Common Spanish irregular verbs in the present tense

How it works

Understand the pattern

Some verbs have a special yo form but regular or mostly regular remaining forms: hacer becomes hago, poner becomes pongo, saber becomes sé and conocer becomes conozco. Learning the yo form as part of the verb prevents later confusion.

Stem-changing verbs alter the stressed vowel in most forms but usually not in nosotros or vosotros: puedo but podemos, quiero but queremos. Ser, ir and haber have highly distinctive forms and are best learned as complete sets.

The essentials

Three rules that clear up the confusion

1. 1

   Group irregular verbs by pattern: special yo, vowel change, spelling change or fully irregular forms.

2. 2

   For common stem-changing verbs, expect the change outside nosotros and vosotros in the present tense.

3. 3

   Memorize high-frequency short verbs such as ser, ir and haber as complete paradigms.

Compare

Examples in complete sentences

Common mistakes

What to check before you answer

• 1

  Do not extend a stem change into nosotros automatically: podemos, not puedemos.

• 2

  A special yo form does not prove that every form is irregular in the same way; compare conozco and conoces.