Spanish Verb System Overview

Spanish verbs are the engine of the language. They carry enormous amounts of information: who is doing the action, when it happens, how certain the speaker is, and whether the action is a fact, a wish, or a command. This page is a high-level map of the whole system, with links to deeper pages for each piece.

The three verb classes

Every Spanish infinitive ends in one of three endings: -ar, -er, or -ir. These are the three verb classes (or conjugations), and each class follows its own set of endings.

The -ar class is by far the largest and includes most new verbs that enter the language. The -er and -ir classes are smaller but contain many of the most common verbs, like ser, tener, ir, and vivir. See The Three Verb Classes for details.

Conjugation: stem plus ending

To conjugate a verb, you drop the infinitive ending (-ar, -er, or -ir) and add a new ending that encodes the subject, the tense, and the mood.

Because the ending already tells you who the subject is, Spanish usually drops subject pronouns. Hablo by itself means I speak — no yo needed. See How Verb Conjugation Works for a full walkthrough.

The three moods

Spanish has three moods, each with its own set of tenses:

The indicative is the mood of what is. The subjunctive is the mood of what might, should, or is wished to be. The imperative is the mood of direct commands. Read more in Indicative, Subjunctive, and Imperative Moods.

Simple and compound tenses

Each mood has both simple tenses (one word) and compound tenses (two words: a form of haber plus a past participle).

Between simple and compound forms, indicative and subjunctive combined, Spanish has around 16 distinct tense-mood combinations for finite verbs. Don't panic — many share patterns. The full list lives in Overview of All Tenses.

Non-finite forms

Non-finite forms don't carry a subject. There are three:

These forms combine with auxiliary verbs to build compound tenses and progressive constructions.

Regular and irregular

Most Spanish verbs follow the pattern for their class — they are regular. A minority are irregular, with stem changes, spelling changes, or entirely unpredictable forms. Unfortunately, many of the most common verbs (ser, ir, tener, hacer, decir) are irregular, so you will learn them early. See Regular vs Irregular Verbs.

Reflexive and auxiliary verbs

Two more concepts round out the verb system. Reflexive verbs are marked by a pronoun that refers back to the subject (me lavo, "I wash myself"). They're much more common in Spanish than in English, appearing in everyday actions like getting up, getting dressed, and falling asleep.

Auxiliary verbs — haber, estar, and ser — combine with other verbs to build compound tenses, progressives, and passives.

Transitive, intransitive, and more

Verbs differ in whether they take a direct object. Transitive verbs do (tengo un libro); intransitive verbs don't (voy a casa). Spanish also has copulative verbs like ser and estar that link subjects to descriptions, and impersonal verbs like llover that have no subject at all.

Each of these categories has its own grammar, and each gets its own page in this section.

What comes next

The pages in this section cover the foundational concepts you need before diving into specific tenses. Start with How Verb Conjugation Works, then explore the three classes, moods, and tense map. Later sections dig into each tense individually. Along the way you'll meet stem-changing verbs, spelling-change verbs, and the famous ser vs estar distinction. Each topic has its own dedicated page.