Regular Verbs in the Present Tense

Regular verbs are called regular verbs because they follow predictable patterns. The pattern that a verb follows depends on the last two letters of the infinitive form of the verb. Verbs that end in - ar are the most common and most predictable, so they are presented first. To conjugate an - ar verb follow these two steps:

1. Remove the - ar ending from the infinitive. What is left is called the base of the verb.

2. Place the base of the verb in front of the endings on the chart from Table 1 .
   

   TABLE 1 Regular -ar Verb Endings Singular pronoun Ending Plural pronoun Ending yo -o nosotros or nosotras -amos tú -as vosotros or vosotras -áis él -a ellos -an ella -a ellas -an usted ( Ud.) -a ustedes ( Uds.) -an

The verb hablar (to speak) is a nice, regular - ar verb, so it will serve as a good example of the aforementioned steps to making a conjugation chart. Table 2 is the conjugation chart for the verb hablar in the present tense. It is created by the same steps mentioned previously.

1. Remove the - ar ending from the infinitive. What is left is called the base of the verb: habl

2. Place the base of the verb in front of the endings shown in Table 2 .

The second most common type of verbs end in - er. To conjugate a regular - er verb, you use the same two-step process as you did with - ar verbs, but the endings are different for - er verbs. The patterns of - er verbs are very similar to - ir verbs, which will make it easy to learn their endings. So if you want to conjugate a regular - er verb, simply remove the - er ending from the infinitive and place the base of the verb in front of the endings presented in Table 3 .

Now, take a look at Table 4 for the conjugated form of the verb comer (to eat).

The third type of verbs are called - ir verbs. In the present tense a verb that ends in - ir will be conjugated the same as an - er verb in all forms except for two. In Table 5 , you will notice that only the ending used for the nosotros/ nosotras (the first person plural) and the ending for the vosotros/vosotras (the second person plural) form of the verb is different for - ir verbs.

Escribir (to write) was one of the - ir verbs presented earlier as an infinitive. The forms of the verb escribir in Table 6 will serve as an example for any regular - ir verb.

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