Stem-Changing Verbs (Part I)
I. Intro: Regular & Irregular verbs
In this lesson, we’re going to talk some more about verbs. Specifically, a special class of verbs called stem-changing verbs.Before we get down to business, let’s brush up on the components that make up a verb and the types of verbs we already know.
- A verb consists of 2 parts: a stem + an ending
- Whatever comes before -ar, -er, -ir, is called the verb stem
- All verbs end in either -ar, -er, or -ir. If it doesn’t have one of these three endings, it’s not a verb!
II. Regular verbs
There are three categories of verb endings, also known as conjugations: -ar, -er, -ir. These are called infinitive (or base form) verb endings. For all regular verbs, the endings for each category are always the same:HABLAR, ending: -ar, stem: habl-
Stem | Ending | Stem | Ending |
| habl | -o | habl | -amos |
| habl | -as | -áis* | |
| habl | -a | habl | -an |