We Now Conjugate Verbs!

A little Spanish lesson, here we go:

Saber means to know in english.  In Spanish, verb conjugation is a bit more complicated than English as each subject has a different verb conjugation.  Let's see below:

Yo (I)  se (know)

Tu (You) sabes (know)

El/Ella (He/she/it) sabe (knows)

Nosotros (We) sabemos (know)

Ellos/Ellas (They) saben (know)

Vosotros/Vosotras (You-all) sabeis (know)

See what I mean? That's 6 (Spanish) vs 2 (English).  But wait, the complication doesn't just end there. The ver saber is an irregular verb because it doesn't completely follow the general rule for verb conjugation.  What general rule?  I won't discuss all the rule but only for the verbs that end in -er (e.g. comer) since this is the one that plays important rule in this particular story of ours :)

The verbs(regular) ending in -er are conjugated for each subject by changing the -er part to the following:

Yo como (I eat) - here the -er was taken and exchanged with o. i.e. comer =  comer  = com + o = como

Tu comes (You eat) - here the -er exchanged with -es. i.e. comer = comer = com + es = comes

get the gist? So we move along to the rest of the subjects:

El/Ella come (He/She/It eats) - er changed to e

Nosotros comemos (We eat) - er changed to emos

Ellos/Ellas comen (They) - er changed to en

Vosotros/Vosotras comeis (You-all) - er changed to

I tell you, verb conjugation is my weakness in Spanish.  So what do you do with the irregular verb? Memorize them! So, you just have to remember that saber for the subject  Yo (I) is se and that you should not apply the rule for the verb that ends in -er even if the verb saber ends with -er.  Capiche?

So yesterday, Little Spanish Pinay and I were playing dress up.  She was rummaging through her drawer, picking up things like socks, shirts, dress and telling me if I like each of it and if I say yes, she'd try to put it on me or just throw it up in the air. Yes, the room ended up like a jungle after.

She saw one of her clown socks I made for her past 2nd year birthday celebration and asked me if I like it.  I answered with a resounding YES! but then this time she said she wants to put it on her foot.  She told me to put it on her.  I told her she should put it on herself because she can.  The conversation goes like this:

Mami: Ikaw na magsuot, kaya mo yan.  Ponlo tu, que ya sabes. (Put it on by yourself, you already know how to.)

LSP:  nooooo! mami!

Mami: Sige na anak, kaya mo yan.  Venga, ponlo tu que ya sabes. (Come on, put it on by yourself as you already know how to)

LSP: noooooo! no sabo!

Mami: *blank face* (after a few seconds) *eyes wide, mouth open* (after another couple of seconds) *shrieks with excitement*

Ok, before spanish philologists out there would condemn me, I KNOW that sabo is incorrect. But what actually excites me is the fact that our LSP has just shown that she conjugated a verb deliberately!

She does say No lo se (I don't know it) or simply no se (I don't know) but because surely she has heard someone said it this way.  At this point, we can say that she has learned her verbs by just repeating what other people around her say.  BUT yesterday, she has clearly shown that her mind tried to consciously conjugate the verb based on the pattern that her mind is learning (see the rule above on the verb comer)

Of course I had to correct her because the right verb would be se and not sabo.  But I was nonetheless ecstatic about it.  It's just sooo amazing and sometimes mind-boggling how a mind of a child develops and much more if the development thrives right before your very eyes.

.... the joy of parenthood :)