Topic:
Some of the most common verbs in Spanish are irregular. We will start with these four...
Many Common Verbs are Irregular
We will begin with tener, which means to have.
Present tense conjugation of tener
Uses of tener
Let's see a few examples with tener.
- Tengo muchos libros. (I have lots of books.)
- Tienes que decidir. (You have to decide.)
- Mi hija tiene quince años. (My daughter is 15 years old.)
- Tenemos hambre. (We are hungry.)
As you can see, some of these meanings are worded differently from the English versions.
The use of tener que to mean to have to is fairly straightforward once you know it.
Expressing age with tener
¿Cuántos años tienes? (How old are you?)
Tengo treinta años. (I am 30 years old.)
So in Spanish you "have" a number of years instead of "being" a particular age.
Idiomatic expressions with tener
Some expressions where English uses to be plus an adjective are instead expressed in Spanish with tener plus a noun.
In Spanish, you don't say that you are hungry. Instead, you have hunger.
Common phrases of this type:
- Tener hambre (To be hungry)
- Tener sed (To be thirsty)
- Tener frío (To be cold)
- Tener calor (To be hot)
- Tener prisa (To be in a hurry)
- Tener razón (To be right)
Present tense conjugation of ir, which means to go
The forms of ir are pretty easy to remember. Four of the forms are the letter "v" followed by a normal -ar verb ending.
Never mind that ir looks nothing like an -ar verb!
Él va al restaurante todos los miércoles. (He goes to the restaurant every Wednesday.)
Ir + a + infinitive means going to
Now that you can conjugate the verb ir, you can use it to talk about things in the future, even though we have not yet studied the future tense.
If you use a form of Ir followed by a plus an infinitive verb, it works the same as when we say going to in English.
For example, Voy a comprar el libro means I am going to buy the book.
Or, Va a mirar la televisión is He is going to watch TV.
This handy shortcut for talking about the future is easy to remember because it works so similarly to English.
Just remember that the second verb needs to be in its infinitive form, not conjugated.
The verb dar, which means to give
The conjugation of dar is the same as ir, with just a different starting letter.
Present tense conjugation of dar
A veces le damos dinero a la escuela. (Sometimes we give money to the school.)
Darse cuenta means to realize.
This is a good place to mention a common idiomatic usage of dar.
We haven't talked explicitly about reflexive forms of verbs yet, but you have seen them in many exercises already.
When dar is used in its reflexive form (darse), it often appears with the noun cuenta, like this:
¿Te das cuenta que él te ama?
(Do you realize that he loves you?)
A literal translation of the phrase would be Do you give yourself account that he loves you?
In any event, this is how you say to realize in Spanish.
Don't be fooled by the "false friend" of realizar which means to carry out or to fulfill instead.
The last verb in this lesson is ver, meaning to see.
Present tense conjugation of ver
Ellos ven que yo tengo razón. (They see that I am right.)
The exercises for this lesson will let you practice just the present tense forms of these four irregular verbs. So, carry on!
On to the Exercises and the Quiz
To practice the verb forms in this lesson, click Practice Exercises below.
Whenever you want, you can take the quiz for this lesson.
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