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Present Tense in Spanish: conjugations of regular and irregular verbs

In the previous lesson, some important concepts were explained which are related to Spanish verbs and their conjugations. You learned that a Spanish verb can have one of the three infinitive endings “-ar”, “-er” or –“ir”. This classification is a very good starting point for the topic of this lesson which is the conjugation of Spanish verbs in present tense.

There are rules which can be applied to conjugate a regular Spanish verb. These rules depend on whether the verb ends in “-ar”, “-er”, or “-“ir”.

Conjugation of regular verbs

1. Regular “–ar” verbs

To conjugate a regular “-ar” verb, drop the ending –ar and then add the following endings in agreement with the subject pronoun.

yo

-o

-as

él/ella/usted

-a

nosotros/nosotras

-amos

vosotros/vosotras

-áis

ellos/ellas/ustedes

-an

 

Let’s see this in action. For example, we take the Spanish verb “hablar”, which means to speak. In present tense, it is conjugated as follows

yo

hablo

hablas

él/ella/usted

habla

nosotros/nosotras

hablamos

vosotros/vosotras

habláis

ellos/ellas/ustedes

hablan

 

So,

yo hablo: I speak

tú hablas: you speak

él habla: he speaks

ella habla: she speaks

usted habla: you speak

nosotros/-as hablamos: we speak

vosotros/-as habláis: you speak

ellos/-as hablan: they speak

ustedes hablan: you speak

 

2. Regular “-er” verbs:

To conjugate a regular “-er” verb, drop the ending –er and then add the following endings in agreement with the subject pronoun.

yo

-o

-es

él/ella/usted

-e

nosotros/nosotras

-emos

vosotros/vosotras

- éis

ellos/ellas/ustedes

-en

An example of regular “-er” verbs is comprender. It means to understand.

yo

comprendo

I understand

comprendes

you understand

él/ella/usted

comprende

he/she understands,

you understand

nosotros/nosotras

comprendemos

we understand

vosotros/vosotras

comprendéis

you understand

ellos/ellas/ustedes

comprenden

they/you understand

 

3. Regular “-ir” verbs:

To conjugate a regular “-ir” verb, drop the ending –ir and then add the following endings in agreement with the subject pronoun.

yo

-o

-es

él/ella/usted

-e

nosotros/nosotras

- imos

vosotros/vosotras

- ís

ellos/ellas/ustedes

-en

 

An example of regular “-ir” verbs is escribir. It means to write.

yo

escribo

I write

escribes

you write

él/ella/usted

escribe

he/she writes, you write

nosotros/nosotras

escribimos

we write

vosotros/vosotras

escribís

you write

ellos/ellas/ustedes

escriben

they/you write

 

Note that the conjugation of “–ir” verbs is very similar to that of “-er” verbs. It is different only for nosotros and vosotros.

Note also that for all types of verbs, the conjugated verb ends in “–o” for “yo”.


Vocabulary

Hablar

One of the frequently used regular Spanish “ar” verbs is hablar, whose conjugation in present  tense was given above. Learn some typical sentences which can be constructed with hablar.

¿Qué idiomas hablas? Which languages do you speak?

or

¿Qué lenguas hablas? Which languages do you speak?

Hablo italiano muy bien I speak Italian very well

Hablo un poco de español I speak a little bit Spanish

Hablo ingles porque es mi lengua materna I speak English because it’s my mother tongue


Conjugation of irregular verbs

In the previous lesson, the classification of the irregular verbs is given. If this sounds unfamiliar to you, please read that section first.

1. Conjugation of irregular verbs which are irregular only for the first person singular

Some Spanish verbs are irregular only for the subject pronoun “yo”. An example is salir, which means to leave.

yo

salgo

sales

él/ella/usted

sale

nosotros/nosotras

salimos

vosotros/vosotras

salís

ellos/ellas/ustedes

salen

 

2. Conjugation of stem changing irregular verbs

Stem-changing verbs change their stems when conjugated for all subject pronouns apart from nosotros/-as and vosotros/-as.

e->ie verbs: An example of this group is merendar, which means to have a snack.

yo

meriendo

meriendas

él/ella/usted

merienda

nosotros/nosotras

merendamos

vosotros/vosotras

merendáis

ellos/ellas/ustedes

merendan

Examine the conjugation of merendar. The endings are exactly the same as the regular “-ar” verbs conjugations:-o, -as, -a, amos, áis, -an. But the stem “merend-“ changes to “meriend” for yo, tú, él, ella, usted, ellos/-as, ustedes.

o->ue verbs:

For example, the verb volver, which means to turn, falls into this group. It’s conjugated like above, only the “o” in the stem becomes “ue” after conjugation.

yo

vuelvo

vuelves

él/ella/usted

vuelve

nosotros/nosotras

volvemos

vosotros/vosotras

volvéis

ellos/ellas/ustedes

vuelven

e->i: Just as above. Only “e” in the stem becomes “i”, after conjugation.

 An example of this group is repetir

yo

repito

repites

él/ella/usted

repite

nosotros/nosotras

repetimos

vosotros/vosotras

repetís

ellos/ellas/ustedes

repiten

3. Conjugation of both stem changing and irregular (yo) type verbs

This type of verbs change their stem as in point 2 and they are also irregular for yo form as in point 1.

A well-known example of this group is tener, which means to have.

yo

tengo

tienes

él/ella/usted

tiene

nosotros/nosotras

tenemos

vosotros/vosotras

tenéis

ellos/ellas/ustedes

tienen

4.Completely irregular verbs

You have to memorize the conjugations of these verbs. An example is “ir“ which means to go. Here is its conjugation

yo

voy

vas

él/ella/usted

va

nosotros/nosotras

vamos

vosotros/vosotras

vais

ellos/ellas/ustedes

van

Vocabulary

Tener

One of the most frequently used irregular Spanish verbs is tener, whose conjugation in present is given above. The primary meaning of tener is to have. On the other hand, it is used in many other cases where it loses its primary meaning.

  • First of all, it is used just as we use “have or have got” in English:

¿ Tienes dinero ? Do you have money?

No tengo tiempo. I don’t have time

 

  • It’s used to ask how old someone is

¿ Cuántos años tienes ?  How old are you?

Tengo 24 años I am 24 years old

 

  • It’s used to describe physically

tiene el pelo rubio he has got blond hair

More on this topic here

 

  • When tener is used with que and an infinitive of another verb, it expresses obligations. Such as

tengo que trabajar  I have to work

More on this topic here.

 

  • It’s used in many fixed expressions. For instance

tener hambre: to be hungry

tener sed: to be thirsty

tener frío: to be cold

tener calor: to be hot

Let's Practice

Conjugate the following regular verbs.

All Exercises