Present of regular and irregular verbs in Spanish

Today we are going to talk about verbs in the present tense.

Did you know that in Spanish the king of grammar is the verb? The verb is the boss of communication and not just any boss, no. A boss who gives us a lot of information.

The verb informs us about what action we want to perform, as in all languages, but also, in Spanish, it presents us, for example, which person is going to perform the action (I, you, he, we, you, them) that is why its form changes for each person.

When you start studying Spanish, this is one of the points that teachers place the most emphasis on because there are other languages ​​in which this difference is not made and sometimes it is a bit of a hassle for students.

Our “boss” informs us whether the subject who performs the action works or does not work.

About what intention the person speaking has with their message. That is, if you just want to give information, or present a wish or a hypothesis, or perhaps you want to give an order or advice to someone.

Furthermore, in the same verb form, we will be able to find out if the action happens now, it happened in the past or it will happen in the future. Isn't it wonderful?

Without a doubt, in Spanish the verb is the king of grammar.

In this article we are going to help you learn how we can express the usual actions that we live in our day to day, talk about what's going on around you at this very moment.

That's it, let's work together on how it is and when the verbs in presentin Spanish.

What is a verb in the present tense?

You know, the present in Spanish is the time of the here and now, what's happening right now.

This is the verb tense What we use most when speaking. Let's see what regular and irregular verbs are like in Spanish in the present tense.

Do you want to know the difference between regular and irregular verbs?

Do you want to discover it?

Regular Present

Did you know that in Spanish there are 3 big families to separate the verbs?

As if we were talking about the families of Howards, the school of harry potter, verbs in Spanish are also separated by families. 

They are called conjugations and it is very easy to identify which family each verb belongs to. We don't need any magic hat, just we have to see its completion.

The model of conjugation of a verb is the form it will take depending on the family to which it belongs and the verb tense you want to talk about.

There are three conjugations that would be like the types of present in Spanish.

How are verbs conjugated in the present tense?

The first conjugation is that of the verbs that end in -AR.  You know many, right? Talking, singing, walking, strolling... It is the largest family we have in Spanish.

The second conjugation is that of the verbs that end in -ER. It is a slightly smaller family, but we will also have many in the group. For example: read, learn, eat, drink...

and the third conjugation is that of the verbs that end in -IR. It is the smallest group, but that does not make it any less important. 😉 Long live minorities! Ha ha ha.  Here we find verbs as beautiful as live, write, open, exist...

Thus, depending on the conjugation to which each verb belongs, we will form its present.

And when I find a verb already conjugated, how do I know What conjugation model does it belong to?? 

Very easy! Each conjugation has a letter that identifies it. If we continue with the comparison with the story of Harry Potter, it would be like his shield or his flag.

This letter will always be a vowel and we call it “thematic vowel” because the “theme” marks us, the family to which it belongs.

The thematic vowel of verbs ending in -AR is the -A-. For example: QTY- AR.

The thematic vowel of verbs ending in -ER is the -E-. For example: COM- ER.

The thematic vowel of verbs ending in -GO is the -I-. For example: VIV-IR.

Now, when you see a verb in Spanish, you will already know how to choose the correct conjugation model.

Within these three conjugations, in Spanish there are two groups of verbs: regular verbs and irregular verbs.

Next, we are going to see how they are formed and what the difference is between regular and irregular verbs.

Morphology of the present regular

Now that you have a lot of information about the form of verbs, do you dare to discover how we form verbs? regular verbs in Spanish? Let's look at the present tense verb forms with this list of regular verbs.

People	DANCE	LEARN	LIVE
I	danceeither	learn-either	viv-either
You	danceace	learn-is	viv-is
He/She/You	danceto	learn-and	viv-and
We	dancemasters	learn-let's	viv-let's go
You	danceyes	learn-yes	viv-es
They/Them/You	dancean	learn-in	viv-in

Other verbsVery common regulars in the present that you can find are:

• A.R.:sing, talk, listen, explain, look, observe, carry, rent, help, have breakfast.
• E.R.:eat, drink, understand, respond, sell, break, believe, read.
• GO:write, open, upload, discover, exist, interrupt.

Hisway is simple, TRUE?Its main part or root is always the sameandonly the end of each word changes, depending on the person performing the action.

Activities to practice the present regular

Do we practice regular verbs in the present tense with exercises?

Test yourself andcompleteexamples of sentenceswith the correct form of the presentregular in Spanish of each verb:

• In my family everyone __________ (eat, we) paella on Sundays.

• In Hispania the students ____________ (learn, they) a lot of Spanish.

• My teacher __________ (explain, she) grammar very well.

• ___________ (speak, you) Spanish?

• I always ___________ (climb, I) the three flights of stairs in my house.

• Excuse me, do you ___________ (live, you) here?

• You __________ (travel) normally during the summer holidays.

• I always ___________ (wear) jeans in winter, but Paula __________ (wear) dresses and stockings.

• We Valencians really like summer and ___________ (swim, we) on the beach whenever we can.

• My mother loves books and always ___________ (read, her) a little before going to sleep.

Solutions

1. we eat
2. learn
3. explains
4. you talk
5. I go up
6. live
7. you travel
8. I carry – carries
9. we swim
10. read

Irregular Present

When we talk about the form of verbs we differentiate between regular verbs and irregular in Spanish. 

What does this mean? Very simple. 

All verbs are going to change their form according to the person and to time to whom refer, but there is a group of verbs that will also undergo some more changes.

All words that have the ability to change in Spanish are made up of two parts: the lexeme or the root (like the part of the trees that is hidden underground) and the morpheme or termination.

For example, if we mark the root and the morpheme The verb “sing” would look like this: 

QTY (root)– AR(morpheme)

The root or lexeme of the verb gives information about the meaning of the verb. The word “lexeme” reminds us a little of the word “lexicon”, right?  Thanks to it we will understand what the action is.

This part of the word may or may not change, depending on whether it is regular or irregular. in the verbs regular will never change, it will be repeated regardless of the person doing the action.

In our example, the root of the verb “sing” is “CANT.” And if we think about the verb “dance” the root is “BAIL”. 

These two verbs are regular and therefore their stem does not change: I sing, you sing, he sings… 

How logical! TRUE?

For his part, the morpheme of the verb gives information about the person and the time. Thanks to it we will understand who does the action and when they do it.

This part of the words will change every time we need to mark the person who acts, the time in which the action happens and some other things that we will discover together.

And so, what are irregular verbs in the present tense? 

Exactly what you are thinking! we call them verbs of present irregular because he lexeme of the verb also will undergo some changes.

How do you know if a verb is regular or irregular?

Irregular presents in Spanish are classified into 4 groups that will help us control them more quickly:

1. Irregular verbs of vowel change.
2. Irregular verbs of change only in the first person.
3. Irregular verbs with vowel change + change in the first person.
4. Irregular verbs of total change.

Below I show you one list of irregular verbs in Spanish with its 4 types. You'll see how easy they are!

Morphology of the irregular present

Irregular verbs with vowel change

Within this group we find different vowel changes:

• O > EU

• E > IE

• E > I

• U > EU

Something important to keep in mind with these verbs is thatNot all people will experience the change.. US and YOU in verbs conjugated in the irregular present They will never change 😉.

Look, here we leave you some examples of each group. 

1. O > EU → encorenter – encueinside

I encEUinside

you encEUntras

He/she/you encEUntra

we encOrwe enter DOES NOT CHANGE

you encOrcome in DOES NOT CHANGE

They/them/you encEUntran

Other verbs that belong to this group are: power, dream, cost, return, remember, sleep.

Do you dare to combine any?

2. E > IE → whatandlaugh – whiero

I whatI.E.ro

you whatI.E.beef

He/she/you whatI.E.re

we wantEmos DOES NOT CHANGE

you wantHeis DOES NOT CHANGE   

They/them/you whatI.E.ren

Other verbs that belong to this group are: close, prefer, begin, understand, think.

3. E > I →panddir – pido

I pIdo

you pIdes

He/she/you pIof

we pEwe gave DOES NOT CHANGE

you pEsay DOES NOT CHANGE

They/them/you pIden

Other verbs that belong to this group are: laugh, follow, serve, get, repeat, dress.

4. U > EU →jugar – juego

I jEUgo

you jEUgas

He/she/you jEUga

we jufallow deer DOES NOT CHANGE

you jugay DOES NOT CHANGE

They/them/you   jEUgan

In this group 4 There are no more verbs in the present tense. So, this group makes it easy for you to remember.

Irregular verbs of change only in the 1st person singular

Some irregular verbs just have a differentfirst person singular, that is, the"I". In this group there are, for example, the following:

Person	KNOW	KNOW	GIVE	DO
I	HE	know	give	do
You	You know	you know	d-as	you do
He/She/You	know-e	know-e	d-a	does
We	we know	we know	d-amos	we do
You	you know	you know	d-ais	do-you
They/Them/You	know-in	know	d-an	do

Others verbsthat propose this change are:

Be–I'm

Put–put

Bring–I bring

Go out–I'm on my way out

*Take–lame(The verb catch isspecialbecause it is consideredirregular only at the written level, since Spanish needs to adapt the spelling for it to be correct, if we write“cogo”the sound is not correct.

However, from an oral point of view it is considered a regular verb).

Interesting, isn't it?

Verbs irregular vowel change + 1st person singular

This group is like a combo. We include the verbs that contain thetwo irregularitiespreviously seen at the same time:

Person	SAY	HEAR	HAVE	COME
I	SAY	I HEAR	HAVE	COME
You	dYoC-ES	EITHERANDIS	TI.E.N-ES	VI.E.N-ES
He/She/You	dYoEC	EITHERANDAND	TI.E.N-E	VI.E.N-E
We	dandc-mos	o-we went	tandn-emos	vandn- let's go
You	dandc-yes	o-yes	tandn -eis	vandn- yes
They/Them/You	dYoC-EN	EITHERANDIN	TI.E.N-EN	VI.E.N-EN

Verbs totallyirregular 

The verbs that belong to this group have airregularity total, that is, hisinfinitiveand its shapeconjugate themarecompletely different.

Person	GO	BE
I	go	am
You	you go	are
He/She/You	goes	is
We	come on	are
You	you go	you are
They/Them/You	they go	are

Activities to practice irregular present 

Now it's time to practice the form of thepresent irregular with exercises in these example sentences.

• Pepe never __________ (close) the doors when he goes out.

• Sometimes students do not ____________ (understand) their Spanish teacher.

• Rosa, I ______________ (love) you, do you ______________ (want, you) to marry me?

• Do you always ____________ (remember) your friends' birthdays?

• Lately, I __________ (go out) dancing every Friday night.

• My husband ___________ (listen) to the news on the radio every morning.

• I don't _____________ (know) Paula, and you, do you _____________ (know) her?

• This restaurant _____________ (serve) the best bravas in the city.

• I have a hard time sleeping in the summer because of the heat, but Juan always ____________ (sleep) like a baby.

• Do you know where my keys are? I left them on the table last night and today I can't find them.

Solutions

1. close
2. they understand
3. I want – you want
4. do you remember
5. I'm on my way out
6. hey
7. I know – you know
8. serves
9. sleep
10. meeting

Basic uses of the present

Now that you are clear about the present form of regular and irregular verbs in Spanish, and that you surely know how to conjugate it wonderfully, the most important moment has arrived: when do we use the present?

Here we present the uses basic so you can use it whenever you need it:

• 1. The present helps us to talk about actions happening at the current moment, the now. With it we can talk about everything that surrounds us at the moment we are expressing ourselves.

Examples:

I live in Valencia and I have 34 years.

I fancy go to an Italian restaurant because I have I want to eat pizza.

• 2. We use the present tense to talk about habits, actions that we perform or if they repeat with a frequency.

For this use, we have some words or expressions that can help us to express that frequency (always, never, sometimes, every day, in the morning, at night, every day, etc..)

Example: my sister goes to swimming classes every day.

• 3. With the present we can also ask and say the time which is.

Example: what time is? They are 6 p.m..

Remember that when using the verb be in the present, it will only be singular when we say “it's 1”, the other hours They will always be plural “are”.

• 4. Finally, we use the present tense to talk about truths universal, things or actions that do not change, are facts that everyone knows.

Example: sea water is salty and the universe is immense

Now you know the regular and irregular present in Spanish. Brilliant!

How important is this verb tense! Thanks to him we can communicate in Spanish in any context. So, now all you have to do is come to Spain to put it into practice.

Also, if you feel like learning a little more Spanish, you can always enjoy one of our general Spanish courses in Hispania, Spanish school, since we are a center accredited by the Cervantes Institute, with the best teachers. 

You can do them too online, but if you decide to come to Valencia, we would love to meet you.

We are waiting for you! 😉

Article written by Nerea Milan and Maria Palanca for Hispania, Spanish school 

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