Love-Spanish.com: Tell Me, Who Lives Here?

Introduction

This post is about the practical use of verbs in general and more particularly the present tense, indicative mood of regular verbs ending in -ir.

SCENARIO

Imagine you are talking to a relative, a friend or a colleague. You are together on the street looking for a specific address. When you eventually find it, the other person appears to be uncertain about whose address it is and says to you something like: "tell me, who lives here?".

In Spanish, the other person could choose to be less formal and say to you:

Dime, ¿quién vive aquí?

On the other hand, he/ she could choose to be more formal and say to you:

Dígame, ¿quién vive aquí?

OUR TIP

The question is an invitation for you to say who lives in the place where you are. When stating who lives in a given place, you may need to consider different levels of formality in your reply. That will be specifically the case when your answer includes a reference to the person you are talking to. The examples below include cases in which a more or less formal type of answer is required.

Here are some examples of how you could reply:

Yo vivo* aquí (I live here);
Tú vives* aquí, ¿no? (you -familiar live here, don't you?);
Usted vive* aquí, ¿no? (you -formal live here, don't you?);
Pedro vive aquí, ¿no? (Pedro lives here, doesn't he?);
María vive aquí, ¿no? (María lives here, doesn't she?);
Nosotros vivimos* aquí, ¿no? (we live here, don't we?);
Vosotros vivís* aquí, ¿no? (you -familiar/ plural live here, don't you?);
Ustedes viven* aquí, ¿no? (you -formal/ plural live here, don't you?);
Pedro y María viven* aquí, ¿no? (Pedro and Maria live here, don't they?);

Now you should practise replying to someone who says to you:

Dime, ¿quién vive aquí?

*Please see grammar topic below, Verbs

Verbs

A verb is a 'doing' word which conveys:

What action takes place in a sentence
Who does that action
When that action occurs.

In addition, the verb may also convey the mood or feelings of the speaker toward the action which takes place. The verb may, for example, indicate whether the speaker is stating a fact, expressing a wish or indeed giving an order.

Verb Conjugation

Please see notes on conjugation* at the end of this post.

Indicative Mood-Present Tense

1. Regular Verbs Ending in -ar

Subject		TRABAJAR (TO WORK)
I	Yo	TRABAJO
You	Tú	TRABAJAS
You	Usted^*	TRABAJA
He	Él
She	Ella
We	Nosotros	TRABAJAMOS
You	Vosotros**	TRABAJÁIS
You	Ustedes***	TRABAJAN
They	Ellos
They	Ellas

*NB More courteous/ polite form of 'you'

**NB 'You' plural

*** NB More courteous/ polite form of 'you' plural

2. Regular Verbs Ending in -er

Subject		COMER (TO EAT)
I	Yo	COMO
You	Tú	COMES
You	Usted^*	COME
He	Él
She	Ella
We	Nosotros	COMEMOS
You	Vosotros**	COMÉIS
You	Ustedes***	COMEN
They	Ellos
They	Ellas

*NB More courteous/ polite form of 'you'

**NB 'You' plural

*** NB More courteous/ polite form of 'you' plural

3. Regular Verbs Ending in -ir

Subject		VIVIR (TO LIVE)
I	Yo	VIVO
You	Tú	VIVES
You	Usted^*	VIVE
He	Él
She	Ella
We	Nosotros	VIVIMOS
You	Vosotros**	VIVÍS
You	Ustedes***	VIVEN
They	Ellos
They	Ellas

*NB More courteous/ polite form of 'you'

**NB 'You' plural

*** NB More courteous/ polite form of 'you' plural

* Verb Conjugation Notes

It is worth remembering once more that in its basic form (infinitive), a Spanish verb is just a general 'doing' word. In that form, a verb simply indicates an action and nothing else. If we want a verb to be more specific about the action in a sentence, we need to conjugate it. It is only when conjugated that the verb indicates:

Who does the action
When the action takes place
The mood/ attitude of the speaker towards the action

The conjugation tables above refer to using conjugation establish who does the action. What follows below are some notes on establishing when the action takes place and the mood/ attitude of the speaker towards the action.

Subjunctive Mood

The use of subjunctive mood is disappearing English. Nowadays is often viewed as an old and unfashionable form of the language.

In contrast, the use of subjunctive mood is very much alive and in everyday use in Spanish. This widespread use of subjunctive mood tends to be the bane of many a learner of Spanish from the English speaking world.

The concept of subjunctive mood is perhaps best illustrated by contrasting its use against the use of indicative mood with examples in English. The following are a couple of examples which should serve that purpose:

Indicative mood (“Peter eats an apple”).- Indicative mood is commonly used to make statements of facts or positive beliefs such as this one. As can be seen in the sample sentence (in quotes above), the speaker makes a clear and unambiguous statement of a fact (Peter eats an apple).
Subjunctive mood (“Peter would eat an apple if he were hungry”).- In contrast with indicative mood, subjunctive mood is commonly used to make statements indicating hypothetical or non-fact actions. As can be seen in the sample sentence (in quotes), in this case the speaker sees the action of eating an apple as something hypothetical, something which may or may not happen (Peter would eat an apple... if he were hungry).

Verb Tenses

Verb tenses relate to setting the time period (when) during which the action of the verb takes place. Basic times (periods) for Spanish verb actions are:

The past (before now)
The present (now)
The future (after now)

Each Spanish verb tense corresponds to one of those basic time periods. In other words choosing a verb tense places the action of the verb in one of those basic periods and determines when the action takes place.

Now you should practise the use of the present-indicative mood of regular verbs with some examples of your own.

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