The Spanish present tense and stem-changing verbs
The present tense is where every Spanish verb starts: hablo, como, vivo. Regular verbs follow three patterns, for -ar, -er and -ir.
Many common verbs change their stem when it's stressed (quiero, puedo, pido) or have an irregular yo form (hago, tengo, conozco). They follow patterns too, and the lessons take them one group at a time.
The essentials
- -ar: hablo, hablas, habla, hablamos, habláis, hablan. -er and -ir differ only in the nosotros and vosotros forms: comemos, coméis / vivimos, vivís.
- Stem changes e → ie, o → ue and e → i happen in every form except nosotros and vosotros: quiero, queremos.
- Irregular yo forms: hago, pongo, salgo, traigo, conozco. Tener, venir and decir combine both: tengo, tienes.
- Subject pronouns are usually dropped: hablo español, not yo hablo español, unless you want emphasis.
Every lesson on this topic
Each lesson has a full explanation, examples you can listen to, and exercises with answers.
A0 (the A0 course)
- Subject pronouns: yo, tú, él, ella…: yo, tú, él, ella, usted, nosotros/as, vosotros/as, ellos/as, ustedes; dropping the pronoun
A1 (the A1 course)
- Present tense of -ar verbs (hablar): Hablo, hablas, habla… the pattern for most Spanish verbs.
- Present tense of -er and -ir verbs (comer, vivir): Como, comes, come… vivo, vives, vive: two groups that differ only in two forms.
- Stem-changing verbs e → ie (querer, empezar): Quiero, quieres… queremos: the e becomes ie when it is stressed.
- Stem-changing verbs o → ue, u → ue (poder, jugar): Puedo, duermo, cuesta, juego: o and u become ue in the boot forms.
- Stem-changing verbs e → i (pedir, repetir): Pido, repites, sirve: some -ir verbs change e to i in the boot forms.
- Irregular yo forms: hago, pongo, salgo, traigo, conozco: Verbs that are regular except in the yo form: hago, pongo, salgo, conozco.
- Tener, venir, decir: irregular in two ways: Tengo, vengo, digo: an irregular yo form plus a stem change.
In the app, these lessons are taught one idea at a time with audio, practised with questions that explain the rule when you slip, and brought back for review on later days.
Other topics
- Ser vs estar, explained
- Por vs para, explained
- Preterite vs imperfect, explained
- The Spanish subjunctive, explained
- Gustar and verbs like it, explained
- Spanish reflexive verbs, explained
- Spanish object pronouns, explained
- Spanish commands (the imperative), explained
- Spanish future and conditional, explained
- Spanish perfect tenses: he hablado, había hablado and more
- Tú vs usted (and vosotros vs ustedes), explained
- Spanish articles, gender and agreement, explained
- Spanish pronunciation and accent marks, explained