Editing Spanish verbs (section)

==Verbal inflection==
Spanish verbs are [[Grammatical conjugation|inflected]] to convey mood, tense, voice, and aspect, and to agree with person and number.

===Person and number===
Spanish verbs are conjugated in three persons, each having a singular and a plural form. In some varieties of Spanish, such as that of the [[Rioplatense Spanish|Río de la Plata Region]], [[voseo|a special form of the second person]] is used.

Spanish is a [[pro-drop language]], meaning that subject pronouns are often omitted.

====First person====
The grammatical first person refers to the speaker ("I"). The first person plural refers to the speaker together with at least one other person.

* ''(Yo) '''soy''''': "I am"
* ''(Nosotros/Nosotras) '''somos''''': "We are"; the feminine form ''nosotras'' is used only when referring to a group that is composed entirely of females; otherwise, ''nosotros'' is used.

====Second person====
The grammatical second person refers to the addressee, the receiver of the communication ("you"). Spanish has different pronouns (and verb forms) for "you," depending on the relationship, familiar or formal, between speaker and addressee.

'''Singular forms'''
* ''(Tú) '''eres''''': "You are"; familiar singular; used when addressing someone who is of close affinity (a member of the family, a close friend, a child, a pet). It is also the form used to address a [[deity]].
* ''([[Voseo|Vos]]) '''sos''''': "You are"; familiar singular; generally used in the same way as ''tú''. Its use is restricted to some areas of [[Hispanic America]]; where ''tú'' and ''vos'' are both used, ''vos'' is used to denote a closer affinity.
* ''(Usted) '''es''''': "You are"; formal singular; used when addressing a person respectfully, someone older, someone not known to the speaker, or someone of some social distance. Although it is a second-person pronoun, it uses third-person verb forms (and object pronouns and possessives) because it developed as a contraction of ''vuestra merced'' (literally, "your mercy" or "your grace").

'''Plural forms'''
* ''(Vosotros/Vosotras) '''sois''''': "You (all) are"; familiar plural; used when addressing people who are of close affinity (members of the family, friends, children, pets). The feminine form ''vosotras'' is used only when addressing a group composed entirely of females; otherwise, ''vosotros'' is used. Used primarily in [[Spain]] but is also used in [[Equatorial Guinea]] and the [[Philippines]], though it may appear in old, formal texts from other countries, such as the first initial line of the Argentine national anthem ("Oíd, mortales, el grito sagrado").
* ''(Ustedes) '''son''''': "You (all) are"; formal plural where ''vosotros'' is used; both familiar and formal plural elsewhere. Where it is strictly formal, used when addressing people respectfully or addressing people of some social distance. Like ''usted'', it uses third-person verb forms, for the same reasons.

====Third person====
The grammatical third person refers to a person or thing other than the speaker or the addressee.

'''Singular forms'''
* ''(Él) '''es''''': "He/it is"; used for a male person or a thing of [[grammatical gender|masculine]] (grammatical) gender.
* ''(Ella) '''es''''': "She/it is"; used for a female person or a thing of [[grammatical gender|feminine]] (grammatical) gender.
* ''(Ello) '''es''''': "It is"; used to refer to [[grammatical gender|neuter]] nouns such as facts, ideas, situations, and sets of things; rarely used as an explicit subject.

'''Plural forms'''
* ''(Ellos) '''son''''':  "They are"; used for a group of people or things that includes at least one person or thing of [[grammatical gender|masculine]] (grammatical) gender.
* ''(Ellas) '''son''''': "They are"; used for a group of people or things that are all of [[grammatical gender|feminine]] (grammatical) gender.

===Mood===
{{see also|Subjunctive mood in Spanish}}
Grammatical mood is one of a set of distinctive forms that are used to signal modality. In Spanish, every verb has forms in three moods. In older classifications there was a fourth mood, the conditional, that included the two conditional tenses (simple and compound), but nowadays those tenses are included in the indicative mood.<ref> {{cite book |last1=Di Tullio|first1=Ángela|last2=Malcuori|first2=Marisa|date= 2012|title=Gramática del español para maestros y profesores del Uruguay|trans-title= Grammar of Spanish for teachers and professors in Uruguay|language= Spanish|location=Montevideo (Uruguay)|publisher= Administración Nacional de Educación Pública|page=86}} </ref>

* Indicative mood: The indicative mood, or evidential mood, is used for factual statements and positive beliefs. The Spanish conditional, although semantically expressing the dependency of one action or proposition on another, is generally considered indicative in mood, because, syntactically, it can appear in an independent clause.
* Subjunctive mood: The subjunctive mood expresses an imagined, possible or desired action in the past, present, or future.
* Imperative mood: The imperative mood expresses direct commands, requests, and prohibitions. In Spanish, using the imperative mood may sound blunt or even rude in some social settings, so it should be used with care.

===Tense===
The tense of a verb indicates the time when the action occurs. It may be in the past, present, or future.

=== Impersonal or non-finite forms of the verb ===
[[Non-finite verb]] forms refer to an action or state without indicating the time or person, and it is not conjugated for subject. Spanish has three non-finite forms: the infinitive, the gerund, and the past participle.

==== Infinitive ====
The infinitive is generally the form found in dictionaries. It corresponds to the English "base-form" or "dictionary form" and is usually indicated in English by "to _____" ("to sing," "to write," etc.). The ending of the infinitive is the basis of the names given in English to the three classes of Spanish verbs:

* "''-ar''" verbs (''primera conjugación'' ["first conjugation"])
: Examples: ''hablar'' ("to speak"); ''cantar'' ("to sing"); ''bailar'' ("to dance")

* "''-er''" verbs (''segunda conjugación'' ["second conjugation"])
: Examples: ''beber'' ("to drink"); ''leer'' ("to read"); ''comprender'' ("to understand")

* "''-ir''" verbs (''tercera conjugación'' ["third conjugation"])
: Examples: ''vivir'' ("to live"); ''sentir'' ("to feel"); ''escribir'' ("to write")

==== Gerund ====
Although in English grammar the [[gerund]] refers to the ''-ing'' form of the verb used as a noun, in Spanish the term refers to a verb form that behaves more like an adverb. It is created by adding the following endings to the stem of the verb (i.e. the infinitive without the last two letters):

* ''-ar'' verbs: '''''-ando'''''
: Examples: ''hablando'' ("speaking"); ''cantando'' ("singing"); ''bailando'' ("dancing")

* ''-er'' verbs: '''''-iendo'''''
: Examples: ''bebiendo'' ("drinking"); ''leyendo'' (with spelling change; "reading"); ''comprendiendo'' ("understanding")

* ''-ir'' verbs: '''''-iendo'''''
: Examples: ''viviendo'' ("living"); ''sintiendo'' (with stem-vowel change; "feeling"); ''escribiendo'' ("writing")
Certain verbs have irregular gerund forms:
* Most ''-ir'' verbs undergo a [[Spanish_irregular_verbs#Vowel_raising|predictable stem-vowel change]]: ''sentir'' → ''sintiendo'', ''medir'' → ''midiendo'', ''repetir'' → ''repitiendo'', ''dormir'' → ''durmiendo'', ''morir'' → ''muriendo''. One ''-er'' verb also belongs to this group: ''poder'' → ''pudiendo''.
* In verbs whose stem ends in a vowel, the spelling of the ''-iendo'' ending is changed to ''-yendo'':  ''oír'' → ''oyendo'', ''caer'' → ''cayendo'', ''leer'' → ''leyendo'', ''traer'' → ''trayendo'', ''construir'' → ''construyendo'', ''huir'' → ''huyendo''. The "stemless" verb ''ir'' belongs to this group, with ''yendo''.
* For ''-er'' and ''-ir'' verbs whose stem ends in {{angbr|ñ}} or {{angbr|ll}}, the ''-iendo'' ending is reduced to ''-endo'': ''tañer'' → ''tañendo'', ''bullir'' → ''bullendo''.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Diccionario de la lengua española |url=http://www.rae.es/obras-academicas/diccionarios/diccionario-de-la-lengua-espanola |website=Real Academia Española}}</ref>

The gerund has a variety of uses and can mean (with ''haciendo'', for example) "doing/while doing/by doing/because of one's doing/through doing" and so on. It is also used to form [[Continuous and progressive aspects|progressive]] constructions, such as ''estoy haciendo'' ("I am doing"). The gerund cannot be used as an adjective and generally has no corresponding adjectival forms. The now-mostly archaic present participle, which ended in ''-ante'' or ''-iente'' and formerly filled this function, in some cases survives as such an adjective (e.g. ''durmiente'' ("sleeping"), ''interesante'' ("interesting")), but they are limited, and in cases where it does not, other constructions must be used to express the same ideas: where in English one would say "the crying baby", one would say in Spanish ''el bebé que llora'' ("the baby who's crying"; ''llorante'' is archaic).

==== Past participle ====
{{See also|List of Spanish irregular participles}}
The past participle corresponds to the English ''-en'' or ''-ed'' form of the verb. It is created by adding the following endings to the verb stem:

* ''-ar'' verbs: '''''-ado'''''
: Examples: ''hablado'' ("spoken"); ''cantado'' ("sung"); ''bailado'' ("danced")

* ''-er'' verbs: '''''-ido'''''
: Examples: ''bebido'' ("drunk"); ''leído'' (requires accent mark; "read"); ''comprendido'' ("understood")

* ''-ir'' verbs,: '''''-ido'''''
: Examples: ''vivido'' ("lived"); ''sentido'' ("felt"); ''hervido'' ("boiled")

The past participle, ending invariably in ''-o'', is used following the [[auxiliary verb]] ''haber'' to form the compound or perfect: ''(Yo) he '''hablado''''' ("I have spoken"); ''(Ellos) habían '''hablado''''' ("They had spoken"); etc.

When the past participle is used as an adjective, it inflects for both gender and number – for example, ''una lengua '''hablada''' en España'' ("a language spoken in Spain").

===Voice===
In grammar, the voice of a verb describes the relationship between the action (or state) that the verb expresses and the participants identified by its arguments ([[Subject (grammar)|subject]], [[Object (grammar)|object]], etc.). When the subject is the [[Agent (grammar)|agent]] or doer of the action, the verb is in the active voice. When the subject is the [[Patient (grammar)|patient]], target, or undergoer of the action, it is said to be in the passive voice.

===Verbal aspect===
Verbal aspect marks whether an action is completed (perfect), a completed whole (perfective), or not yet completed (imperfective).

* Perfect: In Spanish, verbs that are conjugated with '''''haber''''' ("to have [done something]") are in the [[perfect aspect]].
* Perfective: In Spanish, verbs in the preterite are in the [[perfective aspect]].
* Imperfective: In Spanish, the present, imperfect, and future tenses are in the [[imperfective aspect]].