Spelling: -guir and -uir | Spanish (Latin America) Grammar

Two more spelling patterns round out our tour of the present indicative: -guir verbs that drop a silent u, and -uir verbs that insert a y in most forms.

-guir: dropping the silent u

Verbs ending in -guir have a silent u that exists only to keep the g hard before e or i. In the yo form, the vowel that follows is o, where the u is no longer needed — so it gets dropped. The rest of the paradigm keeps the u because the vowel that follows is -e-.

Seguir — to follow

Seguir also has the e → i stem change, so the yo form gets a double adjustment.

Subject	Conjugation
yo	sigo
tú	sigues
él / ella / usted	sigue
nosotros / nosotras	seguimos
ellos / ellas / ustedes	siguen

Notice that sigues, sigue, and siguen keep the u — we still need it to protect the hard g sound before e. Only sigo drops it, because g before o is naturally hard already.

Yo sigo una dieta saludable.

I follow a healthy diet.

¿Me sigues en las redes sociales?

Do you follow me on social media?

Conseguir, distinguir, perseguir, and extinguir all work the same way: consigo, distingo, persigo, extingo.

-uir: adding the y

A separate and very common pattern involves verbs ending in -uir (but not -guir or -quir). These verbs insert a y between the stem and the ending in every form except nosotros.

Construir — to build

Subject	Conjugation
yo	construyo
tú	construyes
él / ella / usted	construye
nosotros / nosotras	construimos
ellos / ellas / ustedes	construyen

The nosotros form is the only one without the y. Every other form adds it.

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The inserted y is not a stem change — the stem still holds its vowels. It's a purely phonetic adjustment that prevents three vowels from crashing together: constru + o would otherwise be awkward to pronounce.

Common -uir verbs

Infinitive	Meaning	Yo form
construir	to build	construyo
incluir	to include	incluyo
huir	to flee	huyo
destruir	to destroy	destruyo
contribuir	to contribute	contribuyo
concluir	to conclude	concluyo
distribuir	to distribute	distribuyo
sustituir	to substitute	sustituyo

Yo incluyo a todos en la invitación.

I include everyone in the invitation.

El precio incluye el desayuno.

The price includes breakfast.

Ellos construyen una casa en la playa.

They are building a house at the beach.

Nosotros contribuimos con ideas al proyecto.

We contribute ideas to the project.

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Huir is short but still follows the same rule: huyo, huyes, huye, huimos, huyen. The y protects the sound in all forms except nosotros.

Common mistakes

❌ Yo siguio las instrucciones.

Wrong: keeping the u in the yo form of a -guir verb.

✅ Yo sigo las instrucciones.

Correct: drop the u in the yo form because g before o is already hard.

❌ Yo construo una casa.

Wrong: missing the inserted y in a -uir verb.

✅ Yo construyo una casa.

Correct: -uir verbs add y in all forms except nosotros.

❌ Nosotros construyimos una casa.

Wrong: nosotros does not get the y insertion.

✅ Nosotros construimos una casa.

Correct: the nosotros form keeps the original stem without y.

❌ El precio incluye... Yo incluyo... Nosotros incluyemos.

Wrong: applying the y to nosotros too.

✅ El precio incluye... Yo incluyo... Nosotros incluimos.

Correct: y appears everywhere except nosotros.