Present tense: regular -ar verbs

What you’ll learn

• Find an -ar verb's stem.
• Use present endings with familiar subjects.
• Make a sentence negative with no.

Build the present tense

An infinitive such as hablar names an action without a particular subject. Remove -ar to get the stem habl-, then add the ending for the person: hablo, hablas, habla, hablamos, habláis, hablan. The endings correspond to yo; tú; él/ella/usted; nosotros/nosotras; vosotros/vosotras; and ellos/ellas/ustedes.

The same regular pattern works with estudiar, trabajar and comprar. Say the subject and verb together until the ending becomes familiar. Yo estudio and nosotros estudiamos describe different subjects; the subject pronoun can then be omitted when the context is clear. Keep irregular verbs in a separate group rather than forcing them into this pattern.

Say when and say no

The present can describe a routine or an action understood to be happening now: Trabajo los lunes describes a habit. A time expression gives useful context. Spanish does not require an auxiliary equivalent to English do in an ordinary present-tense statement or question.

Place no directly before the conjugated verb to make a basic sentence negative: No trabajo hoy. With an explicit subject, say Yo no trabajo hoy. Do not conjugate the infinitive after another conjugated verb such as necesitar: Necesito estudiar has one conjugated verb and one infinitive. You will build more verb combinations later.

Useful vocabulary

hablar

to speak

estudiar

to study

trabajar

to work

Common mistakes

• Use the person's ending rather than leaving the verb in the infinitive.
• Do not add an English-style do to an ordinary Spanish question.
• Put no before the conjugated verb in a simple negative statement.

Keep these ideas

• Remove -ar and add the subject's present ending.
• The present describes habits as well as contextually current actions.
• No before the verb makes a basic negative sentence.

Use it in your life

Write three sentences about a story character's routine using estudiar, trabajar and comprar. Make one negative.

Read it in context

Look for this lesson’s ideas in a complete Spanish story. Read the passage first, then use its translations to check your understanding.