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Regular Verbs

We have already seen the present tense conjugations of two Spanish verbs, llamarse and tener. However, both of these verbs are irregular verbs. Luckily, most verbs follow an easy to understand conjugation scheme.

In Spanish, the conjugation depends on what the last two letters of the infinitive are. The infinitive form is the form that is given in the dictionary. An example of an English verb in the infinitive might be to run or to speak. Spanish verbs in the infinitive end with "-ar", "-er" or "-ir" (first, second and third conjugation respectively). To conjugate them, remove the ending ("-ir", "-er" or "-ar") and add the desired suffix.

Unlike English, Spanish verbs conjugate depending on the person; That is, they change depending on who is being talked about. This occurs in English in the third person singular (highlighted below) but in Spanish this occurs for every person. As a result, pronouns are usually omitted because they can be inferred from the conjugation.

The pronouns

The Present Tense in English

The Present Tense in Spanish

More examples

• Llorar ("to cry"): lloro, lloras, llora, lloramos, lloráis, lloran
• Cocinar ("to cook"): cocino, cocinas, cocina, cocinamos, cocináis, cocinan

• Comer ("to eat"): como, comes, come, comemos, coméis, comen
• Leer ("to read"): leo, lees, lee, leemos, leéis, leen

• Vivir ("to live"): vivo, vives, vive, vivimos, vivís, viven
• Cubrir ("to cover"): cubro, cubres, cubre, cubrimos, cubrís, cubren

Notes

• There are many more "-ar" verbs than "-er" or "-ir". Make sure you are most familiar with these endings.
• The second person plural is highlighted because that tense is only used in the variety of Spanish used in Spain. In other Spanish dialects the third person plural form is used instead.
• When reading texts, you will need to know the person of the verb at a glance. Notice the pattern:
  1. "O" denotes I
  2. "S" denotes You
  3. A vowel that is not "O" denotes He/She/It
  4. "MOS" denotes We
  5. "IS" denotes You All
  6. "N" denotes They

Go to the exercises.