Spanish Regular Verb Groups.
7
Minutes
(It won’t kill you!)
5 great things about Spanish grammar
Learning a language can be a long and frustrating process. However,…
The origins of the Spanish Language
This grammar class aims to give you a clear introduction to regular Spanish verbs.
But first…
What have the Romans ever done for us?
The Spanish language is one of several languages derived from Latin, the language of ancient Roman and its empire. In terms of grammar and vocabulary, Spanish has a lot in common with its sister languages, which include Portuguese, French, and Italian.
These Latin-based languages tend to be more ‘structured’ than English, so there are more grammar rules and fewer exceptions. This is great for language learners. However, when you are a native English speaker it can take some time to get used to Spanish grammar, particularly when it comes to conjugation, which is what we’ll take you through in this class.
Spanish Verb Conjugation
In Spanish the verb endings for each tense change to match the person who is the subject of the verb. This is called conjugation.
Now, conjugation would be an absolute nightmare if each and every verb followed its own pattern. Luckily, however, the Spanish language likes order and conformity, so most verbs are regular and follow the same pattern.
Well, actually they follow THREE patterns, as Spanish has THREE types of regular verbs.
The Regular Spanish Verb Groups
Here are the three groups of regular Spanish verbs:
AR verbs
Verbs whose infinitive form ends in AR
IR verbs
Verbs whose infinitive form ends in IR
ER verbs
Yep, you guessed it, this group is made up of verbs whose infinitive form ends in ER
When we talk about ‘regular‘ verbs in Spanish we mean verbs which follow the rules of one of these three groups.
Let’s look at the groups one by one.
Spanish AR verbs
We’ll use the verb ‘hablar‘ (to speak) as a model and look at how to conjugate AR verbs for three of the most common Spanish tenses:
| Person | Presente de indicativo (For the present) |
Pretérito (For the past) |
Futuro (For the future) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Yo | hablo | hablé | hablaré |
| Tú | hablas | hablaste | hablarás |
| Él / Ella / Usted | habla | habló | hablará |
| Nosotros | hablamos | hablamos | hablaremos |
| Vosotros | habláis | hablasteis | hablaréis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hablan | hablaron | hablarán |
These verb endings will be exactly the same for ALL other regular AR verbs.
You can find out more about these three tenses in our dedicated grammar classes: Presente de indicativo, pretérito and futuro.
Common AR verbs
AR verbs are the biggest group of verbs in Spanish and include:
- hablar – to speak
- visitar – to visit
- comprar – to buy
Spanish ER verbs
Let’s see how to conjugate ‘comer‘ (to eat), which serves as a model for all ER verbs:
| Person | Presente de indicativo | Pretérito | Futuro |
|---|---|---|---|
| Yo | como | comí | comeré |
| Tú | comes | comiste | comerás |
| Él / Ella / Usted | come | comió | comerá |
| Nosotros | comemos | comimos | comeremos |
| Vosotros | coméis | comisteis | comeréis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | comen | comieron | comerán |
Notice how the future tense of ER verbs is formed in the same way as the future tense of AR verbs? Likewise, the Pretérito is the same as for IR verbs, which we’ll see below.
Common ER verbs
- comer – to eat
- beber – to drink
- vender – to sell
Spanish IR verbs
The third and final group. Here’s the verb ‘vivir‘ (to live):
| Person | Presente de indicativo | Pretérito | Futuro |
|---|---|---|---|
| Yo | vivo | viví | viviré |
| Tú | vives | viviste | vivirás |
| Él / Ella / Usted | vive | vivió | vivirá |
| Nosotros | vivimos | vivimos | viviremos |
| Vosotros | vivís | vivisteis | viviréis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | viven | vivieron | vivirán |
Common IR verbs
- vivir – to live
- recibir – to receive
- discutir – to argue
Our Basic Spanish Course
If you’re serious about learning Spanish, but don’t want to spend any money, then take a look at our Basic Spanish Course. Written by an experienced, bilingual Spanish teacher, it’s a practical, hands-on course which aims to cover the basics as quickly and painlessly as possible.
