In order to unlock the present Spanish tense herewith you should:
a) understand types of verbs: whether a verb is regular/irregular, ar/er/ir, reflexive/non reflexive,
b) learn how to conjugate the present tense in a video and written format,
c) practice with our free interactive online exercises.
a) Understanding types of verbs
In order to unlock the present Spanish tense you should first understand the different types of verbs you need to recognise in order to conjugate the verbs correctly in any tense. You can read the types of verbs post and watch a video (click here) where we explain the types of verbs you need to know before start learning any Spanish tense.
Most of the Spanish verbs are regular verbs. As you may know, regular verbs follow a pattern.
We can not detect if a verb is regular or irregular, we can only know if it is or isn’t regular for the tense we are about to conjugate. Please note, a regular verb in the present verb may not be regular in other tenses.
In order to conjugate the present tense, we also need to know if the verb is an “-ar”, “-er” or “-ir” verb. How do we know? only if we know how the infinitive tense ends (“-ar”, “-er” or “-ir”).
b) Learning how to conjugate the present tense
Regular conjugation of the Spanish present tense
This video is our online free lesson on how to conjugate the present irregular verbs:
If we want to conjugate a verb, like “Hablar”, for example, you only need to remove the ending of the infinitive and add the correct ending as shown in the picture on the left.
For example, if you want to say “you talk” you have to conjugate the verb “hablar” (to talk). First, you have to remove “-ar” from the infinitive “hablar”, we will get “habl-“. Then we have to add the correct ending, which is “+as”. Therefore, “you talk” will be “tú hablas”.
Herewith you can see three regular verbs conjugated in the present tense. You may try to work them out yourself following the endings pattern.
c) Practice with these free online exercises
You can practice with these exercises on the right if you already learnt the present tense.
If you have our workbook you can do the exercises on pages 6, 7, 8 and 9.
If you have this workbook you can do the exercises on pages 36 and 37.
If you have this workbook you can do the exercises on page 88.
If you have this book you can do exercises on page 88.
Irregular present Spanish verbs
Unfortunatelly, there are many irregulars in the present tense. Dividing the irregular verbs in different sets helps to learn them.
- Type 1: They behave as regular verbs, but all the persons excepting “nosotros” and “vosotros” change one of the vowels when they conjugate. There are 4 different tipical changes as stated in the exhibit.
- Type 2: They behave as regular verbs, but the first person is irregular.
- Type 3: They behave as regular verbs, but all the persons excepting “nosotros” and “vosotros” change one of the vowels when they conjugate. There are 4 different tipical changes. The first person is also irregular.
- Type 4: They are totally irregular.
Please read the following post (click here) to study each irregular type in detail.
As detailed in our post about types of verbs (clic here to read it), regular and irregular verbs can also be reflexive or no reflexive. Please go to the reflexive verbs section (click here) in order to learn more about them.
There are many exercises, summary charts and flashcards about reflexive verbs and the present tense in general in our book, which you can order through amazon here (paperback) or here (online version) or read it for free in Amazon. It is very affordable in order to offer a good resource to practice already printed and organised. This is the link to the paperback version:
And the link to the ebook is the following:
