Spanish Verbs: How They Work and the 100 You’ll Use Most

Spanish verbs pack a whole sentence into one word. Take hablo. The stem habl- means “speak,” and the ending -o says two more things: the speaker is “I,” and it’s happening now. So hablo is “I speak,” no pronoun needed. Learn how that ending works, and the rest of the system starts to make sense.

How Spanish verbs work: infinitives, stems and endings

Every verb has a dictionary form, the infinitive. It matches the English “to” form: hablar is “to speak.” Infinitives in Spanish end in one of three ways, and that ending puts the verb in its group: -ar (hablar, to speak), -er (comer, to eat) or -ir (vivir, to live).

To use a verb in a sentence, you conjugate it. Take off the -ar, -er or -ir to get the stem (habl-, com-, viv-), then add the ending that matches the person and the tense.

Here’s the present tense for one verb of each group. It’s the only full table on this page; each group has its own lesson with every tense.

Person	hablar (-ar)	comer (-er)	vivir (-ir)
yo	hablo	como	vivo
tú	hablas	comes	vives
él, ella, usted	habla	come	vive
nosotros	hablamos	comemos	vivimos
ellos, ellas, ustedes	hablan	comen	viven

Because the ending already says who, Spanish usually drops the subject pronoun. Hablo inglés is a complete sentence. Adding yo (yo hablo inglés) puts weight on it: “I speak English.”

For every -ar ending in four tenses, with 50 verbs to practice on, see -ar Spanish verbs.

Who you’re talking to: tú, usted, ustedes (and vos, vosotros)

English has one “you.” Spanish has several, and the verb changes with each one:

• tú is the friendly “you” for one person: tú hablas.
• usted is the polite “you,” conjugated like él: usted habla.
• ustedes is “you all,” for any group, conjugated like ellos: ustedes hablan. That’s the plural in all of Latin America.
• vos replaces tú in Argentina, Uruguay and much of Central America: vos hablás.
• vosotros is “you all” in Spain only: vosotros habláis.

If you’re learning for the US, Mexico or Colombia, focus on tú, usted and ustedes. Learn to recognize the other two.

Regular vs. irregular verbs: what’s the difference

A regular verb follows its group’s model in every tense: learn hablar and you can conjugate trabajar, estudiar and hundreds more. An irregular verb breaks the model somewhere, usually in one of three ways.

• The stem vowel changes in some forms: poder → puedo, pensar → pienso, pedir → pido. These follow a fixed pattern, the “boot,” explained in Spanish stem changing verbs.
• The yo form picks up a letter: tener → tengo, conocer → conozco. These and the truly irregular verbs are grouped by pattern in Spanish irregular verbs.
• The verb changes almost completely: ir → voy, ser → soy.

One thing that looks irregular and isn’t: busqué, llegué, empecé. That’s a spelling change to keep the sound, covered in car, gar, zar verbs.

The 100 most common Spanish verbs (a Spanish verbs list you can use)

Here are the 100 most common Spanish verbs, in order of how often they appear in real Spanish. The order comes from Verbos.app, Los 100 verbos más usados en español, which builds it from frequency dictionaries of written and spoken Spanish. Every linked verb opens its own page, with audio for every form, the irregular forms in red, three example sentences and a short practice drill. The “type” column comes from our conjugator’s own irregularity marks.

The top 10: the basic Spanish verbs

These are the basic Spanish verbs you’ll hear in every conversation, and all ten are irregular. That’s not bad luck. The more often a verb is used, the longer it keeps its old irregular forms; researchers measured exactly that across a thousand years of English verbs (Lieberman and colleagues, Nature, 2007).

#	Verb	Meaning	Type
1	ser	to be	irregular
2	estar	to be (location, state)	irregular
3	haber	to have (auxiliary), there is	irregular
4	tener	to have	irregular
5	hacer	to do, to make	irregular
6	poder	can, to be able to	irregular
7	decir	to say, to tell	irregular
8	ir	to go	irregular
9	ver	to see, to watch	irregular
10	dar	to give	irregular

Verbs 11 to 40

#	Verb	Meaning	Type
11	saber	to know (facts), to know how to	irregular
12	querer	to want, to love	irregular
13	llegar	to arrive, to get (somewhere)	spelling change
14	pasar	to pass, to happen, to spend (time)	regular
15	deber	must, should, to owe	regular
16	poner	to put, to place, to turn on	irregular
17	parecer	to seem, to look like	irregular
18	quedar	to stay, to remain, to meet up	regular
19	creer	to believe, to think	spelling change
20	hablar	to speak, to talk	regular
21	llevar	to take, to carry, to wear	regular
22	dejar	to leave, to let, to quit	regular
23	seguir	to follow, to keep (doing)	stem change
24	encontrar	to find, to meet	stem change
25	llamar	to call	regular
26	venir	to come	irregular
27	pensar	to think	stem change
28	salir	to go out, to leave	irregular
29	volver	to come back, to return	stem change
30	tomar	to take, to drink	regular
31	conocer	to know (people, places), to meet	irregular
32	vivir	to live	regular
33	sentir	to feel, to be sorry	stem change
34	tratar	to treat, to try	regular
35	mirar	to look at, to watch	regular
36	contar	to count, to tell	stem change
37	empezar	to start, to begin	stem change
38	esperar	to wait, to hope, to expect	regular
39	buscar	to look for, to search	spelling change
40	existir	to exist	regular

Verbs 41 to 100

#	Verb	Meaning	Type
41	entrar	to go in, to come in, to enter	regular
42	trabajar	to work	regular
43	escribir	to write	irregular participle
44	perder	to lose, to miss	stem change
45	producir	to produce	irregular
46	ocurrir	to happen, to occur	regular
47	entender	to understand	stem change
48	pedir	to ask for, to order (food)	stem change
49	recibir	to receive, to get	regular
50	recordar	to remember, to remind	stem change
51	terminar	to finish, to end	regular
52	permitir	to allow, to let	regular
53	aparecer	to appear, to show up	irregular
54	conseguir	to get, to manage to	stem change
55	comenzar	to begin, to start	stem change
56	servir	to serve, to be useful	stem change
57	sacar	to take out, to get	spelling change
58	necesitar	to need	regular
59	mantener	to keep, to maintain, to support	irregular
60	resultar	to turn out, to result	regular
61	leer	to read	spelling change
62	caer	to fall	irregular
63	cambiar	to change, to exchange	regular
64	presentar	to present, to introduce	regular
65	crear	to create	regular
66	abrir	to open	irregular participle
67	considerar	to consider	regular
68	oír	to hear	irregular
69	acabar	to finish, to have just	regular
70	convertir	to turn into, to convert	stem change
71	ganar	to win, to earn	regular
72	formar	to form, to train	regular
73	traer	to bring	irregular
74	partir	to split, to cut, to leave	regular
75	morir	to die	stem change
76	aceptar	to accept	regular
77	realizar	to carry out, to do, to make happen	spelling change
78	suponer	to suppose, to mean	irregular
79	comprender	to understand	regular
80	lograr	to achieve, to manage to	regular
81	explicar	to explain	spelling change
82	preguntar	to ask	regular
83	tocar	to touch, to play (an instrument)	spelling change
84	reconocer	to recognize, to admit	irregular
85	estudiar	to study	regular
86	alcanzar	to reach, to catch up with	spelling change
87	nacer	to be born	irregular
88	dirigir	to direct, to lead, to manage	spelling change
89	correr	to run	regular
90	utilizar	to use	spelling change
91	pagar	to pay	spelling change
92	comer	to eat	regular
93	gustar	to be pleasing (me gusta)	regular
94	jugar	to play (a game, a sport)	stem change
95	dormir	to sleep	stem change
96	aprender	to learn	regular
97	comprar	to buy	regular
98	escuchar	to listen to, to hear	regular
99	ayudar	to help	regular
100	usar	to use, to wear	regular

Verbs without a link are in the conjugator too; we’ll link them here as their pages join our index. And if you want this Spanish verbs list on paper, the printable verb tables cover 50 of these verbs in six tenses.

The tenses you’ll meet first

Spanish has more tenses than you need on day one. These five cover most everyday conversation. Here’s hablar in each:

Tense	hablar (yo)	Use it for
Present	hablo	now, habits, the near future
Preterite	hablé	finished actions in the past
Imperfect	hablaba	how things were, what used to happen
Future	hablaré	plans and predictions
Present perfect	he hablado	the past that touches now

The two past tenses are the ones that take time to sort out. Start with Spanish past tense, then go deeper with the preterite, the imperfect and preterite vs. imperfect. The preterite also has its own set of irregular stems (tuve, hice, dije), listed in irregular preterite verbs.

Spanish verbs that don’t work like English

Some of the hardest Spanish verbs for English speakers aren’t hard to conjugate. They’re hard because English sends you the wrong way.

• “To be” is two verbs. Ser for what something is (soy profesora), estar for where it is and how it is right now (estoy cansada). The full comparison is in ser vs. estar.
• “To know” is two verbs too. Saber is knowing a fact or how to do something (sé nadar); conocer is knowing a person or a place (conozco a tu hermana). See saber and conocer.
• “I like” works backwards. Me gusta la música is literally “music pleases me,” so the verb agrees with the thing you like: me gustan las montañas. Explained in gustar and verbs like gustar.
• Hunger and age use tener. “I’m hungry” is tengo hambre (I have hunger), and “I’m 20” is tengo 20 años.
• No “do” in questions and negatives. ¿Hablas español? / No hablo francés.
• The present covers “-ing.” ¿Qué haces? can mean “What are you doing?”
• The second verb stays in the infinitive. Quiero comer (I want to eat), puedo ir (I can go), necesito estudiar (I need to study). That’s the other everyday job of infinitives in Spanish: after another verb, they work like the English “to” form.
• Some verbs come with me, te, se. Me levanto a las siete (I get up at seven). These are reflexive verbs, and the me is part of the verb.

How to learn Spanish verbs without drowning in charts

Charts are useful, but nobody learns to speak from them. Here’s what I ask my students to do instead:

1. Go by frequency. Learn the verbs in the order of the list above. The first 20 show up in almost every conversation.
2. Start with yo, tú and él. Those three forms carry most of what you’ll say and hear. Nosotros and ellos come fast after that.
3. Sentence before table. Tengo dos hermanos teaches you tener better than six rows of forms. Every linked verb page has three example sentences with audio: listen, repeat, then read the table.
4. One verb a day. Open one verb page, listen to every form, and do the practice drill at the bottom. Five minutes, and tomorrow you start with the next one.

Try a quick check of what’s on this page:

Frequently asked questions

Which common Spanish verbs should I learn first?

The top 10 on the list: ser, estar, haber, tener, hacer, poder, decir, ir, ver and dar. Then saber, querer, llegar, pasar and poner. With those 15 common Spanish verbs you can already say a lot about yourself, your plans and your day.

What are the “super 7” verbs in Spanish?

It’s a classroom list, not an official one. The idea comes from comprehensible input teaching, where it’s usually credited to the teacher Terry Waltz: es, está, tiene, hay, va, le gusta and quiere. Lists vary by teacher, but they all overlap with the basic Spanish verbs at the top of our frequency list.

What are the three types of verbs in Spanish?

By ending: -ar, -er and -ir. That’s the group that decides the endings. Separately, any verb can be regular or irregular.

Do I need to learn vosotros?

Only if you’re learning Spanish for Spain. In Latin America, ustedes is the plural “you” everywhere, so you can treat vosotros as something to recognize when you hear it.

Where to go next

Pick the row that sounds like you:

If you want to…	Go to
see any verb conjugated, with audio for every form	Spanish conjugator (all 710 verbs, A to Z)
practice right now, with instant correction	conjugation trainer
start with the -ar group	-ar Spanish verbs
sort out the irregular ones	Spanish irregular verbs
understand the boot (pienso, puedo, pido)	Spanish stem changing verbs
talk about the past	Spanish past tense
drill sentences with audio	regular verbs practice and irregular verbs practice
stop mixing up ser and estar	ser vs. estar