1. Spanish verbs in –er/ir
How to conjugate Spanish –er
& -ir verbs

2. What is a verb?
Verbs are words that describe actions.
Like the commercial says, verbs are “what
you do”. They are either “irregular verbs”
like ser and tener which you have already
learned , or “regular verbs” like verbs that
end in –ar, -er, -ir.
Verbs can either be in the infinitive form or
the conjugated form. The infinitive form is
the raw form of the verb, all English
infinitives start with “to”.

3. Why do we conjugate?
However, you can not use the infinitive form in a
sentence:
I to learn Spanish.
What’s wrong with the above sentence?
TO CONJUGATE A VERB YOU CHANGE, OR
CONJUGATE, THE VERB TO MATCH A GIVEN
SUBJECT:
I learn Spanish/ I am learning Spanish

4. How do we conjugate a verb?
 Spanish infinitives typically end in either –ar, -ir or –er .
When we conjugate a regular Spanish verb we divide
the verb into 2 parts, a stem and an ending take off the
last two letters and add different ones.
Yo aprender español.= I to learn Spanish
Yo aprendo español= I learn or am learning
Spanish
We took the -er off the end and added the
letter o….now the sentence make sense.

5. Many Spanish verbs ending in –ir
& -er follow a regular pattern that is
almost identical
The verb aprender (to learn) is conjugated below.
You have to memorize the fact that verbs ending in –ir &
-er in the infinitive follow the “normal” pattern of
conjugation, meaning you can just take the ending off
the infinitive and add the following endings to the stem:
aprender (to learn)
yo aprendo nosotros/as aprend emos
tú aprendes vosotros/as aprend éis
él/ella/Ud. aprende ellos/ellas/Uds. aprenden

6. What are the differences in
conjugation?
aprender (to learn) escribir (to write)
yo aprendo yo escribo
tú aprendes tú escribes
él/elle/ud. aprende él/elle/ud. escribe
nosotros aprendemos nosotros escribimos
Vosotros aprendéis vosotros escribís
ellos/ellas uds aprenden ellos/ellas uds escriben

7. Common –er &-ir verbs
On page 109 of your textbook common some of
these verbs are listed. Try to guess which verb
fits in the following sentences and change them
to match the subject:
El ____________ un mensaje.
Nosotros ______________café en la cafetería.
Ellas ___________________el pizza todos los
días.
Ud._____________________unas buenas notas.

8. Practice makes Perfect!
The only way to learn verb conjugations is to practice
often, much like you would to learn a piece of music.
The link below brings to an excellent website where you
can practice all Spanish verbs, and gives you helpful
comparisons to English verbs:
http://www.conjuguemos.com