Regular Present Tense

-er and –ir

Verbs
There are three types of regular verbs in
Spanish: verbs that end in –ar, verbs that end in
–er, and verbs that end in –ir. You’ve already
learned –ar verbs:

yo hablo nosotros hablamos

tú hablas vosotros habláis
él, 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 abro abrimos
-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 the only difference between –ar verbs
and –er verbs is that you use e’s instead
of a’s in the –er verbs. And the only
difference between –er verbs and –ir verbs
is the nosotros and vosotros forms.
 So when you’re conjugating verbs, be sure you
know if the infinitive (the form ending in –ar or –
er or -ir; e.g., hablar and comer and abrir are
infinitives) ends with an –ar, –er, or –ir so you’ll
know what ending to put on it:

You talk: hablas HABLAR we talk: hablamos

You eat: comes COMER we eat: comemos
You open: abres ABRIR we open: abrimos
 Click here to go to the drill.

Click here to go to your homework.