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Spanish Verbs Made Simple(r) - Hillcrest Elementary

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IRREGULARITIES: PRESENT TENSE 37<br />

1p somos estamos so•mos es•ta•mos<br />

2p sois estáis sois es•táis<br />

3p son están son es•tán<br />

The difficulty is of course not with the conjugations but rather with determining<br />

which of the two verbs to use in any given situation, a topic to be explored in<br />

Chapter 11. For estar it is important to note that—in contrast to regular verbs—<br />

the stress is uniformly on the post-stem syllable; thus it is es•tás not *es•tas.<br />

6. Other First Person Singulars Ending in -oy: ir, dar<br />

In addition to ser and estar, there are two other verbs whose first person singular<br />

ends in -oy: ir and dar.<br />

ir (to go) dar (to give)<br />

1s voy doy<br />

2s vas das<br />

3s va da<br />

1p vamos damos<br />

2p vais dais<br />

3p van dan<br />

Thus, apart from ver (“to see”), all one-syllable <strong>Spanish</strong> verbs have first person<br />

singulars ending in -oy, along with estar. 21 Vais and dais do not have the usual second<br />

person plural written accent because they have only one syllable.<br />

7A. First person singular ending in -e: haber, saber<br />

7B. First person singular with umlaut (-a → -e): caber<br />

Haber and saber are the only <strong>Spanish</strong> verbs which have a first person singular<br />

present ending of -e. Due to haber’s frequent use as an auxiliary verb, its form was<br />

drastically shortened at the Vulgar Latin stage, which is why only the second person<br />

plural has a regular form. In contrast, the present tenses of both saber and<br />

caber are regular apart from the first person singular.<br />

21 The “natural” form of estar would have been the one-syllable *star. A “helping” e- was added—<br />

as it was to all words beginning with s consonant (e.g., español, especial, esnob, espagueti). This also<br />

accounts for the uniform stress of estar on the post-stem syllable.

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