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Conjugation

By Gerald Erichsen, About.com

Definition: The act of inflecting, that is, changing the form of, a verb; or the resulting word when a verb is inflected.

In both English and Spanish, the purpose of conjugation is to indicate the number of the subject (singular or plural), tense, and mood (such as indicative, subjunctive or imperative). Spanish uses conjugation much more extensively than English, so extensively that it is often possible to omit the subject from sentences. English uses methods other than conjugation to indicate the future tense and some other verb forms.

Also Known As: conjugación in Spanish
Examples: Spanish: Conjugations of comprar ("to buy") include compro ("I buy"), compraré ("he/she will buy"), comprad (plural command form), comprara (subjunctive usage), and compraban ("they used to buy"). English: "Buys" is used for the third-person present, "buy" for other use of the present. "Bought" is used the past tense. English uses a method other than conjugation to indicate the future tense.

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