- What are the irregular verbs of Spanish?
- Types of irregular verbs in Spanish
- How to know if a verb is irregular?
- Examples of irregular verbs
We explain what and which are the irregular verbs in Spanish, how its root is altered, its types and examples. Also, how to identify them.
What are the irregular verbs of Spanish?
It is known as verbs Irregular, in all inflectional languages (that is, in those in which there are conjugations), to those verbs whose conjugation differs from the paradigm of the other verbs of the language (that is, regular verbs).
This special condition may be due to different linguistic reasons, generally of a historical nature, and consist of different changes in the way the verb is conjugated. These alternations or variations are due in Spanish to changes in pronunciation (phonetic alternations) that are imposed as a rule over time, or to the historical conjunction of different roots in the same verb (heteroclite alternations).
For example, the verb «ask» changes its vowel in the first person of the present indicative (I ask), while the verb «to go» obeys three different roots when conjugated: I go, I went, I will go.
In general, the main irregular verbs present the following types of alterations in their lexical stem:
- Use of several roots for the same verb, as in go – I went - I go - will go, three totally different forms for the same verb.
- Diphthongation of a stem vowel, as in move – I move, in which a diphthong adding the "u".
- Weakening of a stem vowel, as occurs in ask – I ask, in which the strong vowel "e" is changed to a weak one, "i".
- Change of a stem vowel, as occurs in sleep - let's sleep.
- Addition or change of a consonant to the last vowel of the stem, as in flee – I run away, in which the consonant "and" is added, or in take – lame, in which the consonant "g" is changed to "j".
- Adding or changing a consonant in the stem, as in know – know, in which the consonant "z" is added, or in do – I make, in which the consonant "c" is changed to "g".
- Elimination of some fragment of the root, as occurs in do – I will do, in which the intermediate "ce" is lost (present in other conjugations such as you do).
Irregular verbs can add a difficulty or complication to the language, especially for the learning by foreigners, but they are a reflection of the historical accidents of the idiom, so there is no alternative but to learn them. The binding languages, on the other hand, do not usually have irregular verbs, nor do artificial languages, such as Esperanto.
It can serve you: Verbs in the infinitive
Types of irregular verbs in Spanish
The irregular verbs of the Spanish language can be of two different types:
- Verbs of common irregularity, those whose exceptionality is similar to that of other irregular verbs and that, therefore, can be incorporated into the same category.
- Verbs of mixed irregularity, those that present unique or singular irregularities that they do not share with other verbs, or that have more than one simultaneous alteration in their forms of conjugation, so they are usually grouped according to the verb tenses in which their forms are manifested. alterations.
How to know if a verb is irregular?
To know if a verb is regular or irregular, it is enough to try to conjugate it following the model proposed by a model verb (that is, a perfectly regular verb) such as love, fear or depart in its present, future and past perfect simple tenses. . If he sound associated with the pronunciation of the stem changes, it is an irregular verb.
Examples of irregular verbs
Here is a short list of irregular verbs of different types and some of their respective alterations in conjugation:
- To be (am, are, I was)
- Be (I was, was)
- Tell (say, I'll say, said)
- Get out (I'm on my way out, I will go out)
- Understand (I get it, you understand)
- Walk (i walked, you walked)
- Read (we would read, read)
- Can (may, can, I could)
- To bring (i bring, suit)
- To know (i knew, knew, he)
- Give (give, gave, we gave, they gave)
- Fall fell, they fell, we fell)
- To fit (quota, cupe, they fit, you fit)
- Deduct (I deduced, we deduced)
- Move (move, move, move)
- Translate (I translated, they translated)
- Do (I make, I did, they made, they will)
- Play (play, they play)
- Have (I have, have you, I had, had)
- Shine (I look, lights, you look)