How do you conjugate regular AR, IR and ER verbs in the present tense?

Firstly, it is important to understand that for any verb conjugation there are six different persons. These are the first, second and third person singluars and their plural forms. In English, these are: I, you, he/she/it, we, you all and they.

Now that you know the different persons, we can form regular verbs in the present tense. In Spanish, the infinitive (in English put 'to' infront of the verb to form the infinitive e.g. to eat) of all verbs end in either AR, IR or ER. Let's begin with verbs ending in AR and let's take hablar (to speak) as an example. The verb is conjugated below:

I speak - hablo

You speak - ​hablas

He/she/it speaks - habl​a

​We speak - hablamos

You all speak - hablais ​(accent required on the a of ais)

They speak - hablan

​Notice that the AR has been removed each time and a new ending has been added to conjugate the verb. An easy way to remember this is by creating a simple rhyme of the endings o, as, a, amos,ais, an.

Now on to IR verbs. Let's use the verb vivir (to live) as an example to show the process.

I live - Viv​o

You live - Vives

He/she/it lives- Vive

​We live - Vivimos

​You all live - Vivis (accent required on the i of is)

​They live - Viven

So the process is again similar, remove the IR and add o, es, e, imos, is and en. This will work for any regular verb ending in IR in the present tense.

Finally, on to verbs ending in ER. You will find that these endings are very similar to IR verbs but slightly diferent. Let's use the verb comer (to eat).

I eat - Como

You eat - Comes

He/she/it eats - Come

We eat - Comemos

You all eat - Comeis ​(accent required on the e of eis)

They eat - Comen

​So the ER is once again removed and o, es, e, emos, eis and en are add to the verb to conjugate it with respect to the person doing the action.

So that is how you conjugate regular AR, IR and ER verbs in the present tense. Howver be careful! Some verbs are irregular in the present which means that this formula will not work. Examples include Ir (to go), Ser (to be) and Jugar (to play).

Answered by Robbie T. Spanish tutor

29269 Views

See similar Spanish GCSE tutors

Related Spanish GCSE answers

All answers ▸

How do accents (tildes) work in Spanish?


¿Cuáles son los peligros de fumar para la salud?


How do you conjugate -ar verbs in the imperfect tense


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


We're here to help

contact us iconContact usWhatsapp logoMessage us on Whatsapptelephone icon+44 (0) 203 773 6020
Facebook logoInstagram logoLinkedIn logo
Cookie Preferences