Present Tense – Higher Spanish SQA Revision

Regular Verbs in the Present Tense (Verbos Regulares en el Presente)

Spanish regular verbs fall into three categories based on their infinitive endings: -ar, -er, -ir. For instance, hablar (to speak), beber (to drink) and vivir (to live).
To conjugate -ar verbs, remove the infinitive ending (-ar) and add the appropriate endings: o, as, a, amos, áis, an. For example, hablo, hablas, habla, hablamos, habláis, hablan.
To conjugate -er verbs, the respective endings are: o, es, e, emos, éis, en. For example, bebo, bebes, bebe, bebemos, bebéis, beben.
To conjugate -ir verbs, use: o, es, e, imos, ís, en. For example, vivo, vives, vive, vivimos, vivís, viven.

Spanish irregular verbs do not follow the regular conjugation patterns. Some may have vowel changes, some may require a change in the stem, and some may not fit any pattern at all.
An example of an irregular verb includes ser (to be), which becomes soy, eres, es, somos, sois, son.
Another example is ir (to go), becoming voy, vas, va, vamos, vais, van.
The verb estar (to be) changes to estoy, estás, está, estamos, estáis, están.

Some verbs in Spanish are known as stem-changing verbs due to a vowel change in the verb stem, such as preferir (to prefer), dormir (to sleep), or entender (to understand).
Preferir becomes prefiero, prefieres, prefiere, preferimos, preferís, prefieren, with the e in the stem changing to ie.
Dormir becomes duermo, duermes, duerme, dormimos, dormís, duermen, with the o in the stem changing to ue.
Entender becomes entiendo, entiendes, entiende, entendemos, entendéis, entienden, again with the e in the stem changing to ie.

The present tense in Spanish is used to talk about habits, routines, actions taking place now, general facts, and future plans.
“Yo trabajo en un banco” (I work in a bank), “Ella come fruta todos los días” (She eats fruit every day), “¿Vas al cine esta noche?” (Are you going to the cinema tonight?), “El sol sale por el este” (The sun rises in the east), and “Mañana comemos con mis padres” (Tomorrow we are eating with my parents) are all examples of the different uses of the present tense.