Regular Present Tense, -ar Verbs

Regular Present Tense, -ar
Verbs
Infinitive Verbs
All verbs have an infinitive form. In Spanish, infinitive forms end in -ar, -er, or -ir. The
infinitive always means "to do something."
hablar - to speak
comer - to eat
vivir - to live
In order to make a verb agree with the subject of the sentence, it must be conjugated.
Regular Verbs
For most Spanish verbs, there is a consistent conjugation pattern. These verbs are
considered to be “regular” verbs. This is very important because once you learn the
pattern, you are well on your way to mastery of Spanish verbs in general.
Remember that verb charts are typically used to teach conjugations. Each box refers to
a particular subject. Take a look again at which subjects belong to each box.
yo nosotros, nosotras
tú vosotros, vosotras
él, ella, usted (Ud.) ellos, ellas, ustedes (Uds.)
The -ar Verb Conjugation
In order to conjugate an -ar verb in the present tense, you must remove the -ar ending.
What you have left is called the verb stem. Then simply add on the appropriate ending
according to the subject.
-o -amos
-as -áis
-a -an
For example:
In the case of the regular -ar verb hablar, take off the -ar to get the verb stem habl.
Then, simply add the ending that agrees with the subject of the sentence.
To say "I speak," look to the top left box to find the ending (-o) and then add it to the
verb stem.
habl + o = hablo Yo hablo. I speak.
To say "she speaks," look to the bottom left box to find the ending (-a) and then add it to
the verb stem.
habl + a = habla Ella habla. She speaks.
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Let’s look at all the present tense conjugations for hablar:
Regular Present Tense, -ar
Verbs
yo hablo nosotros/nosotras hablamos
tú hablas vosotros/vosotras habláis
él/ella/usted habla ellos/ellas hablan
The Present Tense
The Present Tense in Spanish is usually used to talk about an action that is happening
now, but it can also mean two slightly different things.
In the case of the verb hablar, it can mean:
yo hablo I speak
yo hablo I am speaking
yo hablo I do speak
Note: Since the verb changes to match the subject of the sentence, it is possible to
leave the subject pronoun out of the sentence entirely. In fact, it is very common among
native speakers.
For example, instead of saying yo hablo (I speak) you can just say hablo.
-AR Verbs © 2012 Middlebury Interactive Languages. Page 2