How would I create verb conjugation charts?

Question

As a student learning a second language, I often create a study guide of the vocabulary that goes along with the particular upcoming exam. For conjugations of verbs, it is extremely helpful to present them as 2 by 3 charts.

As a very amateur LaTeX user, I have no clue how to program these charts into a document. How would I go about producing a chart with two columns and three rows?

Also, it would be of great help if I could get a title bar above each chart to state what the verb is (i.e. to put its infinitive there) and what tense it is.

This website's layout would be a very good example: http://www.spanishdict.com/conjugate/beber

What I'm looking for is simply a chart for the present tense conjugations with almost identical format. The only difference being that at the top of the chart, there is the infinitive (and its meaning in English).

Answer 1

Here is a mock-up that duplicates one of the tables listed in your link. I'm sure you could modify this to suit based on your requirements:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{booktabs}% http://ctan.org/pkg/booktabs
\usepackage{colortbl}% http://ctan.org/pkg/colortbl
\usepackage{xcolor}% http://ctan.org/pkg/xcolor
\newcommand{\topheading}[1]{\multicolumn{2}{c}{\textsf{\textbf{#1}}}}%
\newcommand{\midheading}[1]{\multicolumn{2}{l}{\cellcolor{black!5}\textsf{#1}}}%
\begin{document}

\begin{tabular}{@{\quad}l@{\quad}l}
  \topheading{Indicative} \\
  \specialrule{\heavyrulewidth}{\aboverulesep}{0pt}\arrayrulecolor{black!5}%
  \specialrule{\lightrulewidth}{0pt}{0pt}\arrayrulecolor{black}
  \midheading{Present} \\
  bebo          & bebemos \\
  bebes         & beb\'eis \\
  bebe          & beben \\[\jot]
  \midheading{Preterit} \\
  beb\'{\i}     & bebimos \\
  bebiste       & bebisteis \\
  bebi\'o       & bebieron \\[\jot]
  \midheading{Imperfect} \\
  beb\'{\i}a    & beb\'{\i}amos \\
  beb\'{\i}as   & beb\'{\i}ais \\
  beb\'{\i}a    & beb\'{\i}an \\[\jot]
  \midheading{Conditional} \\
  beber\'{\i}a  & beber\'{\i}amos \\
  beber\'{\i}as & beber\'{\i}ais \\
  beber\'{\i}a  & beber\'{\i}an \\[\jot]
  \midheading{Future} \\
  beber\'e      & beberemos \\
  beber\'as     & beber\'eis \\
  beber\'a      & beber\'an \\
  \bottomrule
\end{tabular}
\end{document}

colortbl provides some row colour, while xcolor provides the colour interface (for example, black!5 is 5% black). booktabs provides the modified tabular layout, including the use of modified rules via \specialrule{<width>}{<above sep>}{<below sep>}.

Spacing between tense blocks is given by \\[\jot] which leaves an additional 3pt gap.

I've added an indent on the left of \quad (given by the first @{\quad} in the tabular column specification), as well as a space between the words of \quad (given by the second @{\quad} in the column specification). Main header is set via \topheading{<stuff>} while the tense headers are set via \midheading{<stuff>}. Since the tabular format is rigid - 2 columns - the commands conform to this setup by necessarily spreading its contents over 2 columns (via \multicolumn{2}{l}{...}). Again, this is just one way of doing it; there are plenty of other ways of doing it.