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Spanish Present Tense — Regular Verbs

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The three verb families (-ar, -er, -ir) and the endings that let you conjugate any regular verb.

Three families, three sets of endings

Regular Spanish verbs end in -ar, -er or -ir. Each family has its own set of endings. Once you know the endings, you can conjugate any regular verb you meet.

-ar verbs: hablar (to speak)

hablo, hablas, habla, hablamos, habláis, hablan — I speak, you speak, he/she speaks, we speak, you all speak, they speak. The -o for "I" and -a/-an for he/she/they are the endings to notice first.

-er and -ir verbs: comer (to eat), vivir (to live)

como, comes, come, comemos, coméis, comen and vivo, vives, vive, vivimos, vivís, viven. The only difference between -er and -ir shows in "we" and "you all": comemos vs vivimos, coméis vs vivís.

Why this matters

The subject pronoun is optional in Spanish — hablo already means "I speak", so yo hablo is used only for emphasis. Learners over-use yo; native speakers drop it unless contrasting: Yo hablo, tú escuchas (I speak, you listen).

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