Spanish regular verbs

Memorizing verbs (and their conjugations) is the single most important part of learning Spanish. As you probably know, a lot of verbs are "regular", meaning they follow a standard conjugation pattern. There are three categories of regular verbs: verbs ending in -ar, verbs ending in -er, and verbs ending in -ir. Here are the 50 most common regular verbs in Spanish, divided by category.

Regular verbs ending in -ar

This is the most common category. There are hundreds of verbs ending in -ar. You should eventually learn how to conjugate them in all tenses. The conjugation endings for the present tense are -o, -as, -a, -amos, -áis, -an. Here are the most common ones:

Amar – to love

Ayudar – to help

Bailar – to dance

Caminar – to walk

Cantar – to sing

Cenar – to dine/to have dinner

Cocinar – to cook

Comprar – to buy

Desayunar – to have breakfast

Descansar – to rest/to relax

Enviar – to send

Escuchar – to listen

Esperar – to wait

Estudiar – to study

Explicar – to explain

Hablar – to talk/to speak

Lavar – to wash

Limpiar – to clean

Llamar – to call

Llegar* – to arrive

Llevar – to take/to carry/to wear

Mirar – to look/to watch

Odiar – to hate

Olvidar – to forget

Pagar* – to pay

Pintar – to paint

Preguntar – to ask

Preparar – to prepare

Regalar – to give (as a present)

Terminar – to end/to finish

Tocar** – to touch/to play an instrument

Tomar – to take/to grab/to have (for food & drink)

Trabajar – to work

Usar – to use

Viajar – to travel

Visitar – to visit

Regular verbs ending in -er

There are not that many regular verbs ending in -er in Spanish, but some of them are very important. The conjugation endings for the present tense are -o, -es, -e, -emos, -éis, -en. Here are the most common ones:

Beber – to drink

Comer – to eat

Comprender – to understand

Correr – to run

Creer*** – to believe

Leer*** – to read

Responder – to answer/to respond

Vender – to sell

Regular verbs ending in -ir

Again, there are not that many regular verbs ending in -ir in Spanish, but, again, some of them are very important. The conjugation endings for the present tense are -o, -es, -e, -imos, -ís, -en. Here are the most common ones:

Abrir – to open

Discutir – to argue

Escribir – to write

Existir – to exist

Recibir – to receive

Vivir – to live

Every sentence you say or write in Spanish will have a verb in it. Learning vocabulary is important, but verbs are the backbone of the language. Make sure you know lots of them, and make sure you know how to conjugate them properly in the most important tenses. 

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* In the pretérito perfecto tense, llegar and pagar have a spelling change on their first person singular: llegué, pagué.

**In the pretérito perfecto tense, tocar has a spelling change in the first person singular: toqué.

*** In the pretérito perfecto tense, leer and creer have a spelling change on their third person singular (leyó, creyó) and third person plural (leyeron, creyeron).