Purpose

By the end of this lesson, you will be able to conjugate the three essential irregular verbs “tener,” “ir,” and “hacer” in the present tense.

Lesson Explanation

Not every Spanish verb follows the regular patterns from the last two lessons. Three of the most frequently used verbs are genuinely irregular and must be memorized individually.

tener (to have):

tengo, tienes, tiene, tenemos, tenéis, tienen

Note the irregular yo form tengo, and the e → ie stem change in most other forms — but not in nosotros/vosotros, which stay regular.

ir (to go) — one of the most irregular verbs in Spanish, sharing almost no resemblance to its infinitive:

voy, vas, va, vamos, vais, van

hacer (to do/make):

hago, haces, hace, hacemos, hacéis, hacen

Only the yo form (hago) is irregular here — every other form follows the regular -er pattern from the previous lesson.

These three verbs are genuinely essential because of how often they combine with other words: tener is used for age (tengo 20 años) and obligation (tener que + infinitive = “to have to”), while ir is the foundation of the near-future construction covered in Part 3, Lesson 5.

Practice Questions