
Below are the personal pronouns (I, you, he, she, etc.) in Spanish. For now, we are going to work with the first two main verbs in the YO form only: I want & I need
Yo – I
Tú – You
Usted – You (Polite form)
Él – He
Ella – She
Nosotros – We (Masculine)
Nosotras – We (Feminine)
Ustedes – You (Plural)
Ellos – They (Masculine)
Ellas – They (Feminine)
Quiero means I want which will be our first main verb. Play the audio below to learn how to pronounce this word.
Now, here’s what we’re going to call a “second verb in the full form”: Hablar. This second verb means to speak or to talk in Spanish.
Sentence structure: Use a main verb plus a second verbas follows:
Quiero–Main verb
Hablar–Second verb in the full form
Quiero itself already means I want, therefore unlike in English, I, You, He, She, and so on are not used unless you want or need to emphasize. We will talk about emphasis in future lessons. For now, keep in mind that you can leave Yo or I out. Quiero hablar or Yo quiero hablar, they both mean I want.
This is the basic formula to create simple sentences. You can combine main verbs with as many second verbs in the full form as you like. Let’s look at another example using Quiero as your main verb and ir as a second verb. We are trying to say I want to go... For now, don’t worry about where to go. In following lessons you will learn common places to complement your sentences so that they make more sense i.e. I want to go to the store.
Ok, let’s grow our list of second verbs. Look at the word below and try to guess its meaning from the picture, then create a simple sentence, using your main verb.
Did you guess? Here’s the sentence below:
Now, let’s look at another main verb which is Necesito or I need in Spanish.
It’s the same formula: use Necesito, then a second verb. Look at the next word and try to guess its meaning from the picture again.
Here’s the complete sentence.
Below are a few more examples:
Estudiar = to study
Viajar = to travel
You can have as many combinations as you want or need, depending on the situation:
Quiero trabajar. — I want to work.
Quiero viajar. — I want to travel.
Quiero hablar. — I want to speak.
Quiero ir. — I want to go.
Necesito trabajar. — I need to work.
Necesito viajar. — I need to travel.
Necesito hablar. — I need to speak.
Necesito ir. — I need to go.
Do you remember the days of the week and months in Spanish? You can use dates to extend your sentences.
- Quiero ir. — I want to go.
- Quiero ir a México. — I want to go to Mexico.
- Quiero ir a México en noviembre. — I want to go to Mexico in November.
- Quiero ir. — I want to go.
- Quiero ir a la playa. — I want to go to the beach.
- Quiero ir a la playa el sábado. — I want to go to the beach on Saturday.
NOTE: Days and months are not capitalized in Spanish unless they are the first word of a sentence.
Use en for months, Quiero ir a México en noviembre; and use el for days of the week, Quiero ir a la playa el sábado.
Below is a list of words with their English definition that you can use with your main verbs.
