Grammar Guide
How Spanish Verbs Work
Cómo funcionan los verbos
Three verb families
Drop the -ar, -er, or -ir from the infinitive and you're left with the stem. Add the right ending for the subject you mean, and that's the present tense. These three verbs are all completely regular — they follow their family's pattern exactly.
-ar verbs
hablar
to speak
- Yohablo
- Túhablas
- Él / Ellahabla
- Nosotroshablamos
- Elloshablan
-er verbs
comer
to eat
- Yocomo
- Túcomes
- Él / Ellacome
- Nosotroscomemos
- Elloscomen
-ir verbs
vivir
to live
- Yovivo
- Túvives
- Él / Ellavive
- Nosotrosvivimos
- Ellosviven
Notice -er and -ir verbs share almost every ending — they only differ in the "we" form (nosotros): -emos for -er verbs, -imos for -ir verbs.
What makes a verb irregular
An irregular verb breaks the regular pattern somewhere. Most "irregular" verbs aren't random — they fall into a handful of predictable groups.
Stem-changing verbs
The endings stay regular, but the last vowel of the stem changes in every form except "we" (nosotros). The three patterns are e→ie, o→ue, and e→i.
pensarto think
e → ie
Yo pienso
contarto count
o → ue
Yo cuento
pedirto ask
e → i
Yo pido
Spelling-change verbs
The verb is grammatically regular, but Spanish spelling rules force a change so the sound stays the same. These usually only show up in the "I" (yo) form of the past tense — buscar's "busqué", not the incorrect "buscé".
buscarto look for
c → qu before é (past tense)
Yo busco
llegarto arrive
g → gu before é (past tense)
Yo llego
escogerto choose
g → j before o/a (present tense)
Yo escojo
Fully irregular verbs
A small set of very common verbs don't follow any pattern at all and are usually the first ones worth memorizing directly — you'll use them constantly.
Try it yourself
Look up any verb to see its full conjugation table — regular or irregular — across eight tenses, with an example sentence for every form.
Open the Verb Lookup →Verbs are only one piece of a sentence. See how Spanish sentences work for word order, pronouns, and agreement.