Understanding the INFINITIVE
Preparing for Week 5
We will learn how to talk about what we like to do this week.
To prepare your mind for this weeks lesson and how the grammar works, I want to describe the concept of an infinitive verb. A verb that is in the infinitive form is a verb that has not been altered to go with "He" or "We" or "You" for example. What does that look like?
What is wrong with the following sentences?
- I to run tomorrow.
- We to run this weekend.
- He to run today.
When you learn that "correr" means "to run", then you have learned the verb "correr" but it is in its infinitive form.
- In order for "to run" to be used with "I" , it becomes "run", "I run tomorrow at noon".
- In order for "to run" to be used with "He", it becomes "runs". "He runs today."
In Spanish, we call this change in the verb, conjugation. Each infinitive has a pattern of rules we use to "conjugate" it, meaning to use the correct form for whatever the "subject pronoun" is. And we´ll learn about subject pronouns, but they are in English, I, you, he, she, we, they, etc.