Present tense conjugation of –er and –ir verbs

-ER & -IR Verbs-ER & -IR VerbsThere are three types of

verbs in Spanish: –AR, –ER, and –IR.

-ER and –IR verbs are often studied together because all of their endings (except nosotros) are identical.

-ER endings-ER endingsThe endings for regular

-ER verbs are the same as for –AR verbs, except that the vowel is E instead of A!

yo - otú - esél, ella, ud-. enosotros - emosellos, ustedes - en

Let‘s Compare-ar verb hablarYo habloTú hablasÉlElla hablaUstedNosotros hablamosEllos/ellasUstedes hablan

-er verb comer Como Comes

Come

Comemos

comen

BEBERBEBERLet’s look at an example, the verb BEBER, which means “to drink.” It ends in –ER, so is an –ER verb.

BEBERBEBERThe verb can be split

into two parts:The base: BEB-The infinitive ending: - -ER

BEBERBEBER

Now let’s say “I drink.”Start with the base:

BEB-When you talk about

yourself, add –O, just as you did for the –AR verbs.

Yo bebo

BEBERBEBERNow let’s talk about

you. When the subject is tú, you add –ES because it is an –ER verb.

Tú bebes

BEBERBEBER

él bebeella bebeusted bebenosotros bebemosellos bebenellas bebenUds. beben

Here are the rest of the conjugations for theverb beber:

LEER, COMPRENDERLEER, COMPRENDER

Miguel ______ (leer) filosofía pero no la ________ (comprender) muy bien.

leelee

comprende

Don’t forget that the base of leer is le-, so there is a double –e on the él form.

Yo creo

Ellos escondenThey hide

Ella respond

e

Él rompeHe breaks

She answers

They runEllos corren

You (familiar) learnTú aprendes

Ella vende

Yo comprendo

Common –er verbsaprenderbebercomercometercomprendercorrercreerdeberesconder

to learnto drinkto eatto committo understand,comprehendto runto believeto owe, shouldto hide

leermeterresponderrompersuspendervender

to readto putto answer,

respondto breakto suspendto sell

What about the –IR What about the –IR Verbs?Verbs?

Well, take a look for yourself. Can you find the one difference?beber vivirbebo vivobebes vivesbebe vivebebemos vivimosbeben viven

That’s right!That’s right!The endings are identical except for the nosotros form:

Regular Present TenseRegular Present Tense

To summarize, here are the endings for the three verb conjugations:-AR -ER -IR-o -o -o-as -es -es-a -e -e-amos –emos –imos-an -en -en

Let’s PracticeLet’s Practice

> ESCRIBIRYo _______ muchas

cartas, pero mi hermana no _____ cartas.

escribo

escribe

Él__________(abrir) la puerta.

Ella __________(unir) las rompecabezas(puzzles).

abre

une

Ellos discuten.

She covers.

They argue.

Ella cubre.

I attend.

Usted decide.

Yo asisto.

Formal

Nosotros existimos.

He goes up.

Él sube.

RECIBIR, DEBERRECIBIR, DEBER

Cuando yo _______ (recibir) una carta, _______ (deber) leerla [read it].

recibo

debo

Note there was no change in subject, so “yo” was understood to be the subject for both verbs. It was not necessary to repeat “yo.”

VIVIR, CORRERVIVIR, CORRER

Nosotros ________ (vivir) cerca de [near] un parque y ________ (correr) allí [there] por la mañana.

vivimos

corremos

Don’t Forget “ir”It is highly irregular and does not follow the regular conjugation.

Common –ir verbsabriradmitirasistircubrirdecidirdescribirdescubrirdiscutir

to opento admitto attendto coverto decideto describeto discoverto argue or discuss

escribirexistirpermitirrecibirsubirsufrirunirvivir

to writeto existto permit, allowto receiveto climbto sufferto unite, jointo live