Regular -er Verbs | Spanish (Latin America) Grammar

The second group of Spanish verbs ends in -er. The pattern is almost identical to regular -ar verbs — only the vowel of the ending changes.

How it works

To conjugate a regular -er verb in the present indicative, drop the -er ending from the infinitive and add one of the endings below.

The endings are: -o, -es, -e, -emos, -en.

Notice that only the yo form keeps -o. Every other form uses e as its vowel, where -ar verbs used a.

Comer — to eat

Comer is the classic model verb. Drop -er to get the stem com- and add each ending.

Subject	Conjugation
yo	como
tú	comes
él / ella / usted	come
nosotros / nosotras	comemos
ellos / ellas / ustedes	comen

Yo como fruta en la mañana.

I eat fruit in the morning.

¿Qué comes para el almuerzo?

What do you eat for lunch?

Mi familia come junta los domingos.

My family eats together on Sundays.

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The nosotros form ends in -emos for -er verbs and -imos for -ir verbs. This is the only place in the present tense where the two groups behave differently.

Common regular -er verbs

Infinitive	Meaning
beber	to drink
leer	to read
aprender	to learn
comprender	to understand
correr	to run
vender	to sell
deber	must, should, to owe
creer	to believe

Los niños beben leche con el desayuno.

The children drink milk with breakfast.

Nosotros aprendemos español en la escuela.

We learn Spanish at school.

¿Ustedes comprenden la pregunta?

Do you all understand the question?

A note on spelling

Verbs like leer and creer have a double ee in the nosotros form, and that is perfectly normal: leemos, creemos. Spanish is comfortable with repeated vowels.

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Some very common verbs that look like -er verbs are actually irregular, for example tener, poder, querer, and ver. They appear on their own pages in this section.

Summary

Common mistakes

❌ Yo comas la fruta.

Wrong: using -as (the tú ending) with yo.

✅ Yo como la fruta.

Correct: yo always takes -o.

❌ Nosotros comimos mucho.

Wrong: -imos is the -ir nosotros ending, not -er.

✅ Nosotros comemos mucho.

Correct: -er verbs use -emos for nosotros.

❌ Ella beba agua todos los días.

Wrong: -a is the -ar third person ending, not -er.

✅ Ella bebe agua todos los días.

Correct: -er verbs use -e for third person singular.

❌ Yo no do creer eso.

Wrong: Spanish has no auxiliary do/does for questions or emphasis.

✅ Yo no creo eso.

Correct: simply conjugate the verb; no auxiliary needed.

Once you know -ar and -er, you already handle the vast majority of Spanish verbs. Next, look at regular -ir verbs, which share most of the same endings.