The Present Tense

The present tense (el presente) describes what happens now, what happens regularly, and facts that are generally true. One Spanish present-tense form covers three English meanings:

• hablo = I speak (a fact or habit)
• hablo = I am speaking (right now, in most everyday contexts)
• hablo = I do speak (emphatic)

Every Spanish verb ends in -ar, -er or -ir in its infinitive form. To conjugate, you remove that ending to find the stem and add a new ending that shows who is doing the action.

Because the ending already identifies the person, Spanish normally drops the subject pronoun. Hablo español already means I speak Spanish, so you only add yo for emphasis or contrast.

Pronoun	Meaning
yo	I
tú	you (informal)
él / ella / usted	he / she / you (formal)
nosotros/as	we
vosotros/as	you all (informal, Spain)
ellos / ellas / ustedes	they / you all (formal)

Regular verbs follow a fixed pattern. Take the stem and add the ending for the person. The -er and -ir families share every ending except nosotros and vosotros.

Person	hablar (-ar)	comer (-er)	vivir (-ir)
yo	hablo	como	vivo
tú	hablas	comes	vives
él/ella/usted	habla	come	vive
nosotros/as	hablamos	comemos	vivimos
vosotros/as	habláis	coméis	vivís
ellos/ellas/ustedes	hablan	comen	viven

Worked examples:

• Estudio matemáticas en el instituto. — I study maths at school.
• Comemos a las dos. — We eat at two o'clock.
• ¿Dónde vives? — Where do you live?

The endings are the whole tense. Learn the three ending sets and you can conjugate hundreds of regular verbs.

Some verbs change their stem vowel in the present tense. The change happens in every form except nosotros and vosotros — the forms left unchanged sit at the bottom of the table, so these are nicknamed "boot verbs" after the shape they make.

There are four patterns:

Change	pensar (e→ie)	poder (o→ue)	pedir (e→i)	jugar (u→ue)
yo	pienso	puedo	pido	juego
tú	piensas	puedes	pides	juegas
él/ella/usted	piensa	puede	pide	juega
nosotros/as	pensamos	podemos	pedimos	jugamos
vosotros/as	pensáis	podéis	pedís	jugáis
ellos/ellas/ustedes	piensan	pueden	piden	juegan

Other common boot verbs follow the same patterns: encontrar (o→ue: encuentro), querer (e→ie: quiero), dormir (o→ue: duermo), preferir (e→ie: prefiero).

Worked examples:

• No puedo salir esta noche. — I can't go out tonight.
• Prefiero el fútbol. — I prefer football.
• Jugamos al tenis los sábados. — We play tennis on Saturdays.

A handful of very frequent verbs are irregular and must be memorised outright. These five appear in almost every exam answer.

Person	ser (to be)	estar (to be)	ir (to go)	tener (to have)	hacer (to do/make)
yo	soy	estoy	voy	tengo	hago
tú	eres	estás	vas	tienes	haces
él/ella/usted	es	está	va	tiene	hace
nosotros/as	somos	estamos	vamos	tenemos	hacemos
vosotros/as	sois	estáis	vais	tenéis	hacéis
ellos/ellas/ustedes	son	están	van	tienen	hacen

Worked examples:

• Soy de Madrid y estoy cansado. — I am from Madrid and I am tired.
• Tengo quince años. — I am fifteen (literally I have fifteen years).
• Vamos al cine. — We are going to the cinema.

Spanish has two verbs for "to be": ser and estar. They are not interchangeable — a separate lesson explains exactly when to use each.

Many verbs are regular in every form except yo, which ends in -go. Learn the yo form and the rest follows the normal pattern (or the stem-change pattern where one applies).

Infinitive	yo form	Other forms are regular / stem-changing
hacer	hago	haces, hace, hacemos, hacéis, hacen
poner (to put)	pongo	pones, pone, ponemos, ponéis, ponen
salir (to leave)	salgo	sales, sale, salimos, salís, salen
tener (to have)	tengo	tienes, tiene, tenemos, tenéis, tienen
venir (to come)	vengo	vienes, viene, venimos, venís, vienen
decir (to say)	digo	dices, dice, decimos, decís, dicen

A related small group ends in -zco in the yo form: conocer (to know) → conozco, conoces, conoce... .

Worked examples:

• Hago mis deberes por la tarde. — I do my homework in the afternoon.
• Salgo de casa a las ocho. — I leave the house at eight.
• Conozco a tu hermana. — I know your sister.

To stress that something is happening right at this moment, Spanish uses the present continuous: estar + the gerund (the -ing form).

Form the gerund by removing the infinitive ending and adding:

Verb type	Gerund ending	Example
-ar	-ando	hablar → hablando
-er	-iendo	comer → comiendo
-ir	-iendo	vivir → viviendo

Then put estar in front:

• Estoy hablando por teléfono. — I am talking on the phone (right now).
• Estamos comiendo. — We are eating.
• ¿Qué estás haciendo? — What are you doing?

A few gerunds are irregular: leer → leyendo, dormir → durmiendo, pedir → pidiendo, decir → diciendo.

Do not overuse this tense. For habits and routines, Spanish uses the ordinary present: estudio francés (I study French), not estoy estudiando francés unless you mean this very second.

1. Using the present continuous for everything

Estoy jugando al fútbol means I am playing football right now. For "I play football on Saturdays" you need the plain present: Juego al fútbol los sábados. English uses -ing far more freely than Spanish.

2. Adding a subject pronoun to everything

Yo hablo, yo como, yo vivo sounds unnatural. The ending already shows the person, so drop yo unless you are emphasising or contrasting.

3. Applying the stem change to nosotros / vosotros

Poder is puedo but podemos, never puedemos. The stem vowel stays unchanged in the nosotros and vosotros forms.

4. Forgetting the irregular yo form

The yo forms hago, pongo, salgo, tengo and digo are irregular even though the other five forms are regular. Yo haco and yo pono do not exist.

5. Confusing tener with ser for age

Age uses tener: tengo catorce años (I am fourteen). Soy catorce años is wrong — you have years in Spanish.