UNIT FOUR

Present tense of some

common irregular verbs
Not all verbs follow the same pattern as those explained in Unit 3 and unfortunately there is no short cut –
you simply have to learn these as you come across them. Many of these verbs are in common use, so you will
soon become familiar with them.

Here are some of the most common irregular verbs. They are set out in the six persons explained in Unit 3:
The following verbs are only irregular in the first person singular, and after that they follow the same pattern
as regular verbs:

dar to give doy, das, da, damos, etc.

hacer to make/to do hago, haces, hace, etc.
poner to put pongo, pones, pone, etc.
saber* to know sé, sabes, sabe, etc.
conocer* to know conozco, conoces, conoce, etc.

*The difference between these two verbs is explained later in this unit.
Other verbs ending in -cer and -cir follow the same pattern as conocer in the first person singular:

e.g. parecer (to seem) parezco

conducir (to drive) conduzco
traducir (to translate) traduzco
producir (to produce) produzco

This is not an exhaustive list of irregular verbs, but they are some of the most common ones that you will want
to use from the beginning of your study of Spanish. Other irregular verbs will be pointed out as they occur.
ser and estar

These two verbs meaning ‘to be’ have quite distinct uses in Spanish, some of which are obvious and some of
which are less so to the non-native speaker. They will be dealt with in greater depth in a later unit, but for the
moment we will look at some of the most basic differences between them that you will need to be aware of
from an early stage.
ser is used to express permanent characteristics of a person or object:
saber and conocer