Conjugation

Conjugation (/ˌkɒn.ʤju:ˈgeɪ.ʃən/) is the creation of derived forms of a verb from its principal parts by morphological inflection. The majority of English verbs show little conjugation.

Form

For example, the following table gives the conjugations of the English verb be in the indicative mood in the present and past tenses:

Mood:		Indicative				Subjunctive
Tense:		Present		Past		Present		Past
Person	Gender	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
First person	Dual	I am	we are	I was	we were	I be	we be	I were	we were
Second person	Dual	you are	you are	you were	you were	you be	you be	you were	you were
Third person	Masculine	he is	they are	he was	they were	he be	they be	he were	they were
	Feminine	she is		she was		she be		she were
	Neuter	it is		it was		it be		it were

The majority of English verbs show little conjugation. Here, for example is the regular verb want:

Mood:		Indicative				Subjunctive
Tense:		Present		Past		Present		Past
Person	Gender	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
First person	Dual	I want	we want	I wanted	we wanted	I want	we want	I wanted	we wanted
Second person	Dual	you want	you want	you wanted	you wanted	you want	you want	you wanted	you wanted
Third person	Masculine	he wants	they want	he wanted	they wanted	he want	they want	he wanted	they wanted
	Feminine	she wants		she wanted		she want		she wanted
	Neuter	it wants		it wanted		it want		it wanted

Pedagogy

The conjugations of be may be noted this way.

Because English is so lightly inflected, learning conjugations is not usually pedagogically sound practice. However, students or teachers may be used to doing this while learning other languages. French, German and Spanish all have extensive conjugations.