Regular Present Tense -ar, -er and –ir

Verbs

There are 3 types of regular verbs in Spanish:

verbs that en in –ar, verbs that end in –er, and verbs that end in –ir.

You’ve already learned –ar verbs:

yo hablo nosotros hablamostú hablas vosotros habláisél, ella habla ellos hablan

Now for –er verbs:

To form –er verbs, take off the –er and then add the following endings:

comer (to eat)-o -emos como comemos-es -éis comes coméis-e -en come comen

Notice that the only difference between –er verbs and –ar verbs is that you use e’s instead of a’s:

-ar -er-o -amos -o -emos-as -áis -es -éis-a -an -e -en

Now for –ir verbs. Drop the –ir and add the following endings:

abrir (to open)-o -imos abroabrimos-es -ís abres abrís-e -en abre abren

Do you see what the difference is between –er and –ir verbs? They’re just alike except for the nosotros and vosotros forms:

-er -ir-o -emos -o -imos-es -éis -es -ís-e -en -e -en

So when you’re conjugating verbs, check if the infinitive ends with an –ar, –er, or –ir, so you’ll know what ending to put on it:

HABLAR You talk: hablas we talk:

hablamosCOMER You eat: comes we eat:

comemosABRIR You open: abres we open:

abrimos