# The &kverbos; Handbook

Kraschinski Arnold

    arnold.kra67@gmx.de

1999
2006
2007
Kraschinski Arnold
&FDLNotice;
2007-09-01
2.0

With &kverbos; you can study Spanish verb conjugations. It's main purpose is to learn the different forms of the verbs but it can be used to look up the forms of a verb, too.

KDE
KVerbos
Education
Spanish

## Introduction

&kverbos; helps learning Spanish verb conjugation. In contrast to the old 1.x version it isn't necessary for the user to capture verb data before learning. &kverbos; comes with a set of more than 9 000 verbs and the corresponding conjugation patterns. This does not mean that the program can answer every question about Spanish verbs now. It is not the result of linguistic reserach. Its purpose is to support persons learning Spanish.

The main purpose is to learn the verb forms. &kverbos; selects one of the verbs and a time, the user enters the different forms of the verb and the program tells if the solutions are correct. Graphic is used to give a feedback to the user. The user can select the verbs and times that he wants to practice.

&kverbos; can be used to look up unknows verb forms, too.

Since KDE4 verbs can be trained in sentences, too. Also other grammar exercises with gaps are possible. The program comes without such exercises but it is possible to download such exercises. Look for information about installing exercises in chapter 5 and about creating exercises in chapter 4.

## Working with &kverbos;

When you start &kverbos; you will see the menu window first. In the tree view you can select the exercise you want to do. A double click on a menu entry is one possibility to select and start an exercise. At the bottom of the window you have five round buttons to control the application.

The Menu-Windows of &kverbos; Screenshot

Your first step using the program should be to select verbs and tenses. Use the Config button config-button to open the configuration dialogue. In the section verbs you can select verbs and in the section tenses the tenses you want to practice.

The fuction of the buttons in detail are:

The Config button which opens the configuration dialogue Configure &kverbos; Button

  Opens the configure dialogue for &kverbos;. There you can select verbs, tenses, image files for the jigsaw feedback and KVTML files where the program looks for translations of verbs.

The Help button which gives access to some help options. The Help Button

  First the button reveals three more buttons. One leads to the handbook, one offers short information about &kverbos; and the last general informaton about &kde; itself.

The Next button which starts the next step in the program Next Button

  The Next Button has different functions. Let the mouse hover above the button and you will see what it actually does. It starts the next action in the program.

The Config button which opens the configuration dialogue Menu Button

  When you are learning and you press the Menu-button you will be brought back to the menu.

The Config button which opens the configuration dialogue Quit Button

  As the name tells you leave the program with this button.

### The &kverbos; trainer windows

Depending on the selected exercise you will see different windows. There is a window where you can enter an infinitive of a verb and the program will show you how to conjugate the verb. Another type of exercise selects tense and infinitive and you enter the forms. Or you select a gap exercise. The last type of exercises does not come with the program. You have to install additonal files to get them.

#### The VerbViewTrainer - Look up verb forms

Have a look at the "VerbViewTrainer-" window. Here you can look up how to conjugate the verb that you have entered in the input line. Every infinitive you enter is counted as an exercise. If it exists in the programs database it is counted as a correct solution too.

The VerbViewTrainer Window
Screenshot VerbViewTrainer

#### The FormsTrainer

You have to be more active in the "FormsTrainer-" window. &kverbos; selects a verb and a tense. You have to enter the forms into the lineedit fields. After that you can use the Config button Next-button to correct your input. If some of your entered forms are not correct the colour is changed to red. You have a second chance to find the solution. If you have no idea you can go to the solution with the Config button Next-button. With this button you can cycle through the whole process: enter forms, correct the input, show the solution, go to the next verb.

The FormsTrainer Window
Screenshot FormsTrainer

#### The GapTrainer

Another type of trainer window is the "GapTrainer-". You can practice verb conjugation in sentences. Read the task, enter the forms into the gaps and use the Config button Next-button to go through the correction cycle.

You will not see this kind of trainer in a &kverbos; standard installation. To use this trainer you need additional exercise files. Have a look at the &kverbos; webpage to find such files. If exercise files are installed the program extends the menu with this exercises. For further information read the chapter for developers.

The GapTrainer Window
Screenshot GapTrainer

## How to configure &kverbos;

### Configure Dialogue: General

The General Configuration Window
Screenshot General Configuration

Show buttons for the Spanish characters ñ, á, é, í, ó, ú

  Depending on the setup of your keyboard it might not be possible to enter the above mentioned characters. This option helps you. If it is selected, a line of button with the characters is shown below the trainer window. You can insert ñ, á, é, í, ó, ú with these buttons.

Use a verb selection instead the entire verb stock

  As &kverbos; comes with over 9 000 verbs and you might not know all of them you can select verbs and practice this selection. With this option you decide if your selection is used or all the verbs.

Select verbs automatically if they aren't in the selection

  Sometimes there are verbs in an exercise that you still did not select. This may happen in the VerbViewTrainer or the GapTrainer. If you have selected this option the program adds new verbs to your selection.

Ignore accent while checking the user input

  Although it is clear that accents belong to correct spelling the user can check this option and the accents will be ignored during the correction process.

The use of the clock

  On the left side of the trainer window there is a clock. It can be used in two ways. It simply counts the time that you are learning until all exercises are done or you finish your learning process or it works as a counter. That means you select a time and the clock counts backwards until this time has expired. So you can learn a fixed time.

### Configure Dialogue: Tenses

The Tenses Configuration Window
Screenshot Tenses Configuration

Select Tenses

  All the tenses you can learn are listed here. Select the ones you want to practice. This selection affects the FormsTrainer. It only uses tenses that you have selected.

Proportion

  We talk of normal tense in this part if the tense is formed only by one word. Composed tenses have a form of haber or estar as the first part followed by the particip or a gerund. Because haber and estar are always conjugated the same way the composed tenses are considered easier and they should not ask as often as the normal tenses. You can set the proportion here.

### Configure Dialogue: Verbs

The Verbs Configuration Window
Screenshot Verbs Configuration

You can see a tab-widget with three tabs that helps you to select and deselect the verbs you want to train.

First Tab: List of selected Verbs

  All selected verbs are listed here. These verbs will be used for training. If this list is empty you cannot start studing and the program will give you a hint to select verbs.

Second Tab: Verbs in Grammatical groups

  The known verbs grouped by different conjugation patterns. This helps you to select verbs of a special type, &eg; irregular verbs or changing verbs where 'e' becomes 'ie' like 'querer' (group verbs e --> ie).

Third Tab: Verbs in Alphabetical Groups

  As the name of the tabs says the verbs or sorted alphabetical.

We mustn't forget the input line below the tab widget. Here you can enter a word or a part of word and the programs looks for infinitives that match your input.

You cannot add new verbs to the list or delete one from the list. You cannot edit the verbdata, too. If you encounter mistakes in the verb data, write an e-mail to the author.

### Configure Dialogue: KVTML-Files

The KVTML-Files Configuration Window
Screenshot KVTML-Files Configuration

The verb database doesn't contain any translations of the Spanish infinitives. If you like to work with translations into other languages you can use your favourtite KVTML-files containing the translations. You can add several files here. The program reads the files and searches for verbs and their translations.

List of KVTML-files to load

  A list of files that you have already selected. You can add and delete files here. These files are used to search for translations.

Translated Verbs

  Adjust how the translated words are used in &kverbos;.

### Configure Dialogue: Jigsaw

The Jigsaw Configuration Window
Screenshot Verbs Configuration

You can decide if you want to make use of the jigsaw view. Its purpose is to give some motivation. Select images that are used as pictures for the jigsaw. You can also define how many pieces should be made.

## Developer's Guide to &kverbos;

&kverbos; can be extended with gap exercises. This chapter informs you how to create exercises and how to install them.

### Install exercise files

The exercise files can be installed for the whole system or for the user only.

Installation for the whole system

  If you want to install exercises so that they are available for every user you have to put the files into the '$KDEDIR/share/kde4/apps/kverbos/exercises/' folder

Installation for a user

  If you install the exercise files into the folder '$HOME/.kde4/share/apps/kverbos/exercises/' only this user can see and use them. This way users can add additional exercises by themselves.

### Create additional exercises

Every exercise consists of at least three files: 'exercisename.html', 'exercisename.menu.en', 'exercisename.solution'.

The 'exercisename.html' file

  This is the exercise itself as it will be presented to the &kverbos; user in the program.

The 'exercisename.menu.en' file

  The file contains information used to extend the menu in the program. The menu will be extended, so that the user can select the exercise.

The 'exercisename.solution' file

  This file contains the solution. It is used by the program to evaluate the user input.

## Credits and License

&kverbos;

Program copyright 2006 - 2009 Kraschinski Arnold arnold.kra67@gmx.de

Documentation copyright 2006 - 2009 Kraschinski Arnold arnold.kra67@gmx.de

&underFDL;

&underGPL; &underBSDLicense; &underArtisticLicense; &underX11License;

## Installation

### How to obtain &kverbos;

&install.intro.documentation;

### Requirements

All required libraries as well as &kverbos; itself can be found on The &kverbos; home page.

You can find a list of changes at http://apps.kde.org/kverbos.

### Compilation and Installation

&install.compile.documentation;

&documentation.index;