As you already know, there are three verbs conjugations in Spanish (1st -ar, 2nd -er, 3rd -ir) and looking at the ending of each verb will help you know what person is doing the action and in which tense.

Some verbs follow all the same pattern, they keep the same root or stem and  add the same ending for the different persons and tenses.

These type of verbs are called “REGULAR VERBS”

Here you have some examples in Present Simpre:

COMPRAR, infinitive form:   Compr (root or stem) – ar (ending)     1st conjugation.
yo compro
tú compras
él, ella compra
nosotros compramos
vosotros compráis
ellos, ellas compran.

BEBER, infinitive form:  Beb (root or stem) – er(ending)     2nd conjugation
yo bebo
tú  bebes
él, ella bebe
nosotros bebemos
vosotros bebéis
ellos, ellas beben

SUBIR, infinitive form: Sub (root or stem) -ir (ending)    3rd conjugation
yo subo
tú  subes
él, ella sube
nosotros subimos
vosotros subís
ellos, ellas suben

These is a list of very common regular verbs:

• bajar (to step down), sumar (to add up), trabajar (to work), escuchar (to listen)….
• aprender (to learn), correr (to run), leer (to read), vender (to sell)….
• abrir (to open), recibir (to received), escribir (to write), vivir (to live)….

There are other type of verbs that  don´t follow these patterns. They either change the root, the endings or both. These kind of verbs are called “IRREGULAR VERBS”.
You´ll find lots of tips to learn the irregular verbs on different grammar books and you might feel confused at the beginning. My advice is “don’t get too stressed about it”. Use them, go over them everyday, do your exercises and slowly, slowly you’ll learn them.

In my next posts I’ll talk about some very important irregular verbs: ser, estar, hacer.