When learning a new language, learning your verbs may be one of the most important concepts to learn that will propel you into being able to speak with more and more confidence. In every complete sentence, there must be a subject, a verb and a complete idea. Even shorter sentences either require a verb and a subject or only a phrase and a verb. Therefore, learning your verbs becomes necessary for success in learning a new language. Although, sometimes it can become daunting to start. Not only are there many verbs for different actions, but there are also many different ways to conjugate them, different meanings of the verbs in different languages, and irregular verbs. Irregular verbs are written differently with the root word, and often the rules are different between verbs. Sometimes regular verbs become irregular in a different tense, and vice versa – irregular verbs become regular in a different tense. Now, before confusion starts to kick in, we’ve listed the top 10 techniques for learning your verbs so you can skip the confusion, and head towards success in your new language!
1.Group Your Verbs By Action
Grouping similar verbs together, such as the verbs: to sign, to talk and to shout will help you distinguish the difference between each verb, and therefore avoid confusion. This will also help you recall all the verbs in that group when you use one of them. For example, using the verb to talk, if you learned it with the verb to shout and sign, chances are you’ll remember these verbs too.
2. Group Irregular Verbs By Rules
Irregular verbs can be hard to remember if you start to learn them with no structure. Not only will you have a hard time remembering all the rules, it’s possible that you will also confuse the rules, and therefore conjugate the verb the wrong way. The best way to remember the rules is to find all of the different rules, and group verbs with those rules together. Work slowly through each set of verbs, and soon you’ll master the hardest types of verbs!
3. Learn One Tense at a Time
It can be tempting to start learning how to conjugate one verb in all the different ways, although this is setting yourself up for disaster. Especially since most Latin languages have 4 different ways to conjugate verbs in the past! The different conjugations are based on the context of the sentence. If you are not extremely comprehensive with the words used in the sentence, and the grammar used in the phrases, you will have a hard time learning which tense to use. For starters, try to conjugate verbs in the present, and then tackle one tense at a time.
4. Make Funny Sentences
According to the famous quote by Maya Angelou, “people may forget what you said, but they will never forget how you made them feel.” Humour is an emotion, and believe it or not – it will help you with learning your verbs! Have some fun and make silly sentences using different verbs. This will increase your chances of remembering them, in addition to learning new interesting words. Win-Win.
5. Make Some Music
If you have a guitar or piano in your household, using it to help learn your verbs can be very beneficial. Grab a partner and start by strumming a few strings or playing a few notes and start conjugating a verb, for example: “Je suis” Get the other person to complete the sentence. “Je suis” … “étudiant”, and continue onwards to “Tu es” … Remembering the tune in your head, and laughing along the way when you’re scrambling to think of something and sign in key will make you remember those verbs you practised.
6. Practise, Practise, Practise
Yes – you heard it. One of the best ways to learn your verbs is to, well, practise them. This means writing them out again and again and again. Conjugating them out loud again and again. Remember, practice makes perfect!
7. Practise Story Telling
When you start moving on to learning the different tenses of verbs, one of the best ways to put it into practice is to use it in a realistic story. If you’re learning the past tense of the verbs, write a story about what you did yesterday, what you did last week and what you did the past year. This will be the best way to make your verbs applicable to real life and put it into immediate practice.
8. Make Plans For The Future
This technique will work the best for practising verbs that are conjugated in the future tense. Writing about what you will actually do later relates your vocabulary the most to real-life examples, and therefore making it more and more useful for you to use in the future. This will also help you understand that some things do not directly translate from English, and different propositions are used.
9. Make Mind Maps
If you are a visual learner, mind maps are the route for you. Creating a mind map of all the different types of irregular verbs, and adding in pictures (it’s okay if you’re not an artist) will help you visually recall the verbs, and therefore remember them better. Mind maps are also a creative way to organize your note, so therefore they can be something that you make after you’ve studied your verbs more and more. Make it a goal to even make a mind map without looking at your notes!
10. Be Consistent
Consistency is key! Practising your verbs out loud, and in writing will keep them fresh in your mind and help you use them the proper way once you’ve put in all the hard work to learn them!
