📖LearnModule 14 · Lesson 12 of 30Proficient User · CEFR C2, continuedUnit 3 · La sintaxis compleja
La cláusula de infinitivo
Module 14 of the free Spanish course (CEFR C2, continued), lesson 12 of 30: After verbs of perception, Spanish compresses a whole clause into an infinitive. On this page: 9 words with their genders and respellings, the rule, a watch-out line, the conjugation table and the audio — the study notes behind the workbook's QR.
The words
Spanish
English
Say it
lo veo venir
I can see it coming
loh BEH-oh beh-NEER
oigo a los niños jugar
I hear the children playing
OY-goh ah lohs NEE-nyohs hoo-GAR
hago arreglar el carro
I am having the car fixed
AH-goh ah-rreh-GLAR ehl KAH-rroh
la percepción
perception
lah pehr-sehp-SYOHN
dejar salir
to let out
deh-HAR sah-LEER
dudar
to hesitate, to doubt
doo-DAR
ir lejos
to go far
eer LEH-hohs
familiar en la forma
familiar in shape
fah-mee-LYAR ehn lah FOHR-mah
yo oigo un ruido
I hear a noise
yoh OY-goh oon RRWEE-doh
Respellings follow the course’s say-it key; the stressed syllable is in capitals. Print this lesson’s flashcards (PDF) — the words on the front, the English and respelling on the back.
La regla · The rule
After verbs of perception, Spanish compresses a whole clause into an infinitive. Lo veo venir. Oigo a los niños jugar. La siento dudar.
Y también · And also
English does the same with a bare infinitive (I see him coming), so the shape is familiar; what is not familiar is how far Spanish will take it — hago arreglar el carro, dejo salir a los niños.
Ojo · Watch out
lo veo venir: the object pronoun goes before the FIRST verb, not before the infinitive. And hago arreglar el carro means someone else fixes it — arreglo el carro is a different claim. oír is irregular: oigo, oyes, oye.
oír, presente — the table
yo oigo · tú oyes · él/ella/usted oye · nosotros oímos · ustedes oyen · ellos/ellas oyen
Do it now — on paper
Say all 9 words aloud twice from the respelling, then once from the Spanish spelling alone — begin with lo veo venir.
Copy every word with its accents on paper; then cover the English column and write each meaning back from the Spanish.
Write out oír, presente in full from memory, every person, and check each form against the table above.
This free course is the reading half. The writing half — write-in lessons, daily practice pages with built-in review, self-checks and a full answer key — is the companion workbook series, The Spanish Ladder: one workbook per module, fifteen in all, released band by band with the Basic band (Modules 1–5) first.
Keep these words
Turn this lesson’s words into flashcards, then space your reviews — the two habits the research behind our study guides backs hardest.