Are you looking to understand -AR verbs in Spanish? Do you want a quick review to learn how to conjugate them? Are you curious about the most common irregular Spanish verbs ending in -AR? You’ve come to the right place.
In this article, we’ll briefly explain how Spanish verbs work and then move on to regular -AR verbs. We’ll cover the most common Spanish verbs ending in -AR and how they are conjugated in the most common tenses. Finally, we’ll look at some irregular -AR verbs in Spanish.
Let’s dive in!
How Spanish verbs work
As you may know, the infinitive form of Spanish verbs ends either in “-AR,” “-ER,” or “-IR.” The first part of the verb is called a stem (for example, the “llam” in the verb “llamar” or to call) and always stays the same as long as the verb is regular. The endings (-AR, -ER, and -IR) change when conjugating the verb depending on the person—the one who performs the action the verb conveys—and the tense—the time the action occurred.
While in English, the verb only changes by adding an ‘s’ for he, she, and it, in Spanish, each person can be different. Luckily, most verbs follow the same conjugation rules. We’ll look at these below and then focus on those pesky irregularities.
Regular -AR verbs in Spanish
In this section, we’ll cover the conjugations for regular -AR verbs in Spanish for the basic tenses in the indicative mood (i.e., the mood used to talk about reality). If you need more information, you can take a peek at this complete guide to Spanish moods and tenses.
We’ll start with a list of common -AR verbs in Spanish to expand your vocabulary and then look at the presente (present), pretérito imperfecto (imperfect preterite, a form of the past tense), pretérito perfecto (perfect preterite, another form of the past tense) and futuro (future) tenses.
Common regular -AR verbs in Spanish
Here are 27 of the most common -AR verbs you will use in Spanish:
- Hablar (to speak/talk)
- Llamar (to call/name)
- Mirar (to look)
- Escuchar (to listen/hear)
- Cambiar (to change)
- Usar (to use)
- Comprar (to buy)
- Viajar (to travel)
- Amar (to love)
- Ayudar (to help)
- Ganar (to win/earn)
- Disfrutar (to enjoy)
- Gustar (to like)
- Mirar (to look)
- Arreglar (to fix/arrange)
- Tomar (to take/drink)
- Preparar (to prepare)
- Entrar (to enter)
- Dejar (to leave)
- Pasar (to pass)
- Necesitar (to need)
- Desayunar (to have breakfast)
- Almorzar (to have lunch)
- Cenar (to have dinner)
- Nadar (to swim)
- Preguntar (to ask)
- Quedar (to stay/remain)
Present tense for -AR verbs in Spanish
Now that we have an idea of the verbs that fall into this category, let’s start with the present tense in the indicative mood. This tense is used to talk about habits or things in general.
We’ll use the verb hablar (to speak/talk) as an example for this one, but all regular -AR verbs in Spanish are conjugated the same in every tense.
| Subject | Ending | Hablar |
| Yo (I) | -o | hablo |
| Tu (You) Vos (Latin America) | -as-ás | hablas hablás |
| Usted (You, formal) El/Ella (He/She/It) | -a | habla |
| Nosotros (We) | -amos | hablamos |
| Vosotros (You, plural) Ustedes (Latin America) | -áis-an | habláis hablan |
| Ellos (Them) | -an | hablan |
Examples for the present tense for -AR verbs in Spanish
- Hablo inglés. (I speak English.)
- Hablas mucho. (You talk a lot.)
- ¿Tu hija ya habla? (Is your daughter talking already?)
- Nunca hablamos de política. (We never talk politics.)
- Habláis muy bien el francés. (You speak French very well.)
- Mis tías no me hablan. (My aunts are not speaking to me.)
If you are hungry for more knowledge, read our full overview of the hablar conjugation.
Perfect preterite for -AR verbs in Spanish
The Spanish perfect preterite is used to talk about an event that happened at a specific time in the past.
This time around, we’ll use the verb llamar (to call/name) as an example.
| Subject | Ending | Llamar |
|---|---|---|
| Yo (I) | -é | llamé |
| Tu (You) Vos (Latin America) | -aste | llamaste |
| Usted (You, formal) El/Ella (He/She/It) | -ó | llamó |
| Nosotros (We) | -amos | llamamos |
| Vosotros (You, plural) Ustedes (Latin America) | -asteis-aron | llamasteis llamaron |
| Ellos (Them) | -aron | llamaron |
Examples for the perfect preterite for -AR verbs in Spanish
- La llamé ayer. (I called her yesterday.)
- ¿Llamaste a Julio? (Did you call Julio?)
- Llamó todos los días este mes. (He/She called every day this month.)
- La llamamos Bella. (We named her Bella.)
- ¿Cuando me llamasteis? (When did you call me?)
- ¡Llamaron diez veces! (They called ten times!)
Imperfect preterite for -AR verbs in Spanish
The imperfect tense is used to talk about habits in the past. Let’s try it with the verb cambiar (to change).
| Subject | Ending | Imperfect Preterite |
|---|---|---|
| Yo (I) | -aba | cambiaba |
| Tu (You) Vos (Latin America) | -abas | cambiabas |
| Usted (You, formal) El/Ella (He/She/It) | -aba | cambiaba |
| Nosotros (We) | -ábamos | cambiábamos |
| Vosotros (You, plural) Ustedes (Latin America) | -abais-aban | cambiabais cambiaban |
| Ellos (Them) | -aban | cambiaban |
Examples for the imperfect preterite for -AR verbs in Spanish
- En esa época, cambiaba de móvil todos los meses. (Back then, I used to change cell phones every month.)
- Siempre te cambiabas la ropa para salir. (You always used to change your clothes to go out.)
- De adolescente nunca cambiaba las sábanas. (As a teenager, I never changed the sheets.)
- Cuando éramos jóvenes, cambiábamos de opinión todos los días. (When we were young, we used to change our minds every day.)
- Nunca cambiabais el recorrido a la escuela. (You used to never change your path to school.)
- Los colores del jardín cambiaban constantemente. (The colors in the garden used to change constantly.)
Future tense for -AR verbs in Spanish
As you might expect, this tense is used to discuss the future. Let’s look at this conjugation with the verb cocinar (to cook).
| Subject | Ending | Cocinar |
|---|---|---|
| Yo (I) | -aré | cocinaré |
| Tu (You) Vos (Latin America) | -arás | cocinarás |
| Usted (You, formal) El/Ella (He/She/It) | -ará | cocinará |
| Nosotros (We) | -aremos | cocinaremos |
| Vosotros (You, plural) Ustedes (Latin America) | -aráis-arán | cocinaráis cocinarán |
| Ellos (Them) | -arán | cocinarán |
Examples for the future tense for -AR verbs in Spanish
- Hoy cocinaré guiso. (I’ll make stew today.)
- ¿Qué cocinarás para la cena? (What will you make for dinner?)
- José cocinará para todos. (José will cook for us all.)
- El sábado cocinaremos juntos. (On Saturday, we’ll cook together.)
- ¿Cocinaráis esta noche? (Will you cook tonight?)
- Nunca cocinarán si no les enseñas. (They’ll never cook if you don’t teach them.)
Irregular -AR verbs in Spanish
Irregular verbs in Spanish, just like in English, are those that don’t follow the standard conjugation.
As we’ve mentioned, verbs in Spanish end either in “-AR,” “-ER,” or “-IR.” The rest of the verb, the one that comes before that, is called a stem. Most irregular verbs in Spanish are stem-changing, meaning they change the last vowel of the stem in some conjugations.
In this section, we’ll look at four verbs to show you what we mean.
If you want to learn more about irregular verbs in Spanish (particularly stem-changing verbs), you can find more information here.
Estar (to be)
In the present, estar is an irregular verb when the subject is yo (I). The verb in first person singular is the one that changes in comparison to regular verbs. While a regular -AR verb in Spanish will add an “-o” after the stem for the first person in the present tense, estar adds an “-oy”.
In the preterite, the change is even bigger and extends to all subjects. However, the imperfect and future tenses follow regular rules.
You can see the irregularities in bold below.
| Subject | Presente | Pretérito Perfecto | Pretérito Imperfecto | Futuro |
| Yo (I) | estoy | estuve | estaba | estaré |
| Tú (You) Vos (Latin America) | estás | estuviste | estabas | estarás |
| El/Ella (He/She/It) Usted (You, formal) | está | estuvo | estaba | estará |
| Nosotros (We) | estaremos | estuvimos | estábamos | estaremos |
| Vosotros (You, plural) | estáis | estuvisteis | estabais | estaréis |
| Ustedes (Latin America) | están | estuvieron | estaban | estarán |
| Ellos/Ellas (They/Them) | están | estuvieron | estaban | estarán |
Estar is also irregular in the subjunctive mood. You can learn more in this article on the conjugation of estar and its irregularities.
Jugar (to play)
In this case, the “u” in jugar, sometimes changes to “ue”. This is true for the singular forms and the third person plural in the present tense.
You can see the irregularities in bold below.
| Subject | Presente | Pretérito Perfecto | Pretérito Imperfecto | Futuro |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yo (I) | juego | jugué | jugaba | jugaré |
| Tú (You) | juegas | jugaste | jugabas | jugarás |
| Vos (Latin America) | jugás | |||
| El/Ella (He/She/It) Usted (You, formal) | juega | jugó | jugaba | jugará |
| Nosotros (We) | jugamos | jugamos | jugábamos | jugaremos |
| Vosotros (You, plural) | jugáis | jugasteis | jugabais | jugaréis |
| Ustedes (Latin America) | juegan | jugaron | jugaban | jugarán |
| Ellos/Ellas (They/Them) | juegan | jugaron | jugaban | jugarán |
Jugar is also irregular in the present tense of the subjunctive mood. You can find the entire conjugation for jugar and its irregularities in this article.
Dar (to give)
The verb dar in Spanish works similarly to estar. The form in first person singular changes in comparison to regular verbs by adding an “-oy” instead of just an “-o”.
In the preterite, the change is even bigger and extends to all subjects. However, the imperfect and future tenses follow regular rules.
You can see the irregularities in bold below.
| Subject | Presente | Pretérito Perfecto | Pretérito Imperfecto | Futuro |
| Yo (I) | doy | di | daba | daré |
| Tú (You) Vos (Latin America) | das | diste | dabas | darás |
| El/Ella (He/She/It) Usted (You, formal) | da | dio | daba | dará |
| Nosotros (We) | damos | dimos | dábamos | daremos |
| Vosotros (You, plural) | dais | disteis | dabais | daréis |
| Ustedes (Latin America) | dan | dieron | daban | darán |
| Ellos/Ellas (They/Them) | dan | dieron | daban | darán |
Dar is also irregular in the subjunctive mood. You can find the full conjugation of this verb in this article.
Pensar (to think)
The irregularity of the verb pensar is that it sometimes changes the “e” for an “ie”. In the present tense, this change affects the singular persons and the third person plural.
You can see the irregularities in bold below.
| Subject | Presente | Pretérito Perfecto | Pretérito Imperfecto | Futuro |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yo (I) | pienso | pensé | pensaba | pensaré |
| Tú (You) | piensas | pensaste | pensabas | pensarás |
| Vos (Latin America) | pensás | |||
| El/Ella (He/She/It) Usted (You, formal) | piensa | pensó | pensaba | pensará |
| Nosotros (We) | pensamos | pensamos | pensábamos | pensaremos |
| Vosotros (You, plural) | pensáis | pensasteis | pensabais | pensaréis |
| Ustedes (Latin America) | piensan | pensaron | pensaban | pensarán |
| Ellos/Ellas (They/Them) | piensan | pensaron | pensaban | pensarán |
If you’d like to learn more, check out this article on the entire pensar conjugation.
We also have articles on the conjugation of empezar (to start), cerrar (to close), and almorzar (to have lunch) -AR verbs in Spanish!
Final thoughts on -AR verbs in Spanish
We hope this article on conjugating -AR verbs in Spanish has given you plenty to think about. Luckily, a good number of verbs are regular and easy to conjugate. And although you should always be wary of exceptions, these are not as scary as they seem.
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