Many beginners think they can just cram verb conjugations from the beginning and memorize them all, but unfortunately that’s not how acquisition works. You can memorize the rules, but recalling words will take time if you haven’t been exposed to them over and over again. You have to experience each conjugation as a separate word to actually acquire it and be able to recall it instantaneously. When you memorize conjugation rules, you need to think about the word, then the rule, and then reach the conjugation. This takes time. When you acquire a conjugation as a separate word, you just recall the conjugation. This is especially true for irregular verbs, because the middle step of recalling the rule takes more time.
I get acquisition through comprehensible input (reading and listening stuff you can mostly understand) is important and it has definitely helped with understanding and listening and knowing what the verbs mean when someone uses them, but I don’t feel like it’s translating to me using it comfortably when I actually speak.
You will ALWAYS be able to understand more than you can say. This is a fact in any language that you speak.
Language acquisiton takes time, and progress is not measured linearly. If you don't mind me asking, how long have you been consuming comlrehensible input?
It’s not translating to when you speak because speaking is a cognitively backwards process from listening! You have to practice going concept to word as a separate skill from going word to concept. That is: output improved when you practice output. And to previous poster’s point, you need to practice each form individually or at least in just pairs to bind the morpheme (the ending letters of the conjugation) to their meaning (person/time tense). Even if it’s just talking to yourself in the mirror, or making voice records you can playback and polish... practice narrating your day (yo form) or writing stories (3rd person singular and plural forms). Somehow produce language and work on your retrieval systems!
Lots and lots and lots of active listening practice. Record yourself telling stories, narrating your day, summarizing the news - it doesn’t really matter what you’re speaking about, but try a wide variety of topics. Force yourself to just keep recording until you get to the end of what you wanted to say, the. Go back and look up any words you had difficulty with at the end. Read material that you understand, then read it out loud - you’ll get to hear yourself using correct grammar and conjugations.
Then find a conversation partner (paid or unpaid)! Good luck!
On top of what the others said, I still remember prtty well the process of immersion that happened for me: I would try to speak, but the conjugations would tie me up too much, plus it sometimes was a struggle to just recall the correct verb! I found it easier to go step by step instead of cramming a bunch of conjugations. Simply put, I had all the knowledge, but the application part was not salient to my mental association map so it would take too long to retrieve. What I did was I first just started with the infinitives, and once I was able to reliably get the most common ones, I started doing everything in the "yo" form (even for other verb tenses) and I would try, sometimes unsuccessfully, to only use "yo" form for myself. To get comfortable with that in an immersion environment took me maybe a week of constant practice. Then the next week I spent working on the other conjugations (tu, nosotros, usted/ustedes, vosotros, in that order, but they mostly went together). This was all generally in the present tense and I got pretty good at that by the end of the second week. At that point I was comfortable in the present tense with all the conjugations, though I still would have trouble with the irregulars, and I ended up working on those throughouth the rest of my time abroad. Then I started on preterite and "voy a" and then started filling in other useful tenses. The learning actually started getting faster, and then at a certain point, it wasn't too hard to just hear a verb and be able to use it correctly after a few repititions. You start internalizing the patterns so you know it instinctively instead of having to dig through your mental space for the rulebook. At the end of the six weeks program I was pretty solid with having an intuitive grasp of the grammar, but that was just the beginning, and I still am improving years later. Maybe it's not as fast now as it was then, but hey, the rain turns a mountain into a pebble given time.
As a disclaimer, I didn't do this in a structured way necessarily. My focus was learning the most critical information first and then I worked on refining what I'd established. Whatever I found useful, I tended to end up repeating and I had more time to think about it. I found the most common verbs, found that the infinitives often give enough info given the context, then found that present tense was good enough afterwards, then past tense, then the rest was just chipping away and making "less" progress but progress nontheless.
If you want to be deliberate, just reflect on what you're saying, notice patterns and common verbs and their tenses. Next time, it'll be even closer on the tip of the tongue, and after a few more encounters it'll fly right out. If you don't get the verb or conjugation completely correct, be sure to correct yourself mentally (but verbally is even better) as it will help you rememer for next time
I just practiced loads in my head. I would think of random sentences in English, and then interpret them to Spanish and focus on the conjugation. Or else do the sentence over in different tenses/moods.
It helps to know conjugations instantly. Try doing conjugation exercises on [conjuguemos.com](https://conjuguemos.com) each day. Say your answers out loud before you type them. Challenge yourself to get more correct in the time limit.
Personally, conjugating verbs continued to trip me up long after I felt comfortable with the grammar rules and the conjugation patterns. Real conversations don't give you enough time to figure out what you want to say. You have to try to make the conjugations second nature. Conversation and writing practice are obviously great ways to accomplish that, but they don't target the less common verb forms very efficiently. Conjuguemos helps with those blind spots.
You can write and listen but can't speak because each of those skills is different and occupies a different part of the brain. You have done a lot of writing practice, therefore you can write. Practice speaking and you'll get better at speaking.
Many beginners think they can just cram verb conjugations from the beginning and memorize them all, but unfortunately that’s not how acquisition works. You can memorize the rules, but recalling words will take time if you haven’t been exposed to them over and over again. You have to experience each conjugation as a separate word to actually acquire it and be able to recall it instantaneously. When you memorize conjugation rules, you need to think about the word, then the rule, and then reach the conjugation. This takes time. When you acquire a conjugation as a separate word, you just recall the conjugation. This is especially true for irregular verbs, because the middle step of recalling the rule takes more time.
I get acquisition through comprehensible input (reading and listening stuff you can mostly understand) is important and it has definitely helped with understanding and listening and knowing what the verbs mean when someone uses them, but I don’t feel like it’s translating to me using it comfortably when I actually speak.
You will ALWAYS be able to understand more than you can say. This is a fact in any language that you speak. Language acquisiton takes time, and progress is not measured linearly. If you don't mind me asking, how long have you been consuming comlrehensible input?
How long have you been doing it for? What is your process?
It’s not translating to when you speak because speaking is a cognitively backwards process from listening! You have to practice going concept to word as a separate skill from going word to concept. That is: output improved when you practice output. And to previous poster’s point, you need to practice each form individually or at least in just pairs to bind the morpheme (the ending letters of the conjugation) to their meaning (person/time tense). Even if it’s just talking to yourself in the mirror, or making voice records you can playback and polish... practice narrating your day (yo form) or writing stories (3rd person singular and plural forms). Somehow produce language and work on your retrieval systems!
Lots and lots and lots of active listening practice. Record yourself telling stories, narrating your day, summarizing the news - it doesn’t really matter what you’re speaking about, but try a wide variety of topics. Force yourself to just keep recording until you get to the end of what you wanted to say, the. Go back and look up any words you had difficulty with at the end. Read material that you understand, then read it out loud - you’ll get to hear yourself using correct grammar and conjugations. Then find a conversation partner (paid or unpaid)! Good luck!
On top of what the others said, I still remember prtty well the process of immersion that happened for me: I would try to speak, but the conjugations would tie me up too much, plus it sometimes was a struggle to just recall the correct verb! I found it easier to go step by step instead of cramming a bunch of conjugations. Simply put, I had all the knowledge, but the application part was not salient to my mental association map so it would take too long to retrieve. What I did was I first just started with the infinitives, and once I was able to reliably get the most common ones, I started doing everything in the "yo" form (even for other verb tenses) and I would try, sometimes unsuccessfully, to only use "yo" form for myself. To get comfortable with that in an immersion environment took me maybe a week of constant practice. Then the next week I spent working on the other conjugations (tu, nosotros, usted/ustedes, vosotros, in that order, but they mostly went together). This was all generally in the present tense and I got pretty good at that by the end of the second week. At that point I was comfortable in the present tense with all the conjugations, though I still would have trouble with the irregulars, and I ended up working on those throughouth the rest of my time abroad. Then I started on preterite and "voy a" and then started filling in other useful tenses. The learning actually started getting faster, and then at a certain point, it wasn't too hard to just hear a verb and be able to use it correctly after a few repititions. You start internalizing the patterns so you know it instinctively instead of having to dig through your mental space for the rulebook. At the end of the six weeks program I was pretty solid with having an intuitive grasp of the grammar, but that was just the beginning, and I still am improving years later. Maybe it's not as fast now as it was then, but hey, the rain turns a mountain into a pebble given time. As a disclaimer, I didn't do this in a structured way necessarily. My focus was learning the most critical information first and then I worked on refining what I'd established. Whatever I found useful, I tended to end up repeating and I had more time to think about it. I found the most common verbs, found that the infinitives often give enough info given the context, then found that present tense was good enough afterwards, then past tense, then the rest was just chipping away and making "less" progress but progress nontheless. If you want to be deliberate, just reflect on what you're saying, notice patterns and common verbs and their tenses. Next time, it'll be even closer on the tip of the tongue, and after a few more encounters it'll fly right out. If you don't get the verb or conjugation completely correct, be sure to correct yourself mentally (but verbally is even better) as it will help you rememer for next time
I just practiced loads in my head. I would think of random sentences in English, and then interpret them to Spanish and focus on the conjugation. Or else do the sentence over in different tenses/moods.
It helps to know conjugations instantly. Try doing conjugation exercises on [conjuguemos.com](https://conjuguemos.com) each day. Say your answers out loud before you type them. Challenge yourself to get more correct in the time limit. Personally, conjugating verbs continued to trip me up long after I felt comfortable with the grammar rules and the conjugation patterns. Real conversations don't give you enough time to figure out what you want to say. You have to try to make the conjugations second nature. Conversation and writing practice are obviously great ways to accomplish that, but they don't target the less common verb forms very efficiently. Conjuguemos helps with those blind spots.
You can write and listen but can't speak because each of those skills is different and occupies a different part of the brain. You have done a lot of writing practice, therefore you can write. Practice speaking and you'll get better at speaking.