Spanish verbs are a complex area of Spanish grammar, with many combinations of tenses, aspects and moods (up to fifty conjugated forms per verb). While conjugation rules are relatively straightforward, a large number of verbs are irregular. Among these, some fall into more-or-less defined deviant patterns, while others are uniquely irregular. This article tries to summarize the common irregular patterns. This article is about the international language known as Spanish. ... Image File history File links Please see the file description page for further information. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Note: This page contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ... Note: This page or section contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ... Note: This page contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ... Spanish (Español) is a language originating in North-Central Spain which is spoken throughout Spain, most countries in the Americas, the Philippines and Equatorial Guinea. ... This article does not cite its references or sources. ... The Spanish language has nouns that express concrete objects, groups and classes of objects, qualities, feelings and other abstractions. ... The Spanish language has a range of pronouns that in some ways work quite differently from English ones. ... The Spanish language uses adjectives in a similar way to English and most other Indo-European languages. ... The Spanish language has a relatively large number of prepositions. ... Spanish verbs are one of the most complex areas of Spanish grammar. ... Main article: Spanish verbs This is a paradigm of Spanish verbs, that is, a set of conjugation tables, for the model regular verbs and for some of the most common irregular verbs (see the article on Spanish irregular verbs for common patterns of irregularity that may help understanding this paradigm). ... Spanish verbs are one of the most complex areas of Spanish grammar. ... Spanish (Español) is a language originating in North-Central Spain which is spoken throughout Spain, most countries in the Americas, the Philippines and Equatorial Guinea. ... In linguistics, conjugation is the creation of derived forms of a verb from its principal parts by inflection (regular alteration according to rules of grammar). ... It has been suggested that Regular verb be merged into this article or section. ...

Vowel-alternating verbs

Vowel-alternating verbs, also known as stem-changing verbs, have two stems; one is the common infinitive stem (the one that serves to conjugate regular verbs) and the other derives from it by a vowel change. The change turns e into ie and o into ue when the syllable in question is stressed, which in effect happens only in the singular persons and third-person plural of the present indicative, present subjunctive, and present imperative. (Note that the dictionary form always has the vowel, not the diphthong, since in the infinitive form the stress is on the last syllable, i.e. on the thematic vowel.) This article is in need of attention. ... In grammar, infinitive is the name for certain verb forms that exist in many languages. ... A regular verb is a verb whose conjugation can be predicted given a few verb forms (principal parts) and a few rules. ... In phonetics, a diphthong (also gliding vowel) (Greek δίφθογγος, diphthongos, literally with two sounds, or with two tones) is a monosyllabic vowel combination involving a quick but smooth movement from one vowel to another, often interpreted by listeners as a single vowel sound or phoneme. ...

For example (only some persons and tenses, for contrasting purposes):

• acertar → yo acierto, él acierta, nosotros acertamos, ellos aciertan; que yo acierte; yo acerté, él acertó...
• soldar → yo sueldo, él suelda, nosotros soldamos, ellos sueldan; que yo suelde; yo soldé, él soldó...
• perder → yo pierdo, él pierde, nosotros perdemos, ellos pierden; que yo pierda; yo perdí, él perdió...
• mentir → yo miento, él miente, nosotros mentimos, ellos mienten; que yo mienta; yo mentí, él mintió...
• apostar → yo apuesto, él apuesta, nosotros apostamos, ellos apuestan; que yo apueste; yo aposté, él apostó...
• moler → yo muelo, él muele, nosotros molemos, ellos muelen; que yo muela; yo molí, él molió...

To complicate matters further, vowel-alternating verbs in the third conjugation (-ir) furthermore change e to i and o to u in certain unstressed cases — the third person singular and plural of the present subjunctive (and imperative, when the subjunctive is used as the imperative) and the second and third persons plural of the preterite:

• mentir → que yo mienta, que él mienta, que nosotros mintamos; yo mentí, él mintió, nosotros mentimos...
• concebir → yo concibo, él concibe, nosotros concebimos; yo concebí, él concibió...

In some dialects, the second-person singular present tense is different, and gets stressed on the last syllable instead of the root, so the alternation does not take place: tú pides becomes vos pedís, tú mueres becomes vos morís. See Voseo for details. Countries that feature voseo. ...

Many verbs with e or o in the root do not alternate (e.g. meter, comer, etc.), and they are often a source of mistakes for children learning to speak, and also for some adults.

• rebosar → *yo rebueso, *él rebuesa... instead of yo reboso, él rebosa...

G-verbs

The so-called G-verbs (sometimes "yo-go" verbs) add a medial -g- in the first person singular, present tense (-ig- when the root ends in a vowel). Many of these verbs are also irregular in other ways. For example:

poner: yo pongo, tú pones...

tener: yo tengo, tú tienes...

caer: yo caigo, tú caes...

traer: yo traigo, tú traes...

oír: yo oigo, tú oyes...

Anomalous stems

Some verbs (including most G-verbs) have a completely different stem in the preterite. This stem is anomalous also because it is stressed in some persons (while in all other cases the preterite gets the stress over the suffix). The preterite (also praeterite, in American English also preterit, or past historic) is the grammatical tense expressing actions which took place in the past. ...

poner → pus-: yo puse, tú pusiste, él puso, nosotros pusimos...

estar → estuv-: yo estuve, tú estuviste, él estuvo, nosotros estuvimos...

hacer → hic-, hiz-: yo hice, tú hiciste, él hizo, nosotros hicimos...

andar → anduv-: yo anduve, tú anduviste, él anduvo, nosotros anduvimos...

decir → dij-: yo dije, tú dijiste, él dijo, nosotros dijimos...

tener → tuv-: yo tuve, tú tuviste, él tuvo, nosotros tuvimos...

Some verbs also change their stem in the future and conditional tenses:

tener → tendr-: yo tendré, tú tendrás, él tendrá...

hacer → har-: yo haré, tú harás, él hará...

decir → dir-: yo diré, tú dirás, él dirá...

haber → habr-: yo habré, tú habrás, él habrá...

Yet some other verbs take several different (but phonetically related) stems, in the most irregular fashion:

caber: yo quepo, tú cabes, él cabe...; yo cupe, tú cupiste, él cupo...

saber: yo sé, tú sabes...; yo supe, tú supiste...; yo sabía, tú sabías...; yo sepa, tú sepas

haber: yo he, tú has, él ha, nosotros hemos, vosotros habéis, ellos han

Others

The verbs 'ser' (to be) and 'ir' (to go) both exhibit irregularities in the present, imperfect and preterite tenses. The present tense is the tense (form of a verb) that is often used to express: Action at the present time A state of being A habitual action An occurrence in the near future An action that occurred in the past and continues up to the present There are two... The imperfect tense, in the classical grammar of several Indo-European languages, denotes a past tense with an imperfective aspect. ... This article is about the grammatical term. ...

Present indicative tense

Imperfect indicative

Preterite