Conjugation is the change in a base verb to match a particular pronoun. In English, there is only one basic conjugation -- a change i nthe verb in the first person singular: he knows, she eats, it does. For all other pronouns, the base verb remains unchanged:

Unlike English, Spanish verbs change based on the pronoun used. This means that Spanish verbs have different endings depending on which personal pronoun is used.

All verbs in Spanish end with -ar, -er, or -ir before they are conjugated (also known as the infinitive form). How the conjugation is formed depends on the basic form of the verb. Here are some examples of Spanish verbs in the infinitive (unconjugated) form:

As in English, there are different personal pronouns in Spanish to help identify a person from different perspectives. I ask, you answer, he doesn't understand what we are talking about, but you get tired of it as they watch the situation.

The Spanish personal pronouns are:

* Note: The accent on the e indicates that this is not an article but a personal pronoun.

First thing we notice is that there are always feminine and masculine pronouns for the plural forms. The plural feminine pronoun (ellas) should only be used if the group being referred to is all female. If the group being referred to is a mix of male and female people, then the masculine pronoun (ellos) is used.

Imagine, there are 10 women talking about baking and cooking. They would use the pronoun nosotras ("we women") to refer to themselves. A guy comes along and talks to them using the pronoun vosotras ("you women"). He calls his friend and refers to the women using the pronoun ellas ("women"). However, if he includes himself with the women he would use one of the following pronouns: nosotros, vosotros or ellos.

Conjugation does not depend on whether the subject pronoun is masculine or feminine, but we will include both until we get used to the different pronoun forms. The fun part is to decide which pronoun to use in an actual conversation.

One more note: Besides the different verb conjugations formed with the various pronouns, there is also the matter of "declination" that we need to be concerned about. But for now, we will focus on the basic forms needed to simple conversation.