Welcome to our grammar lesson about the Spanish Present Tense.
The Present Tense of the Indicative Mood (“El Presente del Indicativo”) is the first verb tense everyone learns on a Spanish course. We use the Present mostly to state facts and to talk about habitual actions and events.
Although many verbs are regular in Present Tense, there is also a big amount of irregular verbs: that is the challenging part about this tense. Luckily, the irregulars can be grouped into different types.
In this lesson we will learn all about the Spanish Present Tense, both the conjugation of verbs and its use, providing example sentences. At the end you’ll find a Quiz and Exercises for practice.
Contents
1. Conjugation of Verbs in Spanish Present Tense
About Regular and Irregular Verbs
There are 3 types of verbs in Spanish, depending on how their Infinitive form ends:
- Verbs ending in “-ar”, such as “hablar”.
- Verbs ending in “-er”, such as “comer”.
- Verbs ending in “-ir”, such as “vivir”.
Unfortunately, knowing the ending of a verb’s Infinitive doesn’t tell us if it’s Regular or Irregular in Present Tense. Indeed, there are Regular and Irregular Verbs for all 3 types. That means we need to learn, for each specific verb, whether it is Regular or Irregular.
Regular Verbs – Forms and Endings
If a verb happens to be Regular in Present Tense, the steps to conjugate it are simple:
- Remove the “-ar”, “-er,” “-ir” at the end of the Infinitive form, leaving only the stem.
- Attach an ending to that stem. The endings are presented in the following table.
| Hablar | Beber | Partir | |
|---|---|---|---|
| yo | hablo | bebo | parto |
| tú | hablas | bebes | partes |
| él | habla | bebe | parte |
| nosotros | hablamos | bebemos | partimos |
| vosotros | habláis | bebéis | partís |
| ellos | hablan | beben | parten |
Notice that… the endings for verbs in “-er” and “-ir” are the same, except for the persons “nosotros” and “vosotros”.
Irregular Verbs – 4 types
There are many verbs which are Irregular in Present Tense. We will subdivide them into 4 types.
The good news is that the endings we learned in the table above still apply for almost all Irregular Verbs. However, the stem presents some small change for some of the persons.
The 4 types of irregulars are:
Type 1 – Verbs for which the “yo” form is special, but the others are regular
For this type of irregular, the “yo” form has something that makes it different, but the rest are completely regular.
Examples:
| Conducir | conduzco, conduces, conduce, conducimos, conducís, conducen |
| Conocer | conozco, conoces, conoce, conocemos, conocéis, conocen |
| Dar | doy, das, da, damos, dais, dan |
| Hacer | hago, haces, hace, hacemos, hacéis, hacen |
| Salir | salgo, sales, sale, salimos, salís, salen |
| Traer | traigo, traes, trae, traemos, traéis, traen |
| Ver | veo, ves, ve, vemos, veis, ven |
Type 2 – Verbs for which there is a spelling change in the stem for most of the persons
The spelling change is a small vocalic change in the stem. For example, a letter “e” becomes “ie”, a letter “o” becomes “ue”, etc…
However, pay attention: The irregularity does not exist for persons “nosotros” and “vosotros”.
The vocalic change can be one of the following, depending on the specific verb:
“e” (or less frequently “i”) becomes “ie”
Examples:
| Adquirir | adquiero, adquieres, adquiere, adquirimos, adquirís, adquieren |
| Cerrar | cierro, cierras, cierra, cerramos, cerráis, cierran |
| Pensar | pienso, piensas, piensa, pensamos, pensáis, piensan |
| Querer | quiero, quieres, quiere, queremos, queréis, quieren |
“o” (or less frequently “u”) becomes “ue”
Examples:
| Contar | cuento, cuentas, cuenta, contamos, contáis, cuentan |
| Jugar | juego, juegas, juega, jugamos, jugáis, juegan |
| Poder | puedo, puedes, puede, podemos, podéis, pueden |
| Soñar | sueño, sueñas, sueña, soñamos, soñáis, sueñan |
“e” becomes “ “i”
Examples:
| Pedir | pido, pides, pide, pedimos, pedís, piden |
| Repetir | repito, repites, repite, repetimos, repetís, repiten |
| Servir | sirvo, sirves, sirve, servimos, servís, sirven |
Type 3 – Verbs for which the “yo” form is special AND there is also a spelling change in the stem for most of the other persons
This third type is like a mix of the previous two: The “yo” form is special, and most of the other persons present a vocalic change in the stem of the kinds we just learned.
Once again, the irregularity doesn’t exist for persons “nosotros” and “vosotros”.
Examples:
| Decir | digo, dices, dice, decimos, decís, dicen |
| Tener | tengo, tienes, tiene, tenemos, tenéis, tienen |
| Venir | vengo, vienes, viene, venimos, venís, vienen |
Type 4 – A few Very Irregular Verbs
Here we must include the very important verbs “ser” and “ir”, which are very irregular and don’t fit into any of the previous categories.
Also, the verb “estar”, which is peculiar because of the many accent marks it presents.
Finally, the verb “oler” (to smell). It follows the “o → ue” pattern, but also, for most of the persons a letter “h” appears at the beginning.
| Estar | estoy, estás, está, estamos, estáis, están |
| Ir | voy, vas, va, vamos, vais, van |
| Oler | huelo, hueles, huele, olemos, oléis, huelen |
| Ser | soy, eres, es, somos, sois, son |
2. Uses of the Spanish Present Tense
Let’s study the main uses of the Present Tense, providing example sentences:
Stating facts
When stating facts of life, nature, culture… we use the Present Tense:
La Tierra gira alrededor del Sol.
The Earth rotates around the Sun.En Argentina se habla español.
They speak Spanish in Argentina.Los pájaros vuelan.
Birds fly.
Habitual actions or events
We use the Present Tense to talk about things that happen all the time or in a regular fashion:
Yo hago la compra dos veces por semana.
I do the shopping twice a week.Mis padres trabajan en la misma oficina.
My parents work at the same office.Todos los veranos viajamos a Latinoamérica.
We travel to Latin America every summer.
Things happening at the moment
Although there is another tense in Spanish called Present Progressive which is generally better for this, we can also use the Present Tense to express what is happening right now:
¿Qué haces?
What are you doing?Lavo los platos.
I’m washing the dishes.¿Qué hace Ana?
What is Ana doing?Baila con un chico.
She dances with a boy.
Things that will happen in the near future
Again, there are other Spanish tenses more fitting for this, such as the Future Tense or the future with “ir a” + infinitive. However, sometimes we use the Present Tense, particularly if the action takes place in the near future:
Mañana como en casa de mi abuela.
I’ll eat at my grandmother’s tomorrow.El mes que viene empezamos un curso de español.
Next month we’ll begin a Spanish course.
Ordering / Asking for
It is very common in restaurants to order in the form of a question expressed in Present Tense.
For example, to express “I’d have a beer, please”, we tend to say the translation of: “Do you put me a beer, please”?:
¿Me pone una cerveza, por favor?
I’d have a beer, please. (Do you put me a beer, please?)¿Nos trae la carta, por favor?
Could you bring us the menu, please?¿Me enseña ese reloj, por favor?
Could you show me that watch, please?
Conditions
When talking about hypothetical situations, we can express a condition in Present Tense, introduced by “si…”.
Si quieres, podemos jugar al tenis.
If you want, we can play tennis.Iré al museo si tengo tiempo.
I’ll go to the museum if I have time.
3. Practice the Spanish Present Tense
Quiz
Take this short Quiz about the Present Tense!:
Exercise 1
Now we are going to practice the first two uses of the Present Tense that we have learned in this lesson. In this first exercise, we state facts. Fill the gaps in your mind or on a piece of paper using the Present Tense, then check the solutions below:
El Cairo ______ 1.(estar) en Egipto.
Normalmente, los árboles ______ 2.(ser) más altos que los arbustos.
Las plantas ______ 3.(hacer) la fotosíntesis.
La velocidad de la luz ______ 4.(ser) de 300.000 kilómetros por segundo.
España ______ 5.(tener) más de 45 millones de habitantes.
Las tiendas de Zara ______ 6.(vender) ropa de hombre y de mujer.
Nosotros ______ 7.(ser) personas.
Solutions: 1 = está, 2 = son, 3 = hacen, 4 = es, 5 = tiene, 6 = venden, 7 = somos
Exercise 2
This exercise is about the second use of the Present Tense explained in this lesson: habitual actions and events.
What do these people do on Fridays? Fill the gaps in your mind or on a piece of paper using the Present Tense, then check the solutions below:
¿Qué _____ 1.(hacer) estas personas los viernes?
El niño ______ 2.(estudiar) para los exámenes de la escuela.
El joven ______3.(jugar) al tenis con un amigo suyo.
La mujer morena ______ 4.(trabajar) en la oficina.
La chica rubia ______5.(ir) al gimnasio y _____ 6.(hacer) ejercicio.
Los dos jóvenes ______7.(bailar) salsa.
Solutions: 1 = hacen, 2 = estudia, 3 = juega, 4 = trabaja, 5 = va, 6 = hace, 7 = bailan
