Your Ultimate Guide to Irregular Verbs in Spanish in the Present Tense

Just like in English, the Spanish language has many irregular verbs. Fortunately for you, the majority of the irregular verbs in Spanish follow a pattern. Therefore, they are much easier to learn once you have memorized the rules when conjugating irregular verbs in Spanish. With this supreme guide, you will be a master at conjugating irregular present tense verbs before you can say “Spanish”!

Remember, in Spanish, we have to conjugate all verbs according to the person, tense, voice and mood. Let’s get started!

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If you remember from our previous lesson about regular verbs, there are three types of infinitives in Spanish: verbs that end in -ar, -er, or -ir. Infinitives are made up of two parts: the stem and the ending. Below you will notice that the stem is written in italics and the ending is in bold:

• Caminar
• Correr
• Vivir

With regular verbs, the stem does not change when it is conjugated.

Persona	-AR	-ER	-IR
yo	camino	corro	vivo
vos	caminás	corrés	vivís
él/ ella/ usted	camina	corre	vive
nosotros/ nosotras	caminamos	corremos	vivimos
ustedes	caminan	corren	viven
ellos/ ellas	caminan	corren	viven

With many verbs in Spanish, the stem changes when you conjugate them, and this is what makes them irregular. In the present tense, we have three main groups of stem changing verbs (with some other exceptions that we will talk about later):

The three main groups of stem changing verbs are as follows:

• e → ie
• e → i
• o → ue

	e → ie sentir	e → i pedir	o → ue poder
yo*	siento	pido	puedo
vos	sentís	pedís	podés
él/ ella/ usted*	siente	pide	puede
nosotros/ nosotras	sentimos	pedimos	podemos
ustedes*	sienten	piden	pueden
ellos/ ellas*	sienten	piden	pueden

*You will notice in the above chart that the stem changes in the first person, third person singular and third person plural forms. That is to say: yo, él/ ella/ usted, ustedes y ellos/ ellas.

Below is a list of common stem changing verbs in Spanish:

e → ie	e → i	o → ue
calentar, empezar, despertar, mentir, sentir, perder, entender, querer	medir, reír, despedir, impedir, vestir, repetir, servir	contar, costar, dormir, encontrar, volver, soñar, recordar, volar

Now that we have learned about basic stem changing verbs, we can take a look at some of the exceptions that we talked about earlier.

Now let’s go into what are called the “irregulares totales” or total irregulars:

	ser	ir
yo*	soy	voy
vos*	sos	vas
él/ ella/ usted*	es	va
nosotros/ nosotras*	somos	vamos
ustedes*	son	van
ellos/ ellas*	son	van

Audio for the conjugation of the verb ser:

Audio for the conjugation of the verb ir:

Now we are going to take a look at irregular verbs that only change their stems in the first person singular. There are three different changes that we make when conjugating these irregular verbs in the first person singular.

In the first category, we change the ending to y:

	dar	estar
yo*	doy	estoy

In the second category, we change the stem to g.

	hacer	valer	poner	salir	caer	traer
yo*	hago	valgo	pongo	salgo	caigo	traigo

In the third category, we change the stem to zc.

	parecer	agradecer	conocer	traducir	producir	conducir
yo*	parezco	agradezco	conozco	traduzco	produzco	conduzco

Now that we have seen irregular stem changing verbs and total irregular verbs, we are going to take a look at the “irregulares mixtos” or mixed irregular verbs.

These verbs add a g in the first person singular and change stems in the third person singular and plural.

Take a look at the examples below:

	tener	venir	decir	oír
yo*	tengo	vengo	digo	oigo
vos	tenés	venís	decís	oís
él/ella*	tiene	viene	dice	oye
nosotros	tenemos	venimos	decimos	oímos
ustedes*	tienen	vienen	dicen	oyen
ellos/ellas*	tienen	vienen	dicen	oyen

Finally, we are going to look at irregular stem changing verbs with y:

	huir	construir	sustituir	incluir
yo*	huyo	construyo	sustituyo	incluyo
vos	huís	construís	sustituís	incluís
él/ella*	huye	construye	sustituye	incluye
nosotros	huímos	construímos	sustituímos	incluímos
ustedes*	huyen	construyen	sustituyen	incluyen
ellos/ellas*	huyen	construyen	sustituyen	incluyen

And that’s it! Now you just need to practice

With a little bit of practice, you will be an expert in no time! And if you have any doubts you can always come back to this post and clear them!

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