Verbs - ar

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Last Updated: Tuesday, 02 July 2024 14:53

Published: Friday, 28 July 2023 00:58

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-ar verbs: A lot of words ending in -ar are verbs and are called -ar verbs. -ar verbs are the most common of all verbs encountered in daily conversations.

ex: hablar => to speak, etc. The base word literally means "to speak". The other verb forms means speak, speaks, etc.

-ción words in Spanish: A very simple trick to convert words ending in -tion in English is to change it to -ción in Spanish. We saw that already in "spanish" section (they are all feminine, i.e la ...). Followup trick is that these Spanish words that end in -ación (i.e converted from English -ation) can be converted to ar verb, by replacing -ación with -ar. Ex:

• to memorize =>  memorize can be converted to -tion as memorization, whose spanish translation is memorización. Since it's an -ación word, it's verb is memorizar (pronouned as memo-ree-saar)
• to educate => education => educación => educar (edoo-kaar)
• to reserve = reservation => reservación => reservar (re-ser-baar)
• to observe => observation => observación => observar
• to legalize = legalization => legalación => legalar
• to facilitate => facilitation = facilitación => facilitar
• to create => creation => creación => crear
• to document => documentation => documentación => documentar
• to examine => examination => examinación => examinar
• to converse = conversation => conversación => conversar
• to participate => participation => participación = participar
• to pronounce => pronounciation => pronunciación => pronunciar (NOTE: pronoun got changed to pronun in spanish (i.e o missing))
• to transform => transformation => transformación => transformar
• to recommend => recommendation => recomendación => recomendar (double m replaced with single m)
• to prepare => preparation => preparación => preparar
• to dwell => habitation => habitación (means a room) =>  habitar
• to invite => invitation => invitaación => invitar

Exceptions to rule  above are listed below. Most of these words don't end in -ación, but rather in some other alphabet (other than a) and then -ción, so they are NOT really exceptions.

• to function (or to work) => función (foon-sion)  =>  this spanish word is NOT -ación, and didn't get translated to "funar", but instead we just add -ar to the whole thing, resulting in funciónar.
  • funciónar => to work. i.e something no working => no  funciónar (one c dropped when converting from tion to cion). I've seen ó (with accent) and o (w/o accent) with funcion. Very widely used to talk about things when they break.
• to interrupt => interruption => interrupción (NOTE: double r is kept). Again this word has no -ación, and didn't get translated to "interrupar", but instead we just replace -ción with -ir, resulting in interrumpir (an ir verb instead of an ar verb). 
  • interrumpir => to interrupt. ex: No interrumpas => (you) do not interrupt (since conversion table for 2nd person used as discussed later in -ir section)
• to compete => competition => competición => competir (Here ición becomes ir (-ación becomes -ar)). "el concurso" is another synonym for  competición.
• to translate => translation => traducción  (NOTE: double c is kept). Again this word has no -ación, and didn't get translated to "traducar", but instead we just replace -ción with -ir, resulting in  traducir (an ir verb instead of an ar verb).  Very commonly seen on websites when you are want to translate from one language to another.

Present Tense:

General transformation for present tense is as below when using -ar verb with nouns/pronouns (true for almost all -ar verbs). We remove ar from end of verb, and replace it with endings as shown below (depending on pronoun I, you, etc).

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TF71Ca3def8&list=PLv63dFTP4Sjq6knRsZQI-bTnRE38cZZoy&index=17

Ex: Below are few examples of -ar verbs that follow the pattern above.

hablar => To Speak: The Spanish verb hablar is an -ar verb translated in English as “to speak”. Below is the table based on above transformation.

Caminar => To Walk: The Spanish verb caminar is an -ar verb translated in English as “to walk”. Other word for "to walk" is "andar" though caminar is the one mostly used for "walking". Though Andar means "to walk", it can mean to go, to travel, to act, etc. From word caminar, other noun "camino" is derived which means the path or way. ex: el camino de santiago => the way/path of santiago. To run is correr, which is an -er verb. Below is the table based on above transformation.

Nadar => To Swim: The Spanish verb nadar is an -ar verb translated in English as “to swim”. Below is the table based on above transformation.

More -ar verbs:

• Aceptar (aa-sep-tar) => to accept (No cc in spanish, only 1 c), opposite word is rechazar (re-cha-sar) => to refuse (sounds like refuse)
• Ayudar => to help. Remember it as "ayu" means "age" in Hindi, so helping someone in old age.
  
• Buscar => to search
• Besar => to kiss
• Comprar => To buy. (vender => to sell which is an -er verb, see below in -er section). Way to remember is that when buying, we compare things. So comprar relates to buying.
• cansar => to tire out. It's usually used in past tense as "I'm tired" > estoy cansada (It's V3 or "participle form and NOT simple past tense).  Cansando / Cansanda is an adjective for tired. Opposite of cansar is descansar => to relax or untire. Prefix "des" is used for lot of verbs to make the opposite word. Other word for relax which is an adjective is relajado / relajada (m/f).
• cenar => to have dinner. la cena => dinner. almorzar => to have lunch. el almuerzo => the lunch
• combinar => to combine, separar => to separate
• crear => to create, destruir => to destroy
• dar => to give (irregular), agarrar => to take
• escuchar => To listen. similar sounding cuchara means spoon.
• esperar => to wait for. ex: Pls wait => por favor espere (since it's command, conjugation are flipped for 3rd person (espera becomes espere). ex: I will wait => espararé
• empezar => to start. Another similar word is comenzar => To start. Like in English, we say to commence, or to start something. 
• necesitar => to need. necesidad => need. necessaria => necessary.
  • ex: I don't need this => No necesito este
• llamar => to call. This is very widely used in "what is your name?" which in Spanish is asked as "How you call yourself?". see in ex 2 below.
  • ex: I call you => yo te llamo => I call is "yo llamo". "you" is object pronoun here (since calling is done to you), so "te" used. Object goes in front of verb (see pronoun section), so "call you" => te llamo.
  • ex: you call you => tú te llamas (OR te llamas). Now if we ask "how you call you?", it kind of translates to "What is your name?" => ¿Cómo te llamas? => Cómo means "how", so it means "how you call yourself?"
  • ex: my friends call me "pakito" => mis amigos me llaman "pakito" => my friends is 3rd personn plural, so llaman used. "call me" => me llaman.
• llevar (ye-baar) => to carry or to take (i.e carry a dog). It also means "to wear". Note: it's lle(e) and NOT lla(a). llave means "keys" like house keys, etc (Note: a and e are interchanged for llave). Also, llevar looks similar to above verb, llamar. Another similar word, llegar means to arrive. Another similar word "lavar" means to wash.
• mirar => to look at. Remember from "mirror" which is used for looking. Verb "Ver" means "to see" (i.e like directly seeing something). I see a car => veo un auto.
• Activities:
  • cantar => to sing. Singer is translated to el/la cantante. Another similar word, contar means to tell. Other similar word, cortar => to cut (cortar sounds like cut). pintar => to paint. Painter is translated to el/la pintor. Painting is "la pintura". bailar => to dance
  • Cocinar (kosi-naar)=> To cook. The word "Cocina" which means Kitchen is derived from this
  • estudiar => to study (replace s with es in "study", as is common with words staring with st- ?). enseñar => to teach.
  • jugar (hoo-gaar) => to play
  • trabajar => to work. ex: Where do you work? => ¿dónde trabajas? Response => I work in an office in the bank of Mexico => yo tarbajo en una oficina en el banco de Mexico
  • limpiar => to clean (to clean a house, etc)
  • leer (LE-ER) => To read. escribir => To write. These are not -ar verbs.
  • visitar => to visit.
  • llorar (jo-raar) => to cry. Opposite verb "reír means to laugh. Another verb "ver" means "to see". It looks similar to voy (look in "verb ir" section which means to go), but it transforms as veo, ves, ve (Singular person), vemos, veis, ven (plural person), as it's an -er verb. Another verb, oler means to smell. Yet another verb "oír means to hear. sonreír means to smile.
    
    • ex: We'll see soon => nos vemos en la próxima. 
• Emotions/Feelings:
  • amar => to love. amar looks similar to verb llamar above. ex: Yo te amo, Ana => I love you, Ana. Adjective derived from amar is amor which means love. Another similar word, animar => to encourage (sounds like animal. animal is same in spanish as in English). animar means similar to love (amar) or to encourage. Another smilar word to amar is adorar => to adore. In english, adore means to love, to like greatly or to admire someone to a point where they worship that person. Opposite word to amar is odio => hate. Other verb which means "to love" is Encantar. A similar looking verb, Encontrar => To find. similar to word "encounter" meaning to encounter something.
  • contentar => to please, satisfy, appease (or to be content). contento/contenta are adjectives formed from the verb, and mean "being happy". ex: hoy estoy contento => I'm happy today.
  • molestar => to bother. Remember as "molestation" which is to molest somebody, or in gentle terms to bother someone
• guardar (goo-aar-daar)=> to save (i.e guard money). Synonym word is ahorrar => to save. Opposite word is gastar => to spend
• pensar => to think
• presionar => to press. When calling customer service, you always hear 'For spanish, press 9" => para español, presione nueve. Since it's command in 3rd person, flipping occurs. So, presiona becomes presione (see imperative section below)
• preguntar => to ask or to question. In spanish assigments, you will see word Pregunta which means Question (i.e Q1, Q2, etc). Another similar word is pedir, which is also used to ask for something, i.e service, favor, money, etc. Pedir always expects a response, while preguntar is only asking for information. Pedir is an irregular verb, with stem being "pid", and follows the boot form similar to most irregular verbs (pido, pides, pide, pedimos, pedís, piden).
  
  • Preguntar: ex: Pregunta cuando es la fiesta = Ask when is the party. Pregunta is used since it's affirmative (so 3rd person unflipped used as here "you" is 2nd person used informally)
  • Pedir: ex: Quiero pedir una pizza y una soda. = I want to ask for pizza and a soda.
• costar => to cost. ex in interrogative section.
• ordenar => to order (sounds like order). It also means to put in order (i.e to arrange or organize things)
• pagar (paa-gar) => to pay
• tocar => to touch. Similar looking verb "tomar" means "to take" or "to drink". Beber also means "to drink", but is mostly used in "alcoholic drinks" context, while tomar is "to drink anything (incl alcohol)". This is mostly true in Mexico, but i other countries, they are used more interchangeably. Noun "Drink" is derived from beber and called "Bebida". "Drinks section of a menu in a restaurant is written as "Bebidas", and can refer to soft drinks, tea, etc. Conjugate "Bebo" means "I drink" (see below for -er conjugation), but in a different situation, it also means "baby" => el bebo (boy baby), la bebo/la beba (girl baby).
• usar => to use.