Spanish Irregular Verbs: The Patterns Behind Them, with a List

Spanish irregular verbs are verbs that break the regular pattern of their group, and most of them break it in a place English speakers don’t expect. In English, irregular verbs live in the past: go, went; have, had. In Spanish, the biggest surprises are in the present tense, often in the yo form alone: tengo (I have), voy (I go), conozco (I know).

They’re also unavoidable. The ten most frequent verbs in Spanish (ser, estar, haber, tener, hacer, poder, decir, ir, ver, dar) are all irregular. The good news: almost every irregular form fits one of six patterns, and once you know the pattern, you know the family. This page is part of the bigger map of Spanish verbs.

What makes Spanish irregular verbs irregular

A regular verb keeps its stem and swaps the ending. Hablar gives habl- + -o = hablo, and every -ar verb in that group does the same thing. An irregular verb changes something else. The stem gets a new vowel (poder → puedo), the yo form picks up an extra letter (salir → salgo), or the whole verb turns into something new (ir → voy).

That’s why irregular verbs in Spanish feel harder at first: you meet them on day one. Soy de Chicago, tengo veinte años, voy al trabajo. Three sentences, three irregular verbs, all in the present.

The 20 most common irregular Spanish verbs

These are the 20 most common irregular Spanish verbs, in order of frequency (Verbos.app, Los 100 verbos más usados en español). Each one links to its full table, where every irregular form is marked in red and has audio.

#	Verb	Meaning	Yo, present	Yo, preterite	Pattern
1	ser	to be	soy	fui	truly irregular
2	estar	to be	estoy	estuve	-oy + past stem
3	haber	to have (auxiliary)	he	hube	truly irregular
4	tener	to have	tengo	tuve	yo-go + e → ie
5	hacer	to do, to make	hago	hice	yo-go
6	poder	can	puedo	pude	o → ue
7	decir	to say	digo	dije	yo-go + e → i
8	ir	to go	voy	fui	truly irregular
9	ver	to see	veo	vi	yo form
10	dar	to give	doy	di	-oy
11	saber	to know	sé	supe	yo form + past stem
12	querer	to want	quiero	quise	e → ie
13	poner	to put	pongo	puse	yo-go
14	parecer	to seem	parezco	parecí	-zco
15	seguir	to follow	sigo	seguí	e → i
16	encontrar	to find	encuentro	encontré	o → ue
17	venir	to come	vengo	vine	yo-go + e → ie
18	pensar	to think	pienso	pensé	e → ie
19	salir	to go out	salgo	salí	yo-go
20	volver	to come back	vuelvo	volví	o → ue

Listen to some of them at work in everyday sentences:

The 6 patterns of irregular verbs

Here’s the map. Most irregular forms you’ll meet in your first two years of Spanish fall into one of these boxes, and a few big verbs sit in two or three at once.

Truly irregular: ser, ir and haber

There’s no rule to find here. Ser (to be) gives soy, eres, es, somos, son. Ir (to go) gives voy, vas, va, vamos, van. Haber gives he, has, ha, hemos, han, plus hay for “there is” and “there are.” Learn them as words.

A few others are irregular in the yo form and regular after that. Estar and dar end in -oy like voy: estoy, doy. Saber gives sé, and ver gives veo.

Yo-go verbs (the go verbs in Spanish)

Why does tener give tengo and not teno? Because it’s a yo-go verb: in the present tense, only the yo form ends in -go. The other forms go back to normal or follow a stem change. Here are the go verbs in Spanish you’ll use every day:

Infinitive	Yo	Tú	Also changes
tener	tengo	tienes	e → ie
venir	vengo	vienes	e → ie
decir	digo	dices	e → i
hacer	hago	haces
poner	pongo	pones
salir	salgo	sales
traer	traigo	traes
caer	caigo	caes
oír	oigo	oyes	y in oyes, oye, oyen

Verbs built on these behave the same way: mantener and obtener go like tener (mantengo, obtengo). And the -go returns in the whole present subjunctive (tenga, haga, salga), which is covered in present subjunctive in Spanish.

-zco verbs: conozco, parezco, conduzco

A rule with very few exceptions: verbs ending in a vowel + -cer or -cir add a z in the yo form. Conocer → conozco, parecer → parezco, nacer → nazco, conducir → conduzco. Also ofrecer → ofrezco and traducir → traduzco. Every other present form is regular: conoces, conoce, conocemos. The two exceptions you’ll meet early are hacer and decir, which are yo-go verbs instead (hago, digo).

Stem changing verbs: e → ie, o → ue, e → i

Stem changing verbs are the biggest family, and the boot chart lives in their own lesson: Spanish stem changing verbs. In short:

• e → ie: pensar → pienso, querer → quiero
• o → ue: poder → puedo, dormir → duermo
• e → i (only -ir verbs): pedir → pido, seguir → sigo
• u → ue (only jugar): juego

The change happens in four forms of the present (yo, tú, él, ellos). Nosotros stays regular: pensamos, podemos.

Irregular in the past only

Some verbs are perfectly normal in the present and break the rule in the preterite. Andar (to walk) is ando today and anduve yesterday. Many of the big verbs also take a new stem in the preterite: tener → tuve, hacer → hice, decir → dije, poder → pude. Those stems, with their endings, are the subject of irregular preterite verbs.

And busqué, llegué, empecé? Those aren’t irregular at all. It’s a spelling change to keep the sound, explained in car, gar, zar verbs.

Irregular future stems and past participles

Twelve verbs shorten or change their stem in the future and conditional: tener → tendré, hacer → haré, decir → diré, poder → podré, salir → saldré. And a handful have an irregular past participle, the form you use with he, has, ha: hecho (done), dicho (said), escrito (written), visto (seen), vuelto (returned), puesto (put). Both lists come up again when you study the future and the present perfect.

Irregular Spanish verbs list, by pattern

Below are all the Spanish irregular verbs in our conjugator’s index, sorted by pattern, with the forms that show the pattern best. The list comes from the conjugator’s own irregularity marks, not from memory. Click any verb to see all of its forms, the red ones included, and hear each of them.

Truly irregular or irregular yo

Verb	Yo, present	Yo, preterite	Yo, future
ser	soy	fui	seré
ir	voy	fui	iré
haber	he	hube	habré
estar	estoy	estuve	estaré
dar	doy	di	daré
saber	sé	supe	sabré
ver	veo	vi	veré

Yo-go and -zco

Verb	Yo, present	Yo, preterite	Yo, future
tener	tengo	tuve	tendré
venir	vengo	vine	vendré
poner	pongo	puse	pondré
salir	salgo	salí	saldré
hacer	hago	hice	haré
decir	digo	dije	diré
traer	traigo	traje	traeré
caer	caigo	caí	caeré
oír	oigo	oí	oiré
mantener	mantengo	mantuve	mantendré
obtener	obtengo	obtuve	obtendré
conocer	conozco	conocí	conoceré
parecer	parezco	parecí	pareceré
nacer	nazco	nací	naceré
conducir	conduzco	conduje	conduciré

Stem changing

Verb	Yo, present	Yo, preterite	Pattern
pensar	pienso	pensé	e → ie
querer	quiero	quise	e → ie, past stem quis-
empezar	empiezo	empecé	e → ie
comenzar	comienzo	comencé	e → ie
cerrar	cierro	cerré	e → ie
entender	entiendo	entendí	e → ie
perder	pierdo	perdí	e → ie
sentir	siento	sentí	e → ie
defender	defiendo	defendí	e → ie
poder	puedo	pude	o → ue, past stem pud-
volver	vuelvo	volví	o → ue
contar	cuento	conté	o → ue
encontrar	encuentro	encontré	o → ue
recordar	recuerdo	recordé	o → ue
dormir	duermo	dormí	o → ue
morir	muero	morí	o → ue
probar	pruebo	probé	o → ue
resolver	resuelvo	resolví	o → ue
jugar	juego	jugué	u → ue
pedir	pido	pedí	e → i
servir	sirvo	serví	e → i
repetir	repito	repetí	e → i
seguir	sigo	seguí	e → i
conseguir	consigo	conseguí	e → i
elegir	elijo	elegí	e → i

Irregular in the past only: andar (ando, but anduve).

Need it on paper? The printable verb tables put 50 of the most used verbs on a few pages, irregular ones included.

Irregular verbs in Latin America and Spain

Here’s a question few charts answer: are Spanish irregular verbs the same everywhere? The forms are, with one big exception: vos.

In Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and much of Central America, people say vos instead of tú. Vos forms carry the stress on the ending, and that switches off the stem change. So tú puedes becomes vos podés, tú quieres becomes vos querés, tú tienes becomes vos tenés, and tú duermes becomes vos dormís. Ser gets its own form: vos sos. Ir stays vos vas.

Vosotros, the plural “you” used only in Spain, also stays outside the stem change: podéis, queréis, tenéis. In Latin America the plural is always ustedes, which takes the same form as ellos: ustedes pueden, ustedes tienen. If you’re learning for Mexico, Colombia or the US, you can treat vosotros as something to recognize, not produce.

How to learn irregular verbs in Spanish

Spanish is my second language too, and what I’ve seen work with my students isn’t more charts. It’s fewer charts, a light explanation, and a lot of Spanish to hear and say. Three habits:

1. Pattern before list. When you meet a new irregular verb, ask which box it goes in. Proponer? It’s poner with a prefix, so propongo. You didn’t memorize anything new.
2. Yo first. The yo form tells you the most. If yo is odd (tengo, conozco), the subjunctive will be odd the same way (tenga, conozca).
3. Mix them up. In conversation, tengo, fui and sepa don’t arrive in neat rows; they come from different verbs and tenses, one after another. The irregular verb challenge at the end of this page works the same way. Get the 20 verbs in the table above solid first, and leave conducir for later.

Ready for a quick check? Pick the right form:

Frequently asked questions

How many irregular verbs are there in Spanish?

There’s no single official number, because it depends on what you count (is busqué irregular? most grammars say no). Here’s a count you can check: of the 710 verbs in our Spanish conjugator, 187 have at least one form that breaks the regular pattern. The ones you’ll use most are the 20 in the table above.

Is tener irregular?

Very. Tener is irregular in four ways at once. It’s yo-go in the present (tengo) and e → ie in the other present forms (tienes, tiene). It also takes a new stem in the preterite (tuve) and a short stem in the future (tendré).

Which common irregular Spanish verbs should I learn first?

Ser, estar, tener, ir, hacer and poder. With those six you can say who you are, where you are, what you have, where you’re going, what you do and what you can do. Then add querer, decir, saber, venir and salir.

Are irregular verbs used differently in Spain and Latin America?

The meanings are the same. The forms change only in two places: vos (Argentina, Uruguay, Central America), which drops the stem change (vos podés), and vosotros (Spain only), which also keeps the stem regular (podéis).

Test yourself: the irregular verb challenge

Ten irregular forms are waiting in the conjugation trainer. Each round shows you one form, from the present, the preterite, the future or the subjunctive, and you pick the verb it comes from. Open the irregular verb challenge and see how many you get on the first try. When you want full sentences with audio, the irregular verbs practice has 20 of them and a printable sheet with answers.