(July 15, 2025 at 10:13 pm)Jackalope Wrote: In English, the verb "to be" has seven conjugations (am, is, are, was, were, being, and been) based on subject and tense.Memorization is your friend. When I didn't get something about math or physics, I just memorized it. Eventually, I just "got it", poof. FWIW, French is worse than Spanish (five "regular" verbs), and I got that too. Are you sure that you want to live in Lithuania? It's going to be worse, there. English is also shit, and basically has to be spoken while growing up, for fluency.
What about Spanish? There are at least 70, all irregular.
First of all, there are two "to be" verbs; "ser" is used for permanent or inherent characteristics while "estar" is used for temporary states, locations, or feelings.
Like English, Spanish conjugates verbs based on subject and tense, but also by whether one is using the formal "usted" formal form or the gendered informal form (El/Ella) in some cases.
So for the present tense there are seven conjugations of "estar" and seven of "ser":
yo: estoy (I am)
tú: estás (you are - informal)
él/ella/usted: está (he/she/you (formal) is/are)
nosotros/nosotras: estamos (we are)
vosotros/vosotras: estáis (you are - informal plural, used mainly in Spain)
ellos/ellas/ustedes: están (they/you (formal plural) are)
yo: soy (I am)
tú: eres (you are - informal)
él/ella/usted: es (he/she/you are - formal)
nosotros/nosotras: somos (we are)
vosotros/vosotras: sois (you are - informal, plural)
ellos/ellas/ustedes: son (they/you are - formal, plural)
Spanish has 12 tenses, though I believe only 5 are applicable to ser and estar, so it's the above * 5.
2 forms * 7 subjects * 5 tenses = at least 70 distinct conjugation of the verb "to be".
Source: this is the current bane of my existence learning Spanish.
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