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Chapter 2 of 5

Regular -ER and -IR Verbs

The -ER verbs share an almost identical pattern with -IR verbs. Their shared endings are: -o (yo), -es (tú), -e (él/ella), and -en (ellos). The only difference lies in the nosotros and vosotros forms: -ER uses -emos and -éis, while -IR uses -imos and -ís. For example, comer (to eat) becomes como, comes, come, comemos, coméis, comen, while vivir (to live) becomes vivo, vives, vive, vivimos, vivís, viven.

Common -ER verbs covered in this deck include beber (to drink), aprender (to learn), vender (to sell), leer (to read), creer (to believe), correr (to run), comprender (to understand), deber (ought to/owe), and meter (to put in). Their forms are entirely predictable: bebo, bebes, bebe, bebemos, bebéis, beben; aprendo, aprendes, aprende, aprendemos, aprendéis, aprenden; vendo, vendes, vende, vendemos, vendéis, venden; and so on for each verb. Notice that leer keeps the double e in the yo form: leo, lees, lee, leemos, leéis, leen.

The -IR verbs introduced here are escribir (to write), recibir (to receive), abrir (to open), subir (to go up), decidir (to decide), descubrir (to discover), and permitir (to allow). Their forms follow the same template: escribo, escribes, escribe, escribimos, escribís, escriben; recibo, recibes, recibe, recibimos, recibís, reciben; abro, abres, abre, abrimos, abrís, abren. Once the pattern is internalized, learners can produce more than fifteen regular verbs across both families without hesitation.

All chapters
  1. 1Foundations of the Present Tense and Regular -AR Verbs
  2. 2Regular -ER and -IR Verbs
  3. 3Essential Irregular Verbs
  4. 4Stem-Changing Verbs
  5. 5Tricky Distinctions and Special Constructions

Drill it

Reading is not remembering. These come from the Spanish Present Tense Top 100 Verbs deck:

Q

Conjugate <b>hablar</b> (to speak) in the present tense — all six forms.

yo hablo &nbsp;|&nbsp; tú hablas &nbsp;|&nbsp; él/ella hablanosotros hablamos &nbsp;|&nbsp; vosotros habláis &nbsp;|&nbsp; ellos hablan

Q

Conjugate <b>trabajar</b> (to work) in the present tense — all six forms.

yo trabajo &nbsp;|&nbsp; tú trabajas &nbsp;|&nbsp; él/ella trabajanosotros trabajamos &nbsp;|&nbsp; vosotros trabajáis &nbsp;|&nbsp; ellos trabajan

Q

Conjugate <b>estudiar</b> (to study) in the present tense — all six forms.

yo estudio &nbsp;|&nbsp; tú estudias &nbsp;|&nbsp; él/ella estudianosotros estudiamos &nbsp;|&nbsp; vosotros estudiáis &nbsp;|&nbsp; ellos estudian

Q

Conjugate <b>comprar</b> (to buy) in the present tense — all six forms.

yo compro &nbsp;|&nbsp; tú compras &nbsp;|&nbsp; él/ella compranosotros compramos &nbsp;|&nbsp; vosotros compráis &nbsp;|&nbsp; ellos compran