How do you form the present tense for -ar verbs in Spanish?

In Spanish we change the endings of verbs to show who is doing the action. Each verb has a stem and for regular verbs this never changes. To conjugate (form) a verb in the present tense we take the infinitive form like "hablar", which means "to talk". Then we remove the "-ar" ending to leave us with the stem "habl-". We can then add the present tense ending for the person doing the action. If I wanted to say "I talk" we would add an "-o" to the end which would form "Hablo = I talk". In Spanish there are three forms of infinitives: ending in "-ar", "-er" or "ir". Just looking at "-ar" endings like in "hablar" this is what we do. The "-ar" is removed and replaced with: "-o" for I, "-as" for you singular, "-a" for he/she/it, "-amos" for we, "-áis" for you plural and "-an" for they. This would form "hablo, hablas, habla, hablamos, habláis & hablan" = "I talk, you (singular) talk, he/she/it talks, we talk, you (plural) talk & they talk".

LB
Answered by Lauren B. Spanish tutor

8624 Views

See similar Spanish GCSE tutors

Related Spanish GCSE answers

All answers ▸

Translate the following sentence into Spanish: "I would like to visit Sevilla with my friends, but they want to go to Madrid"


How can I confidently pass my Spanish speaking test?


(From a comprehension piece) what is the percentage of English trade that is with countries that do not speak English?


What is the difference between the preterite tense and the imperfect tense?


We're here to help

contact us iconContact ustelephone icon+44 (0) 203 773 6020
Facebook logoInstagram logoLinkedIn logo

MyTutor is part of the IXL family of brands:

© 2025 by IXL Learning