How to Learn Spanish Verb Conjugation with Flashcards

Learn Spanish conjugations inside sentences, not from tables. A table teaches you to recite hablo, hablas, habla; a sentence with the verb blanked out teaches you to pick the right form when you need it, which is what speaking and writing actually require.

What a conjugation cloze card looks like

The card shows a sentence with one verb form missing, and you fill it in. For example: Mientras estoy estudiando, ella está ___ (vigilada). The answer is siendo, the gerund of ser. The back explains the form and whether it's regular. The Spanish Conjugation deck has over 4,000 of these, covering all tenses and moods.

Learn the irregular verbs first

The most common Spanish verbs are also the most irregular: ser, estar, ir, tener, hacer, haber. They're worth learning early because you'll use them in almost every conversation, and their forms don't follow the patterns you'll learn for regular verbs.

One tense at a time

Mixing the present, preterite and imperfect from day one makes every card a guessing game. Get comfortable with the present tense, then add the past tenses. Spaced repetition keeps the earlier tense coming back while you add new ones.

Rate the form, not the accent mark

If you produced the right form and only missed an accent, decide in advance how you'll rate it and stay consistent. Accents change meaning in some forms (hablo, "I speak", and habló, "he spoke"), so many learners count a missing accent as Hard rather than Good.

Sentences after conjugation

Spanish 9000 Sentences uses the same fill-in-the-blank format for all kinds of words, not just verbs, and is a natural next step once conjugation feels automatic.