Spanish Conjumania

Version 1.3
Written by Jon Sargeant
Copyright © 1999-2003

>>Click here to download<<
(1.08 MB)

Announcements:

11/18/07

Spanish Conjumaniac is on hold indefinitely.  If and when I do finish someday, the program will be free.

9/26/05
After almost two years of inactivity, I'm pleased to announce that the development of the Spanish, French (and perhaps, eventually, Portuguese) language suite has commenced.  Since the name "Conjumania" is already registered, I'm developing the software under the name Conjumaniac.  Manoel and I are aiming to commercialize the software and sell it for $20.00.  Since many users will need only one language, we may sell individual languages for $10.00.  Conjumaniac will include the following features:

• Translation exercises from any language to any other language.

• More advanced custom lesson options.

• A database of over 5,000 verbs in each language with correct conjugations and translations.

10/30/03
I'm looking for a new site to host Spanish Conjumania.  In the meantime, you can download here.

10/22/03
Since I'm now hosting Spanish Conjumania on a new server, I decided to pay Download.com $80 to add a new listing for Spanish Conjumania 1.3.  This is the same version that I released five months ago.  The only difference is the address of the website and download link.

9/14/03
Ack!  I forgot to include the help file and the address of the website in the zip file!  I apologize to those of you who downloaded the program from CNET and didn't understand how to use it.

6/11/03
Manoel and I are thinking about building a suite of verb conjugation tutors: Spanish Conjumania, French Conjumania, and Portuguese Conjumania.  The suite will contain nearly 20,000 verbs, and will allow you to translate from any language (English, Spanish, French, or Portuguese) to any other language.  If you're interested, please send me an e-mail. 

5/31/03
Set up donation system.

5/28/03
I've given up on Download.com.  Instead, I changed the name of the newest zip file, spansh13.zip, to spansh12.zip so that it links properly to the main page on Download.com.  I should have thought of this a lot sooner!  Stupid me.  I apologize to those of you who mistakenly downloaded the old version.

4/1/03
Thanks to those of you who tested Spanish Conjumania 1.3.  I'm having some problems releasing Spanish Conjumania on Download.com.  In the meantime, you can download the latest revision here.

3/20/03
I'm planning on releasing Spanish Conjumania 1.3 this weekend on Download.com.  Spanish Conjumania 1.3 fixes all of the conjugation mistakes
from V1.2 and introduces several new features.  I've spent countless hours testing the program on my own, but I'm sure some bugs have gone unnoticed.  I encourage you to download the program here and test it thoroughly.  Also, I would appreciate it if you sent me some feedback.  What features do you like?  What features don't you like?  Can you suggest any future improvements?

3/13/03
It has come to my attention that Spanish Conjumania 1.2 contains several conjugation mistakes:

• Verbs ending in -GER do not change 'g' to 'j'

• reír is conjugated incorrectly in present tense, third-person plural

• The present participle of venir is incorrect

I plan on releasing a new version next week that will correct these mistakes.  I apologize for any inconvenience.

2/9/03
Recently, I've received several e-mails regarding Spanish Conjumania, so I'm considering adding some new features.  These features may include:

• More advanced translation utility

• Verbs followed by prepositions (e.g. acabar con)

• Brief explanation of why a verb is conjugated a certain way

If you have other ideas, or you wish to contribute, please send me an e-mail.  In addition, I'm considering setting up a contribution system so that people who benefited from Spanish Conjumania can send me a small donation.  The program will remain freeware, however, so you will not need to register the program in order to use all of the features.

Features:

• Verb Tutor:  Perhaps the best way to learn verb conjugation is through repetition.  This utility is a great way to become familiar with verbs.  Set up the level of difficulty to suit yourself, then specialize in one or more tenses.  When you finish typing the verb, hit enter and you will immediately know if you got it right.  If you entered the verb correctly, the next verb appears.  If not, the box will turn red momentarily and the correct conjugation will appear.

• Print Report:  This is useful if you are installing the program in a school computer lab and you wish to know how many exercises your students completed.  The report shows the student's name, the date, the exercises he completed, and the number he answered correctly.

• Conjugation Wizard:  This utility displays every imaginable conjugation of a verb.  Enter a Spanish infinitive and the computer does the rest.  I organized the conjugations into five tabs so that you can rapidly find the conjugation you're looking for.  Use this utility as a quick reference.

• Translator Utility:  This feature translates verbs from English to Spanish and vice versa.  Enter the verb phrase and the computer produces a list of matches.  The utility is somewhat limited, however, because it only translates subject pronouns, auxiliary verbs.

• Spanish Verb Manager:  I built this program after I completed Spanish Conjumania.  Use this utility to add new verbs and add additional meanings for verbs.  Quickly set up the verb's conjugation by selecting the stem change or irregularity from a list.  Then view a list showing the verb's conjugation in each test to make sure the verb is setup correctly.

Installation:

Spanish Conjumania consists of 4 files:

• spanish.exe

• spanverb.txt

• spanvm.exe

• spanhelp.doc

Spanish.exe is the main program.  Spanverb.txt is the database consisting of about 500 Spanish infinitives and their English counterparts.  Both of these are required to run the program.  Spanvm.exe is an add-on application which allows you to manage the verb database.  See below for details.  Copy these files into the same directory.  No further installation is required.

Using the Verb Tutor:

When you run Spanish Conjumania, you are greeted with a colorful menu.  Below the title are two boxes titled "Language" and "Difficulty".  The "Language" box is fairly self-explanatory.  If you select "Translate from Spanish to English", you are presented with a Spanish verb, and you must enter the English translation.  If you enter "Conjugate Infinitives", you are presented with an infinitive, a tense, and a subject, and you must conjugate it correctly.  The Difficulty box has a slider bar with four settings.  Each IS described below:

• Regular Verbs:  This setting uses a handful of elementary verbs with no orthographic changes, irregularities, stem changes, etc.  Use this setting if you are learning a new tense, and you only want to conjugate really easy verbs.

• Easy:  These are the easiest verbs in the database.  "Easy" consists of verbs you might learn in second-year Spanish.

• Medium:  This level corresponds to third-year Spanish.  Use this setting if you are fairly fluent in Spanish.

• Hard:  This setting utilizes all of the verbs in the database.  Use "Hard" if you are looking for a real challenge.

Once you select the language and difficulty, choose one of the eleven categories of tenses from below.  A few deserve special mention.  “Perfect Tenses Part 1” only employs present perfect.  “Perfect Tenses Part 2” employs all perfect tenses (i.e. pluperfect, future perfect, conditional perfect).  The same goes for Subjunctive Parts 1 and 2.  “Subjunctive Part 1” uses only present subjunctive.  “Subjunctive Part 2” uses all forms of the subjunctive tense.  Finally, “Prepare Custom Lesson” lets you design your own lesson.  Select this option if you want to concentrate on a certain group of verbs or tenses.  When you click “Prepare Custom Lesson” a window appears divided into two sections.  The top half lets you choose the verbs you wish to conjugate.  Drag the desired verbs from the box on right to the box on left, or click the button pointing to the left.  To remove a verb from the selection, drag the verb to the right box, or click the button pointing to the right.  If you wish to conjugate all of the verbs or remove all of the verbs from the selection, use the buttons labeled “<<” and “>>”.  Once you have chosen the verbs, choose the tenses in which you wish to conjugate these verbs using the two boxes beneath.

When you choose an item, a tutor window appears.  Enter the correct translation in the box and press ENTER or click "OK".  If you wish to return to the menu, click "Menu".  To enter accents, click on the row of buttons or type CTRL plus the letter.  I included the latter feature because I know how annoying it is to repeatedly position the mouse and click.  To enter a tilde of the n, type CTRL + 'n'.  To enter a dieresis over the 'u', type CTRL + SHIFT + 'u'.  The number of verbs you conjugated correctly appears on the right.  After you conjugate twenty verbs, you are returned to the menu.

How to translate a verb:

• Subjects:  It is difficult to translate Spanish subjects because the subjects, tú and vosotros, have the same meaning in English.  To make matters worse, a Spanish subject's connotation often varies with the context.  For example, third person singular corresponds to "he" and "you" (formal).  Third person plural corresponds to "they" and "you" (plural).  So, to eliminate the ambiguity between subjects, I assigned each Spanish subject one or more unique English subjects.  If the Spanish subject has more than one meaning in English, you may choose any subject you like.  Use the chart below to translate Spanish subjects to English and vice versa.

• Parenthetical expressions:  You will notice many words in parenthesis as you are translating verbs.  Do not translate these words, however.  These words are here simply to show the connotation or sense of the sentence and eliminate any ambiguity.  When you translate verbs in the subjunctive tense, you will see the expression "It's possible that..." or "Es posible que...".  I added this to illustrate a sense of doubt, thus requiring the subjunctive.  After the verb, you might see a subject in parenthesis or a direct object.

• Commands:  Commands are a bit tricky since English commands are conjugated the same way for all subjects.  Hence, "Go!" might correspond to "va", "vaya", "id", or "vayan".  To overcome this ambiguity, I added a clarifier to the end of the verb.  Use the chart below to select the correct subject.  If you see "let's" plus a command, this implies first person plural. (i.e.Vámonos! = Let's go!)

• I employed a similar set of parenthetical expression to distinguish Spanish verbs from the present subjunctive and the present indicative (i.e. "va" by itself might be a command in the tú form or an action in third person singular).  When conjugating commands alone, this does not pose a problem; however, there is a room for ambiguity when conjugating "All Tenses".  Here are the expressions, which indicate that the verb is a command:

(Ud.)
(Uds.)
(Vd.)
(Vds.)
(por favor)

• General information about entering a translation:  I tried to make the tutor as forgiving as possible.  No punctuation or capital letters are necessary.  In many cases the English verbs will correspond to many Spanish verbs or vice versa.  For example, "to walk" is translated as "caminar", "andar", "marchar", or "pasear".  If this is the case, you may choose any synonym you like.  The computer will check your entry against all of the synonyms for that verb in its database.

• Entering English verbs:  You will generally enter the translation in the form:
  
  subject + verb + [reflexive pronoun]
  
  The subject is always required unless the verb is a command.  For more information on entering a subject, see the section labeled Subjects above.  To enter a command, omit the subject if the subject is "you".  For example, if you see "va (por favor)", simply enter "go".  If the subject is "us", precede the verb with "let's".  So, if you see "vámonos", enter "let's go".

• Occasionally, you will come across a reflexive English verb.  For example, "mirarse"means "to look at oneself".  If the verb is reflexive, add the correct reflexive pronoun to the end of the verb.  In most cases, this is self-explanatory.  See the chart below: 

• From time to time, it will be impossible to convey the "sense" of a Spanish conjugation in English. For example, there is no way to accurately express the subjunctive in English.  Use the following table you help you translate from Spanish to English:

• Entering Spanish verbs:  Spanish conjugations will usually be one word unless the verb is preceded by an auxiliary verb or a reflexive pronoun.  Never include the subject since it is implied in the connotation.  Proper accent marks are required.

Print Report:

Click on "Print Report" to open the "Print Report" dialog box.  A box at the top prompts you for your name.  Everything else is handled automatically.  Below your name, a window displays the exercises you completed, your settings, and your score.  Click "Print" to send the report to the printer; "Main Menu" returns you to the main menu.  The print-out will contain the following information:

• name

• date

• exercises completed

• language (English to Spanish, Spanish to English, or conjugate infinitives)

• difficulty (regular verbs, easy, medium, difficult)

• score

Conjugation Wizard:

To open the Conjugation Wizard, click "Conjugation Wizard" at the bottom of the menu.  Enter a Spanish infinitive and hit ENTER or click "Go!” To insert accents, use the buttons beneath the text box or type CTRL plus the letter.  The key combinations are the same as those of the Verb Tutor.

When you enter the infinitive, a list of conjugations will appear organized by tense and subject.  You may receive a warning saying "Verb not found in database.  Verb may be conjugated incorrectly."  This means the computer could not find the verb in its database, so it will attempt to conjugate the verb the best it can using some built-in rules (i.e. verbs ending in -car change to -qué in (yo) preterite).  If you receive this warning, the verb will generally be conjugated correctly, unless it contains a stem change.

I divided the verb conjugations into five pages: indicative tenses, perfect tenses, subjunctive tenses, commands, and the gerund.  To view each tense, click on the corresponding button at the bottom of the screen.  Click "Menu" to return to the main menu.

Translator Utility:

Click "Translator Utility" on the main menu to open the Translator Utility.  The Translator Utility allows you to translate from English to Spanish, or Spanish to English.  When you select one or the other, the directions in the box beneath will change.  Enter a phrase in the box "Enter phrase here", then hit ENTER or click "Go!"  A list of possible matches will appear below in the Results box.  If no matches were found, the computer will print "no matches found".  The computer checks the verb you enter against every verb in its database so you might see several synonyms.  When you are finished, click "Menu" to return to the main menu.

• English to Spanish:  The instructions I provided in Translator Utility are fairly self-explanatory.  The important thing to remember is that the translator cannot translate nouns.  It only translates subject pronouns and verbs.  Ignore punctuation and capital letters.  The program understands contractions such as "didn't" and "won't".  To enter a command, omit the subject or precede the verb with "let's".  You will often see two versions of each match: one indicative and the other subjunctive.  You will know which ones are subjunctive since they are preceded by "Es posible que...".

• Spanish to English:  Similar to the Verb Tutor, do not enter the subject pronoun.  If the verb is ambiguous, both meanings will appear.  For example, if you type "limpiamos", you will see both "we clean" and "we cleaned".

Spanish Verb Manager:

The Spanish Verb Manager is a separate utility, which allows you to manage program's verb database.  To run this utility, run spanvm.exe.  You will see a list box containing verbs on the left side of the screen, and a series of tabs on the right side of the screen.  When you run the Spanish Verb Manager, the verbs appear in the order that they are stored in the data file.  To sort the verbs, use the "Sort by Spanish" and "Sort by English" buttons at the bottom of the list box.  You may wish to sort the verbs if you are searching for a particular verb, or you wish to see the synonyms of a verb.  Below the two search buttons there are three record operation buttons.  The "New" button creates a blank record at the end of the database and positions the cursor in the "infinitive box", ready for you to enter the verb's infinitive.  When you finish entering the Spanish and English infinitive, you will notice they appear in the list of verbs.  The "Duplicate" button creates an exact copy of the selected verb and inserts directly above the cursor.  This action is useful for adding additional meanings to a verb.  If you are adding additional meanings to a Spanish verb, duplicate the verb, then modify the "English" tab to reflect the new meaning.  If you are adding additional translations to a English verb, duplicate the verb, then modify the "Spanish" tab.

Setting up a verb's conjugation is much easier than you might think.  The computer does most of the work for you simply by inspecting the ending of a verb.  If the computer notices that you entered an irregular verb, it will automatically revert to pre-programmed directions for conjugating that verb.  Below, I describe each control on the "Spanish" and "English" tab.  The last five tabs, "Indicative", "Present", "Subjunctive", "Command" and "Progressive", are nearly identical to the layout of the Conjugation Wizard.  The conjugations are organized according to tense and subject.  If you click on an irregular verb, you will notice that some of the conjugations appear in boldface.  This means that the conjugation deviates from the normal conjugation of an ar/er/ir verb.  I included this feature so that you can readily see a verb's irregularities, and moreover, see how settings on the "Spanish" tab affect the verb's conjugation.

NOTE:  Changes you make to the database using the Spanish Verb Manager will not take effect until you reload Spanish Conjumania.

Spanish Tab:

• Infinitive:  Enter the verb's infinitive in the first box.  If the verb is reflexive, add "se" to end.  Use the button beneath the infinitive box to add accents, or use the keyboard convention I described earlier.  As you enter the verb, you will notice the "Conjugation Rule" box changes.  The computer is repeatedly evaluating the verb you enter and analyzing the possible spelling changes the verb might need.  When you leave the infinitive box, you will notice your modifications are reflected in the list of verbs.

• Stem Change Box:  Use this box to designate the verb's stem change.  The computer automatically determines which vowel undergoes the stem change based on accentuation rules.  More specifically, the stressed syllable always receives the stem change.  The first three stem changes are fairly common.  "O -> HUE" occurs in oler (i.e. huelo).  "E -> YE" occurs in erguir (i.e. yergo).  If the verb does not contain the specified vowel, the results are unpredictable.

• Conjugation Rule:  The computer generates a list of possible "conjugation rules" and lets you pick the correct one.  The first option is usually the correct one.  Select different options if the verb is abnormal.  For example, "satisfacer" differs from the normal er-verb conjugation; it is conjugated like "hacer".  Most verbs ending in —iar receive an accent over the “i” in present tense.  "Cambiar" and others, however, deviate from this behavior.  If you have any doubt, click on the various tabs to see how changing the conjugation rule affects the conjugation.  If you still are not sure how to conjugate the verb, look it up in a dictionary.

English Tab:

Since a variety of English verbs are completely irregular, it was easier for me to simply enter all five forms of each English verb rather than trying to devise an English conjugation system.  All English verbs, except for one, can be conjugated in every tense using five forms of the verb.  These forms are:

• infinitive

• third person singular in present tense

• past tense

•  past participle

• present participle

There is only one verb which deviates from this behavior: "to be".  "To be" has three forms in present tense (am, are, is) and two forms in past tense (was and were).  I have written special instructions in my program to handle this verb, so fill in the fields like any other verb.

You will notice that there is one box for each of the forms listed above.  I provided context clues in front of and beneath each box to indicate which tense to use.  If you are confused, look at another verb to see what forms to use.

Below the five boxes there is a check box for reflexive verbs.  Reflexive English verbs are followed by a reflexive pronoun (i.e. "myself", "yourself", "himself", etc.)  Some examples of English reflexive verbs are "to look at oneself" and "to wash oneself".  This option is not to be confused with reflexive Spanish verbs.  A verb may be reflexive in Spanish and normal in English, or vice versa.

Finally, there is a box to enter clarifiers.  A clarifier is a parenthetical expression which follows the verb and specifies which form of the verb is intended.  For example, "to return" might mean "to return somewhere" or "to return something".  To avoid the ambiguity, add an expression like "to return (the books)" or "to return (home)".  This eliminates any confusion.

As you modify the fields on this page, an example below will reflect the change.  The first example shows you "What you will see".  If you get this verb in the Spanish Tutor, this is the expression which will be displayed (depending on the subject and tense).  The example beneath is "What you must enter".  This is the phrase the computer will check your response against.

Contact:

Please send comments and questions here.  Thanks!

Conclusion:

I wrote Spanish Conjumania as a fun way to conclude the hours upon hours I spent scrutinizing Spanish verb conjugation in high school.  I wanted to see if I could teach a computer to conjugate verbs.  For anyone who has studied Spanish (or any foreign language), you know there is no rhyme or reason to languages.  You stop asking "why?" after a year or two, and simply accept the peculiarities common to each language.  With Spanish, conjugation follows a strict set of rules.  Once you ascertain these rules, you can conjugate nearly any verb correctly just by entering its infinitive.

I came across an elegant way to conjugate verbs in a Spanish dictionary one day.  To conserve space, the authors had abbreviated the conjugation of each verb by including a superscript number.  The number corresponded to a special orthographic change or irregularity in the appendix.  I realized I could devise a similar method by writing a function to handle each rule.  To my relief, there were less than 50 irregularities in the appendix, and most were orthographic changes common to verbs with certain endings.  For examples, verbs ending in —car always change to —qué in (yo) preterite.

Using this method and drawing on my fluency in Spanish, I developed a conjugation library.  You tell the computer the Spanish verb, the tense and the subject and the computer outputs the conjugation.  I wrote a similar routine to conjugate English verbs.  This was much easier since all English verbs (except 'to be') consist of five conjugations.  Once you have these five conjugations (I chose to enter them by hand for simplicity) you can conjugate the verb in any subject or tense.  When my conjugation library was complete, I turned my attention to designing the user interface.  Needless to say, I had lots of fun with the graphics.  I hope you have as much fun using my program as I have had writing it. :)

—Jon Sargeant