Present Tense: Regular -er and -ir Verbs

In Spanish, verbs are action words. To know who is doing the action, we change the ending of the verb. This is called conjugation.

Regular -er and -ir verbs follow a very predictable pattern, which is great news! They are almost identical.

How to Conjugate

1. Start with the infinitive (the basic form of the verb), like comer (to eat) or vivir (to live).
2. Drop the -er or -ir ending to find the stem. For comer, the stem is com-. For vivir, the stem is viv-.
3. Add the correct ending based on the subject.

Regular -ER Verb Endings (Example: comer)

• yo (-o) -> como (I eat)
• tú (-es) -> comes (you eat)
• él/ella/usted (-e) -> come (he/she/you eat)
• nosotros/as (-emos) -> comemos (we eat)
• vosotros/as (-éis) -> coméis (you all eat)
• ellos/ellas/ustedes (-en) -> comen (they/you all eat)

Regular -IR Verb Endings (Example: vivir)

Notice how similar these are to -er verbs! Only nosotros and vosotros are different.

• yo (-o) -> vivo (I live)
• tú (-es) -> vives (you live)
• él/ella/usted (-e) -> vive (he/she/you live)
• nosotros/as (-imos) -> vivimos (we live) <-- Different!
• vosotros/as (-ís) -> vivís (you all live) <-- Different!
• ellos/ellas/ustedes (-en) -> viven (they/you all live)

By learning these two simple patterns, you can understand thousands of verbs in Spanish!