Presente de subjuntivo: verbos regulares en -er e -ir

The good news for anyone who already knows the regular -ar present subjunctive is that -er and -ir verbs share a single set of subjunctive endings. There is no separate paradigm to memorise for each class — comer and vivir take exactly the same endings, and they are the "opposite" of -ar in the same way that -ar borrowed -er endings. If you have ever wondered why Spanish learners obsess over the so-called "opposite endings" rule, this is the page where it pays off the most.

How the paradigm works

Building the regular -er or -ir present subjunctive is the same three-step recipe used for -ar:

1. Take the yo form of the present indicative (como, vivo, bebo, escribo).
2. Drop the final -o.
3. Add the six subjunctive endings: -a, -as, -a, -amos, -áis, -an.

The endings look like -ar present indicative endings, with one critical difference: the accent in the vosotros form falls on the á (comáis, viváis, bebáis), exactly as it does in habláis.

Three things are worth pointing out immediately.

First, comer and vivir are conjugated identically in this tense, even though their infinitives belong to different classes. This is unlike the present indicative, where -er and -ir part company in the nosotros and vosotros forms (comemos vs vivimos, coméis vs vivís). In the present subjunctive, the two classes are perfectly synchronised: same endings, all six persons.

Second, yo and él/ella share a form (coma could mean "I eat" or "she eats" in the subjunctive). This syncretism is a feature, not a bug — context, supplied by the matrix clause, always fixes the subject.

Third, the vosotros form -áis carries an obligatory written accent: comáis, viváis, bebáis, escribáis. Without the accent, the word would be misread as ending in the diphthong ai with stress on the stem. The same accent rule applies as for habláis and trabajéis: a word ending in -s with stress on the final syllable takes a written accent.

Why -er and -ir merge here (and why English speakers should not panic)

The Latin ancestor of Spanish kept -er and -ir verbs distinct in the present subjunctive (Latin vendat for -ere verbs, audiat for -ire verbs). Old Spanish inherited that distinction in the indicative — and you can still see its traces in comemos / vivimos — but in the subjunctive the two classes collapsed centuries ago into a single paradigm. The result is a small piece of cognitive relief: instead of three paradigms (-ar, -er, -ir), you only need two (-ar vs -er/-ir).

This means the entire regular present subjunctive of Spanish boils down to one rule and one swap:

If you internalise this swap, you have already covered roughly 90% of all Spanish subjunctive forms you will ever produce in the present.

Ten model -er and -ir verbs

Here are ten high-frequency regular -er/-ir verbs fully conjugated. None of them carries a stem change in the present subjunctive (verbs that do are covered on the stem-changes page).

A small note on leer and other verbs with two vowels in the stem: the vosotros form leáis keeps both vowels but stress falls on the final á, so the accent is written. Leais (no accent) would be a misspelling. The same applies to creer → creáis and poseer → poseáis.

The English-speaker problem: indicative leaks where subjunctive belongs

This is the single biggest pitfall English speakers face with the present subjunctive — and it shows up most often with regular -er/-ir verbs, because their indicative forms (come, vive, escribe) are short, frequent, and feel "default". The trap is that English does not mark the subjunctive overtly in this construction:

• "I hope you eat." → both hope and eat in plain indicative form
• "I want them to eat." → an infinitive complement

Neither English structure tells you that Spanish requires a different mood. So learners produce sentences like Espero que comen or Quiero que comen — using the indicative comen where Spanish demands coman. The mistake is not a small accent slip; it is a mood error that a native ear catches instantly.

The reason Spanish uses the subjunctive here is honest about something English glosses over: when you say "I hope X eats", you are not stating that X eats; you are expressing a wish that they will. Spanish refuses to mark a wish with an indicative form, because the indicative is reserved for facts. The vegetable-eating has not yet happened (or its happening is uncertain), so the indicative is unavailable.

The peninsular vosotros forms

Spain's vosotros fills several daily-conversation needs that elsewhere fall to ustedes. In the subjunctive, the -áis ending becomes the single most identity-marking form a peninsular speaker produces.

If you have been studying Spanish from Latin American materials and have never produced comáis or viváis, this is the page to start. The forms are entirely regular — you have already produced them implicitly every time you said habléis. Just swap the -éis for -áis and you have the -er/-ir version.

A short worked dialogue

The subjunctive is hard to absorb in isolation; it lives in conversation. Here is a short peninsular exchange that hits the regular -er/-ir subjunctive several times.

Notice how cuando lo decidamos uses the subjunctive because the deciding has not yet happened — cuando + subjunctive is one of the most common everyday triggers in peninsular Spanish.

Common mistakes

These are the recurring errors English speakers make with regular -er/-ir present subjunctive.

Key takeaways

• Regular -er and -ir verbs share one set of subjunctive endings: -a, -as, -a, -amos, -áis, -an.
• Build them by dropping the -o from the yo present indicative (como → com-) and adding the subjunctive endings.
• Yo and él/ella share a form (coma, viva); context disambiguates.
• The vosotros form -áis carries an obligatory written accent: comáis, viváis, escribáis.
• The cardinal English-speaker error is using indicative endings (comen) where subjunctive is required (coman) after triggers like querer que, esperar que, no creer que, cuando
  • future.
• See the overview of subjunctive triggers for the full inventory of contexts that demand this form.