Spanish verbs have a huge number of forms.
Each verb has more than 200 (!) Forms.
In the process of training basic speaking, we should learn about the 50 most used verbs.
This gives us 50 x 200 = 10,000 verb forms.
About 35 verbs out of 50 are regular, i.e. they conjugate by the rules, but the remaining 15 are irregular and conjugate as they want.
In short, to master all the verb forms, especially in the context that we fly to Cuba next week, is an impossible task.
What to do?
We need to put verb forms in order of frequency of their use in the Spanish language, and the most used ones to memorize now, and less used leave for later.
How do we do this?
We take a few verbs and look for their forms in the frequency lists on wictionary.com.
Let us skip the details of the study and immediately proceed to the results.
For each word we took, the results were different. Below we give averaged values.
1. Infinitive 25%
25% of all verb forms used in a conversation are infinitive - an indefinite form (bailar, vivir).2. The indicative present singular 1st person is 20%
(bailo, vivo)3. The indicative present singular 2nd person informal 15%
(bailas, vives)4. The indicative present singular 3rd person 7%
(baila, vive)In Spanish, this form coincides with the present tense of the singular 2nd person formal.
5. Imperative 8%
(baila / no bailes, vive / no vivas)6. Present perfect 10%
(he/has bailado, he/has vivido)Despite the word present in the title, this is the most used form of the past tense.
Example: Lo he hecho hoy (I have done it today). The action is over, but there is a connection with the present. Hence the name.
Example: Lo he hecho ayer. (I have done it yesterday). In this example, strictly speaking, using this form is grammatically incorrect, But do you care? I'm not. They will understand us, and this is the most important.
7. Present continuous 5%
(estoy/estas bailando, estoy/estas viviendo)In Spanish, this form is often used when talking about actions taking place right now.
8. The future tense singular 1st person 5%
(bailare, vivire)9. The future tense singular 2nd person 2%
(bailaras, viviras)10. The future tense singular 3rd person 1%
(bailara, vivira)The above forms cover about 95% of all forms used.
As it was said, the numbers are approximate but give us a general idea of what forms to learn in the first place.
Moreover, studying all of the above forms is also optional.
We can only learn the infinitive and (for the beginning) use it in all situations.
If time allows, we can additionally master the singular forms of the present tense 1st and 2nd person.
And so on.