Purpose

By the end of this lesson, you will be able to conjugate the most essential irregular present-tense verbs, building on the regular and stem-changing patterns from Part 1.

Lesson Explanation

Building on the three regular conjugation groups and stem-changing patterns from Part 1, Lesson 4, this lesson covers the handful of extremely frequent, genuinely irregular verbs that must be memorized individually.

Ir (to go), one of the most irregular verbs, sharing almost no resemblance to its infinitive: voy, vas, va, vamos, vais, van. This verb is essential because it forms the near-future construction: Voy a estudiar. (I’m going to study.)

Ser and estar (Part 1, Lesson 3) were already covered; here we add haber (to have, in the auxiliary sense — genuinely distinct from tener, which means “to have/possess”): the present-tense form used constantly is hay (there is/there are, an invariant impersonal form): Hay un libro en la mesa. (There is a book on the table.)

Tener (to have, possess): tengo, tienes, tiene, tenemos, tenéis, tienen — combines with several nouns in idiomatic expressions where English uses “to be” plus an adjective: tener hambre (to be hungry), tener miedo (to be afraid), tener razón (to be right).

Saber (to know facts/information) and conocer (to know/be familiar with people or places) are both irregular only in the yo form (sé and conozco respectively) — and represent a genuinely important meaning distinction with no single English equivalent: Sé la respuesta. (I know the answer — fact) versus Conozco a María. (I know María — familiarity, note the personal “a” from Part 1, Lesson 6).

Practice Questions