What do these sentences in Spanish have in common? They are all in the Present Simple tense (Presente del indicativo).

The Present Simple in Spanish is often used in the same way as in English, only with some small differences.

In Spanish we use the Present Simple tense to talk about:

*There are some cases where we use the Present Simple in Spanish, but wouldn’t use it in English:

Verb Conjugations in the Present Simple Tense

Regular verbs all follow the same conjugation patterns. Since these patterns don’t change, once you’ve learned them you’ll be able to conjugate all regular verbs in the Present Simple.

Regular verbs in Spanish end in -ar, -er and -ir in the infinitive. Below are the verb conjugation endings for each subject pronoun in the Present Simple.

Irregular Verbs don’t follow just one pattern or model.  Instead, these verbs have changes either in the stem of the verb, or in the conjugation ending itself, or sometimes in both.  Sometimes only one subject pronoun has a change, and at other times, the verb changes for every person.  Conjugation then becomes a bit different compared to regular verbs, you can’t just memorize the endings, so the best thing to do is to learn them by heart.

Some important irregular verbs: ser, estar (to be), dar (to give), ir (to go), saber (to know).

There are also stem-changing verbs. These verbs maintain the regular -ar, -er, and -ir conjugation endings, but the stem of the verb changes for all subject pronouns except Nosotros/Nosotras. Common stem-changing verbs include: querer (to want), sentir (to feel), and jugar (to play).  

Let’s have a look at how all of these irregular verbs are conjugated:

Do you know how to use the Present Tense in Spanish? Find out with these Present tense quizzes below.

In this lesson, you’ve learned how to use the Present Tense in Spanish, including a few important differences when compared to English. You’ve also seen a sampling of how to conjugate some regular, irregular, and stem-changing verbs.  We recommend you check out our lessons on Ser Conjugation and Estar Conjugation, which are also important irregular verbs used frequently in Spanish.  We also have a great post on 45 most common verbs in Spanish, which you should definitely review to learn how to conjugate more verbs in the Present Tense.