This week I decided to learn 10 regular AR verbs. I felt about as excited and motivated as if facing my tax return on 30th January. I reluctantly searched for a list of regular AR verbs on the net, and decided to look for really easy ones. The web site that I found http://www.spanish2go.com/ had a list of 70 verbs beginning with the letter ‘A’. To my great delight, I knew about half of them already because they are basically the same as the English words – with the odd consonant chopped off and ‘AR’ added on to the end.
Words that are the same in both languages are called COGNATES – and words that are similar are called NEAR COGNATES. The more of these there the language you want to learn and your mother tongue share, the easier it will be to learn.
It was a piece of cake to translate them from Spanish in to English, but the next day, without a list to look at, I could only remember one or two of them and I wouldn’t have been able to use them in a conversation. So I did a bit of story-telling. This is a great way to memorise new vocabulary. Please note that the verbs are not in the correct tense as I haven’t learned how to do the past yet – but it makes sense to me and gives meaning to the words. I need to learn verbs in a meaningful context.
An old man abondona his dog which he abusa. The dog acelera to escape and met a girl. The dog aclama a steak but acepta a bone. The dog acompana the girl. They acumulan strawberries. The girl acusa the dog of eating the strawberries and asked him to adaptar his behaviour. He did, so she administra a strawberry as a treat. The girl admira the dog so much that she adopta him. They adoran each other. The dog afecta not to need the girl but she afirma her love for him every day. Her devotion agita his heart and it agranda. But it also agrava his sorrow for the years of abuse at the hands of his master. One day the girl met a boy. They aprecian each other very much, decided to agrupan and carry on their adventure together. Their love alarma the dog. It is hard to alimentar all three of them and it altera their mood. Soon, they don’t aman each other anymore, and they anulan their relationship and anuncian that it’s over. They argumentan over who should keep the dog. The girl and the boy arman themselves and the police arrestan them. The judge articula his judgement very carefully. He aparta the couple from the dog and asigna separate cells for the boy and the girl so that they can’t asocian with each other. They aspiran their last breath of freedom and atrapan the bars of their cell windows and watch the dog run away – back to its master?
My verbs (just in case you didn’t understand the story)
- abandonar to abandon, leave, forsake, give up
- abusar to abuse, misuse
- acelerar to accelerate, hasten, hurry, speed
- aceptar to accept
- aclamar to acclaim, applaud, shout, hail
- acompañar to accompany, go along
- acumular to accumulate
- acusar to accuse
- adaptar to adapt
- administrar to administer
- admirar to admire
- adoptar to adopt
- adorar to adore, worship
- adornar to adorn, decorate
- afectar to affect, feign, pretend
- afirmar to affirm
- agitar to agitate, stir up, wave, shake up,
- agravar to aggravate, make worse, burden
- alarmar to alarm
- alterar to alter, change, disturb, upset
- anular to annul
- anunciar to announce, foretell, proclaim
- apartar to separate, divide, part
- apreciar to appreciate
- argumentar to reason, dispute
- armar to arm
- arrestar to arrest
- articular to articulate, pronounce clearly
- asignar to assign, allot
- asociar to associate
And remember the endings …
O (vino)
AS (manzanas)
A (playa)
AMOS (huevos)
AÍS (kiwis)
AN (pan)