Spanish irregular verbs: the essential list, patterns and a routine

The present tense: reference table

The six forms are, in order: yo, tú, él / ella / usted, nosotros, vosotros, ellos / ellas / ustedes.

Accents matter: sé (I know) is not se (a pronoun), and está, estás, están carry an accent that changes the stress. Dais, veis and sois have none.

The hidden patterns

A list of irregular verbs looks endless. Grouped into families, it becomes a handful of rules.

1. Boot verbs (stem changes). The stressed vowel of the stem changes in four forms, yo, tú, él, ellos, but not in nosotros and vosotros. Drawn on a conjugation grid, the changed forms make the shape of a boot. Three types: e to ie (querer, pensar, empezar, preferir, entender), o to ue (poder, dormir, volver, encontrar; and jugar, the only u to ue), e to i (pedir, repetir, servir, seguir).
2. -go verbs. The yo form ends in -go: tengo, vengo, hago, pongo, salgo, digo, traigo, caigo, oigo. Tener, venir and decir are also boot verbs in the other forms.
3. -zco verbs. Most verbs ending in a vowel + -cer or -cir take -zco in the yo form: conozco, parezco, conduzco, traduzco. The rest is regular.
4. The truly irregular. Only ser and ir are unpredictable throughout; estar, dar, ver and saber are irregular mainly in the yo form.

In Latin America, vosotros is not used: ustedes covers every plural “you”. In Argentina, Uruguay and much of Central America, vos replaces tú, with its own forms and no stem change: vos tenés, vos podés, vos sos. Teach the Spain model, and mention vos so pupils recognise it.

The preterite: irregular stems

The preterite (pretérito indefinido) is where GCSE pupils lose most marks. Here are the key irregular verbs in full.

1. One set of endings for the special stems. Verbs like tener, hacer or decir share the endings -e, -iste, -o, -imos, -isteis, -ieron, with no accents: tuve, hizo, never “tuvé” or “hizó”.
2. After j, -eron. dijeron, trajeron, condujeron, not “dijieron”.
3. Ser and ir are identical. Fui means both “I was” and “I went”; the context decides. Fui al cine (I went), Fue increíble (it was).
4. No accent on one-syllable forms. fui, fue, dio, vio. “Fué” and “dió” are old spellings, now wrong.
5. -ir stem changers change in the third person. pidió, pidieron; durmió, durmieron. The present-tense boot does not carry over to -ar and -er verbs: jugué, jugó.
6. Spelling changes in the yo form. Verbs in -car, -gar and -zar change to keep the sound: busqué, jugué, empecé.

Past participles and the subjunctive

For the perfect tense (he hecho, has visto), learn the irregular participles: hecho (done), dicho (said), visto (seen), puesto (put), escrito (written), vuelto (returned), abierto (opened), roto (broken), muerto (died).

At B2, the present subjunctive is built on the yo form of the present, which is why the -go and -zco verbs matter so much: tengo gives tenga, conozco gives conozca. Only six verbs escape the rule: ser (sea), ir (vaya), estar (esté), dar (dé), saber (sepa), haber (haya).

Typical mistakes of English-speaking learners

• Regularising: “yo teno”, “yo sabo”, “yo hacio”. The yo form is where most irregularity hides.
• Boots in the wrong place: “nosotros podemos” is right; “nosotros puedemos” is not.
• Accents on irregular preterites: “tuvó”, “hizó”, “dió”.
• Mixed stems: “hació” for hizo, “dijieron” for dijeron.
• Ser and ir confused in the preterite: pupils hesitate over fue. Show them the same form in two sentences.
• Ser and estar: both mean “to be”, and both are irregular: soy and estoy need learning side by side.

Strategies that make verbs stick

• Learn by family, not by list. One boot drawing, one -go group, one set of preterite endings.
• Start with the yo form. It is the most irregular, the most useful for GCSE speaking, and the key to the subjunctive.
• Chant and change. Say the six forms aloud, then only the odd ones out.
• Little and often. Five minutes a day beats a one-hour test once a term.

In class: a daily verb wheel

A quick conjugation routine at the start of each lesson gives dozens of retrievals of the same verbs across a term.

1. Spin a wheel of verbs, or draw a card: today it is tener.
2. The class conjugates it aloud, person by person: tengo, tienes, tiene…
3. Reveal each form after the class has said it. Pupils mark the forms they got wrong.
4. Ask one pupil for a sentence with the hardest form: Tenemos clase de música.
5. Revisit yesterday’s verb in a different person, to space the practice.

This is exactly what a daily routine does: one verb a day, conjugated in full, corrected on the spot.

Adapting to your class

• A1Present of ser, tener, ir, hacer, singular persons first.
• A2All persons of the present, with boot verbs and -go verbs.
• B1The preterite: fui, tuve, hice, dije.
• B2The present subjunctive: que tenga, que vaya, que sepa.

At KS2, a few chunks such as tengo, me llamo and voy are enough. At KS3, build the present tense families. At GCSE, the preterite of the top ten verbs is non-negotiable.

Frequently asked questions