Spanish irregular verbs
Categories: Spanish language | Grammars of specific languages
Spanish verbs are a complex area of Spanish grammar, with many combinations of tenses, aspects and moods (up to fifty conjugated forms per verb). While conjugation rules are relatively straightforward, a large number of verbs are irregular. Among these, some fall into more-or-less defined deviant patterns, while others are uniquely irregular. This article tries to summarize the common irregular patterns.
Vowel-alternating verbs
Vowel-alternating verbs have two stems; one is the common infinitive stem (the one that serves to conjugate regular verbs) and the other derives from it by a vowel change. The change turns e into ie and o into ue when the syllable in question is stressed, which in effect happens only in the singular persons of the present tense.¹ (Note that the dictionary form always has the vowel, not the diphthong, since in the infinitive form the stress is on the last syllable, i. e. on the thematic vowel.)
For example (only some persons and tenses, for contrasting purposes):
- acertar → yo acierto, él acierta, nosotros acertamos; yo acerté, él acertó...
- soldar → yo sueldo, él suelda, nosotros soldamos; yo soldé, él soldó...
- perder → yo pierdo, él pierde, nosotros perdemos; yo perdí, él perdió...
- mentir → yo miento, él miente, nosotros mentimos; yo mentí, él mintió...
- apostar → yo apuesto, él apuesta, nosotros apostamos; yo aposté, él apostó...
- moler → yo muelo, él muele, nosotros molemos; yo molí, él molió...
To complicate matters further, a number of verbs in the second and third conjugations show a slightly different irregularity, whereby e also changes to i, and o also changes to u, also when stressed, and only in some persons and tenses:
- poder → yo puedo, él puede, nosotros podemos; yo pude, él pudo, nosotros pudimos...
- concebir → yo concibo, él concibe, nosotros concebimos; yo concebí, él concibió...
- morir → yo muero, él muere, nosotros morimos; yo morí, él murió...
¹ In some dialects, the second person singular present tense is different, and gets stressed on the last syllable instead of the root, so the alternation does not take place: instead of tú pides becomes vos podés, tú mueres becomes vos morís. See the article on voseo for details.
A lot of verbs with e or o in the root do not alternate (e. g. meter, comer, etc.), and they are often a source of mistakes for children learning to speak, and also for some adults. It is common to find alternated forms like yo aprieto where the verb (apretar) in fact does not alternate, and unalternated (regularized) forms like yo colo where the verb alternates (colar → yo cuelo).
G-verbs
The so-called G-verbs add a medial -g- in the first person singular, present tense (-ig- when the root ends in a vowel). Many of these verbs are also irregular in other ways. For example:
- poner: yo pongo, tú pones...
- tener: yo tengo, tú tienes...
- caer: yo caigo, tú caes...
- traer: yo traigo, tú traes...
- oír: yo oigo, tú oyes...
Anomalous stems
Some verbs (including most G-verbs) have a completely different stem in the preterite. This stem is anomalous also because it is stressed in some persons (while in all other cases the preterite gets the stress over the suffix).
- poner → pus-: yo puse, tú pusiste, él puso, nosotros pusimos...
- tener → tuv-: yo tuve, tú tuviste, él tuvo, nosotros tuvimos...
- hacer → hic-, hiz-: yo hice, tú hiciste, él hizo, nosotros hicimos...
- decir → dij-: yo dije, tú dijiste, él dijo, nosotros dijimos...
Yet some other verbs take several different (but phonetically related) stems, in the most irregular fashion:
- caber: yo quepo, tú cabes, él cabe...; yo cupe, tú cupiste, él cupo...; yo cabía, tú cabías...
- saber: yo sé, tú sabes...; yo supe, tú supiste...; yo sabía, tú sabías...
- haber: yo he, tú has, él ha, nosotros hemos, vosotros habéis, ellos han