Los tres paradigmas — The Three Families
📚 Los tres paradigmas — The Three Families
| Persona | hablar (to speak) — -ar | comer (to eat) — -er | vivir (to live) — -ir |
|---|---|---|---|
| yo | hablo | como | vivo |
| tú | hablas | comes | vives |
| él/ella | habla | come | vive |
| nosotros | hablamos | comemos | vivimos |
| ustedes | hablan | comen | viven |
-er and -ir verbs look almost identical across every person — except nosotros:
Earn the mark scheme marks
💡 Exam Tip — Paper 4 (Writing)
In Paper 4 (Writing), use all three verb families. Mix -ar (hablar), -er (comer), and -ir (vivir) to show range — examiners reward variety. A student who only uses -ar verbs throughout a piece of writing is capping their own mark. One sentence with como, one with escribo and one with hablo signals to the examiner that you control the full regular verb system.
- Aim for at least one -ar, one -er, and one -ir verb in every extended writing task.
- yo forms (-o ending) are the easiest to deploy: hablo, como, vivo, escribo, bebo.
- nosotros forms earn extra credit — they show you know the full paradigm.
❌ Common error 1: nosotros vivemos
✅ Correct: nosotros vivimos
Why it costs marks: -ir verbs end in -imos for nosotros, not -emos. Writing vivemos is a form that does not exist — the examiner cannot credit it under AO3 (accuracy).
❌ Common error 2: el canto ayer
✅ Correct: él cantó ayer
Why it costs marks: Two separate issues: (1) the subject pronoun él (he) requires an accent to distinguish it from the article el (the); (2) cantó (with accent on the final -ó) is the preterite (past) form — without the accent, canto reads as the present tense "I sing". The accent is not optional — it changes both the meaning and the tense.