HOW TO: Create your own Language

7-Grammar (Part two): Verb conjugations

A verb conjugation contains the changes that happen to one, some, every or even no persons speaking. 

Take the verb 'to eat', for example, and 'conjugate' it.

That is, make a list of all people speaking it:

I eat

You eat

He/She/It eats

We eat

You (pl. you lot/guys) eat

They eat

The only person that needs a change is the third singular (he/she/it). Is it the third person in the list? Yes. Does it have one person or more? One. Therefore, it is a singular person and the third to speak.

From 'we', you get the plural person (1st person plural-we-2nd person plural-you etc.).

In Japanese, this doesn't happen. 

The verb 'tabemasu', meaning 'to eat', remains 'tabemasu' each time.

I tabemasu (watashi wa tabemasu)

You tabemasu (anata wa tabemasu)

etc.

But in Italian (and Spanish), every person changes!

Mangiare-to eat (Italian)

(io) mangio

(tu) mangi

(lui/lei/esso) mangia

(noi) mangiamo 

(voi) mangiate

(loro) mangiano

Since every person requires the adding or subtraction of some letters, the subjects (I, you, he etc.) aren't always necessary in Italian or Spanish, which is why I placed them between brackets. 

How will your language's verb conjugations behave?

Let's take a look at mine, shall we? 

Lei'ine-verb conjugations

to go: Thah-ling 

I go-Dwah ù-ling

You go-Hai ì-ling

He goes-Sen tà-ling

She goes-Senna té-ling

It goes-Sha tù-ling

We go-Dwang (silent 'g', almost nasal) ì-ling (like the 2nd person singular, 'you')

You (pl.) go-Haing ì-ling

They go-Sentu à-ling

O.o

All I did, was make up a subject (or personal pronoun), like 'dwa' for 'I', then I made the verb stem (ling) unvaried (the same) with a different prefix for each person (like, 'ù-)

So the rules for most verb conjugations would be to add the following prefixes: 

ù

ì

tà

té

tù

ì

ì

à