FHUHS Spanish

When you review the formation of the regular forms of the present subjunctive, the first step is to begin with the yo form of the present indicative of the verb in question, and then to drop the ‘o.’ Any verb whose yo form does not end in an ‘o’ is by definition going to be an irregular verb in the subjunctive.

Here are some common irregular verbs in the present subjunctive (presente del subjuntivo):

(more…)

Only three verbs are irregular in the imperfect indicative: ser, ir, and ver.

(more…)

Some common verbs are entirely irregular in the preterite indicative. The irregularities can be more of less classified by the nature of the irregularity. You will note that none of these irregular forms carry any written accents anywhere in the paradigm.

Stem vowel ‘a’ to ‘u’

These verbs include: andar, caber, estar, haber, saber

Stem vowel ‘o’ to ‘u’

These verbs include poder and poner

Stem vowels ‘a’ and ‘e’ to ‘i’

(note the ‘c’ to ‘z’ spelling change in the 3rd person singular to maintain the soft ‘c’ sound)

Completely irregular (suppletive)

Preterite Stem-Changing Verbs

A common mistake made by students of Spanish is to carry over the stem changes from the present indicative to the preterite indicative. The common o -> ue, e -> ie, and e -> i stem changes of the present indicative never carry over into the preterite forms. However, many -er and -ir verbs which have a stem change in the present indicative do have a type of stem change in the preterite, but it is generally a different change, and then, only in the 3rd person. For example:

(more…)