The main reason you need to know about infinitives is because the verbs you learn will be written in their infinitive form. It is helpful to learn the list of simple verbs in Table 1.
The specific verbs that you learn will depend on your purpose for learning Spanish. Some of the most useful verbs are included in Appendix .
When you look for a verb in the dictionary, you will find the infinitive form listed. To avoid a rather lengthy “T” section in the English side of your dictionary, the verb is listed without the word “to” since all infinitives start with the word “to” in English. You will notice, however, that if you look for the word “write” in the Spanish side of your dictionary, you will find the infinitive escribir. In the Spanish side of the dictionary, the verb will always be listed as an infinitive. If you see a verb in a Spanish sentence that you want to look up, first you will have to determine the infinitive form. For example, vive is not in the dictionary because it is a form of the verbvivir. Since all verbs must end in –ar, –er, or –ir you can usually find the correct infinitive in the dictionary without much difficulty.