VERBS.
CONJUGATION OF VERBS.
The conjugation of a verb is a regular arrangement of its moods, tenses, persons, and numbers.
All the verbsin the Spanish language areformed out of the present of the infinitive mood, which invariably terminates inar,er, orir, which syllables are called itstermination; and the letters that remain of the said present of the infinitive, after separating one of the said terminations, whatever they may be, are said to be itsroot, and the letters of such root are called itsradical letters; as, to esteem,estim-ar; to offend,ofend-er; to permit,permit-ir: in which verbsar,er,irare theterminations; andestim,ofend,permit, theradical lettersof each respectively, to which the other combinations must be added to form the various persons and tenses of a verb.
All the Spanish verbs are, therefore, classed intothree conjugations. Verbs ending inarbelong to thefirst; those inerto thesecond; and those inirto thethird.
Obs. 1. It is not necessary to express the pronounssubjectornominative, in the colloquial style, (ustedandustedesexcepted;) but they must be used whenever elegance or clearness requires it.
Obs. 2. The numbers before the terminations point out the different persons. N. 2, beforeustedandustedes, denotes that they are of the second person, but that the verb agrees with them in the third, (by Enallage.)
TERMINATIONS OF ALL THE REGULAR VERBS.
Obs. 3. Thegrave accent(`) upon a vowel in the following terminations, points out the syllable on which the stress of the voice is laid, but over which the mark of it must not be set. Theacute accent(') marks the syllable on which the stress of the voice lays, and over which the accent is to be written. When there is no mark of an accent in the termination, the syllable that precedes it is long.