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OKAY! I wish you buena suerte (good luck) in any and all endeavors, today and all days. Today I will jump in, do some more fun new things with more stem-changing verbs! We are going to have fun.
So... Do you remember stem-changing verbs? I explained them on DAY FIVE. So far I have only reviewed e>ie stem changing verbs and o>ue verbs. I will add the third (and final) category of stem-changing verbs, e>i stem-changing verbs. I’ll include a link to a chart comparing the three kinds of stem-changers:
In the link you will see the e>i stem-changing verb pedir, meaning to ask for. Notice that this verb pedir translates to a phrasal verb in English, ‘to ask for’. Pedir requires no preposition after it to communicate the idea of ‘asking for’ something. In English the preposition ‘for’ must be added to communicate the verbal idea; ‘ask for’ does not mean ‘ask’. The verb preguntar means ‘to ask’ as in to ask a question, and the verb pedir means ‘to ask for’, like to request something (again, with no preposition necessary after the verb to communicate the desired meaning.
To repeat, here is how you conjugate pedir, an e>i stem-changing verb:
pedir (to ask for)
pido
pides
pide
pedimos
pedís
piden
Here are some other examples of e>i stem-changing verbs:
medir (to measure)
mido
mides
mide
medimos
medís
miden
servir (to be good, to be useful, to serve [as in a meal or a purpose])
sirvo
sirves
sirve
servimos
servís
sirven
vestir (to dress, to wear [though also llevar can mean ‘to carry, to wear’])
visto
vistes
viste
vestimos
vestís
visten
And here is an example of a very useful verb which is an e>i stem-changer, but has a yo-form that is irregular:
decir (to say, to tell)
digo
dices
dice
decimos
decís
dicen
The verb seguir (to follow, to continue) is an e>i stem-changing verb, but the ‘u’ in the verb is only preserved when the verb ending begins with e/i, in keeping with the spelling rules I have already explained (the ‘u’ is needed in cases where e/i follows, in order to preserve that hard G sound, which is present in all forms of this verb). Here is the conjugation for seguir:
sigo
sigues
sigue
seguimos
seguís
siguen
So you will notice *siguo is not a thing because the ‘u’ is not necessary to preserve the hard G sound (and indeed, the ‘u’ would add an extra vowel sound). Other forms of the verb seguir, which we will learn about later, also omit the ‘u’ due to its not being necessary to preserve that hard G sound; examples: siga, sigan, sigamos, and more.
In the following webpage (http://www.spanishdict.com/conjugate/seguir) you can see an illustration of this point about the appearance (or disappearance) of the ‘u’ to preserve the hard G sound in seguir; you will notice that the irregularities of this verb (both the stem-changing situations in this verb, and situations when the ‘u’ is dropped because it is not necessary to preserve the hard G sound) are in RED.
Hope you have enjoyed today’s lesson! See you next time!
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