Spanish verb-forming suffixes turn nouns and adjectives into verbs — teléfono (phone) → telefonear (to phone), moderno (modern) → modernizar (to modernise), simple → simplificar (to simplify), rojo (red) → enrojecer (to redden). Nearly all of them produce verbs of the first conjugation (-ar) — by far the most productive class — or, less commonly, of the third (-ir) or the inchoative type (-ecer). The second-conjugation -er type is virtually closed to new coinages.
This page covers the productive verb-forming suffixes that are alive in modern peninsular Spanish, and a key fact worth stating up front: when Spanish absorbs a new verb from English, technology, social media, or any other source, it almost always assigns it to the -ear class — tuitear (to tweet), googlear (to google), wasapear (to WhatsApp), formatear (to format), hackear (to hack). The -ear slot is where new vocabulary lands. If you want to verb a noun in casual peninsular Spanish, your default is -ear. For the older Latinate-style derivations (civilizar, simplificar), Spanish reaches for -izar and -ificar — but those are the formal, educated registers, not the productive everyday slot.
-ear: the productive informal verb-former
By far the most productive verb-forming suffix in modern peninsular Spanish. It attaches to nouns and adjectives and produces an -ar verb. The semantic range is broad: it can mean "to do the action characteristic of" the base (paseo → pasear "to take a walk"), "to use" the base (teléfono → telefonear "to phone"), "to do repeatedly or iteratively" (ojo → ojear "to glance at, to look over"), or "to behave like" the base (tonto → tontear "to act silly, to flirt").
¿Has visto el último vídeo que ha subido? Me he pasado media hora ojeando los comentarios y la mayoría son críticas.
Have you seen the latest video she's uploaded? I just spent half an hour skimming the comments and most of them are criticisms.
No paro de wasapear con mis primos para organizar la cena de Nochebuena en casa de los abuelos.
I can't stop WhatsApping my cousins to plan the Christmas Eve dinner at our grandparents' house.
Native pairs: paseo → pasear (walk), gota → gotear (drip), teléfono → telefonear (phone), ojo → ojear (glance, skim), gol → golear (to thrash, football slang), pintar → pintarrajear (to scribble — iterative-pejorative reduplication -rraj-), tartamudo → tartamudear (to stutter), broma → bromear (to joke), mariposa → mariposear (to flit about).
Modern loan pairs: tuit → tuitear (to tweet), google → googlear, WhatsApp → wasapear, escanear (to scan), formatear (to format a disk), parsear (to parse — programmer slang), postear (to post), clickear (to click, alongside hacer clic), hackear, chatear (now RAE-accepted), flirtear (borrowed centuries ago, now standard).
-izar: the formal causative
Of Greek origin (-izein) via Latin (-izare), this suffix produces -ar verbs from adjectives and nouns with a causative meaning: "to make [base], to turn into [base]". The register is formal — academic, journalistic, technical — and the suffix is highly productive in that register. English equivalent: -ise (British) or -ize (American).
El gobierno ha decidido modernizar el sistema sanitario digitalizando todos los expedientes médicos antes de 2030.
The government has decided to modernise the healthcare system by digitising all medical records before 2030.
Tenemos que organizar la mudanza con tiempo o vamos a acabar improvisando, como siempre.
We need to organise the move with time to spare or we're going to end up improvising, as usual.
Pairs: moderno → modernizar, civil → civilizar, órgano → organizar, final → finalizar, legal → legalizar, real → realizar (carry out — not "realise" in the English mental sense), digital → digitalizar, normal → normalizar, visual → visualizar, general → generalizar, especial → especializar.
The verb takes an orthographic c before e in the present subjunctive and the preterite yo form: organizar → organice (subj.), organicé (pret. yo). This is the standard -zar spelling rule — see Verbos con cambio ortográfico.
-ificar: "to make, to render"
Latin-origin suffix producing -ar verbs with the meaning "to make into, to convert to, to render". English equivalent: -ify. Less productive than -izar but still alive, especially in academic, technical, and legal writing.
Voy a simplificar el contrato lo máximo posible para que cualquier persona pueda firmarlo sin abogado.
I'm going to simplify the contract as much as possible so anyone can sign it without a lawyer.
Los testigos han identificado al sospechoso sin la menor duda, lo cual ha clarificado mucho la investigación.
The witnesses have identified the suspect without any doubt, which has greatly clarified the investigation.
Pairs: simple → simplificar, claro → clarificar, idéntico → identificar, justo → justificar, modo → modificar, cualidad → cualificar, puro → purificar, uno → unificar, código → codificar, cierto → certificar.
The verb takes an orthographic qu before e in the subjunctive and preterite yo: simplificar → simplifique, simplifiqué. This is the -car spelling rule.
-ecer: the inchoative "to become"
The third major verb-forming suffix produces verbs of the second conjugation (-er), and specifically of the inchoative type — meaning "to become [base]" or "to enter the state of [base]". These verbs share the irregular present pattern of -cer verbs (-zco in the yo form: anochezco, envejezco).
En invierno anochece a las seis y media — para las siete ya está oscuro del todo.
In winter it gets dark at six thirty — by seven it's already completely dark.
Mi abuela ha envejecido mucho desde la pandemia, pero sigue lúcida y con ganas de discutir.
My grandmother has aged a lot since the pandemic, but she's still sharp and ready for a good argument.
Pairs (often parasynthetic with en- / a-): oscuro → oscurecer, noche → anochecer, mañana → amanecer, viejo → envejecer, rojo → enrojecer, triste → entristecer, pálido → palidecer, flor → florecer, noble → ennoblecer, grande → engrandecer.
The -ecer verbs are almost exclusively inchoative — they describe entering a state. They are not used to mean "to make [base]" (that would be -ificar or -izar) — enrojecer normally means "to turn red" (the subject becomes red), not "to redden something". For the causative reading, Spanish uses the same verb but with a different syntactic frame: El vino le enrojeció las mejillas (The wine reddened her cheeks — causative use, marked).
-iguar: the rare learned suffix
A small, lexically restricted suffix producing -ar verbs of investigation or witnessing. Mostly Latinate and not productive — you cannot coin new -iguar verbs — but the existing items are useful and common.
Quiero averiguar quién está detrás de los rumores antes de hablar con el jefe.
I want to find out who's behind the rumours before I speak to the boss.
Pairs: averiguar (find out), atestiguar (testify — from testigo), apaciguar (pacify — from paz), amortiguar (dampen, cushion), santiguar (cross oneself — from santo). The hiatus -iguar requires the diaeresis ü in certain forms (averigüe, atestigüe) to keep the u pronounced before e.
Parasynthesis: prefix + root + suffix at once
A defining feature of Spanish verb formation: simultaneous prefix and suffix attachment to an adjective or noun. Neither the prefixed form alone nor the suffixed form alone exists — both pieces attach in one go. The most common patterns:
a- + root + -ar:
Acércate un poco más, que con este ruido no te oigo nada de lo que dices.
Come a bit closer, with this noise I can't hear anything you're saying.
Pairs: cerca → acercar (bring close), claro → aclarar (clarify, brighten — different from clarificar), largo → alargar, corto → acortar, grande → agrandar, montón → amontonar (pile up), piedra → apedrear (stone, throw stones at).
en- / em- + root + -ar / -ecer:
Se enrojeció al darse cuenta de que su jefe había escuchado el chiste entero.
She turned red when she realised her boss had heard the whole joke.
Pairs: rojo → enrojecer, triste → entristecer, viejo → envejecer, noble → ennoblecer, pobre → empobrecer, pared → emparedar ("to wall in", hence un emparedado "sandwich" in some regions — peninsular default is bocadillo), frasco → enfrascar (to absorb oneself in, literally to "bottle oneself up" in something).
The hallmark of parasynthesis is that the bare base + suffix or the prefixed base alone is not a real word. *Cercar (in the sense "to bring close") and *acerca (as a noun or adjective) do not exist as everyday lexicon — only the parasynthetic acercar does. See Parasíntesis y formación inversa for the full theoretical treatment.
Choosing between competing suffixes
When the same adjective could in principle take -izar, -ificar, or -ecer, which one does Spanish pick? The choice is lexicalised — you cannot derive it by rule — but there are strong tendencies:
- Adjectives ending in -o / -a that describe a permanent property: -izar (modernizar, civilizar, organizar) or -ificar (simplificar, justificar).
- Adjectives describing a sensory or physical state (colour, temperature, age): -ecer with en- / a- prefix (enrojecer, palidecer, envejecer).
- For coining new informal verbs from nouns, brand names, or modern loanwords: -ear (tuitear, wasapear, formatear).
- For technical / scientific coinages in formal writing: -izar (digitalizar, virtualizar, optimizar).
A useful diagnostic: if you're tempted to use -ear in an academic essay, it will probably sound too informal — reach for -izar or -ificar. If you're tempted to use -izar in a WhatsApp message, it will sound stiff — reach for -ear or a periphrasis (hacer X).
How loan verbs land in modern Spanish
Twenty-first-century peninsular Spanish absorbs new verbs constantly, and the algorithm is remarkably consistent: take the foreign root, hispanise the spelling, and attach -ear. The output is always a regular -ar verb of the first conjugation, fully conjugable across all moods and tenses.
No googleo tanto como antes — uso Wikipedia primero y, si no encuentro lo que busco, ya recurro al buscador.
I don't google as much as I used to — I check Wikipedia first and, if I don't find what I'm looking for, then I turn to the search engine.
Mi hermano ha estado tuiteando como un loco toda la mañana sobre el partido de anoche.
My brother has been tweeting like crazy all morning about last night's match.
The hispanisation typically collapses double consonants (WhatsApp → wasap-) and may retain or adapt foreign letters (hackear keeps the English h and ck). The verb is then fully conjugable as regular -ar: tuiteo, tuiteas, tuitea, tuiteamos, tuiteáis, tuitean; preterite tuiteé, tuiteaste, tuiteó.
Many loans coexist with periphrastic alternatives (hacer clic alongside clickear; hacer una búsqueda en Google alongside googlear). The periphrastic form is more formal. The RAE has accepted chatear, tuitear, escanear, formatear; wasapear and googlear remain informal coinages.
Common mistakes
❌ Voy a googlar la respuesta antes de contestar.
The Spanish loan verb is *googlear*, not *googlar*. Loan verbs in Spanish go into the -ear class by default, not the bare -ar class.
✅ Voy a googlear la respuesta antes de contestar.
I'm going to google the answer before responding.
❌ Quiero realizar que esto es importante.
False friend. Spanish realizar means 'to carry out, to perform' (an action), not 'to realise' in the mental sense. The mental sense is darse cuenta de or comprender.
✅ Quiero darme cuenta de que esto es importante.
I want to realise that this is important. — darse cuenta de = the mental sense of 'realise'.
❌ El gobierno ha modernificado el sistema en cinco años.
The verb is modernizar, not *modernificar. The bases moderno / actual / real take -izar; the bases simple / claro / justo / identidad take -ificar. The suffix is lexically fixed per base.
✅ El gobierno ha modernizado el sistema en cinco años.
The government has modernised the system in five years.
❌ Anocheceó muy tarde ayer en agosto.
The -ecer verbs are irregular in the yo form (anochezco) and the verb anochecer is impersonal — it has no overt subject and only appears in the third person singular. The preterite is anocheció, not *anocheceó.
✅ Anocheció muy tarde ayer en agosto.
It got dark very late yesterday in August.
❌ Tengo que aclarificar lo que dije ayer en la reunión.
Spanish has two competing verbs from 'claro': aclarar (everyday) and clarificar (formal). They cannot be combined into *aclarificar — that's a hybrid that does not exist.
✅ Tengo que aclarar lo que dije ayer en la reunión.
I need to clarify what I said yesterday at the meeting. — aclarar is the neutral peninsular choice; clarificar is more formal.
Key takeaways
- -ear is the default productive slot. New loans and coinages almost always land here: tuitear, googlear, wasapear, formatear, hackear.
- -izar ("to make X") and -ificar ("to render X") are the formal causative slots. Both produce -ar verbs. -izar is more productive than -ificar.
- -ecer produces inchoative -er verbs ("to become X"), usually with co-occurring en- / a- prefix (enrojecer, amanecer).
- Parasynthesis: simultaneous prefix + suffix attachment (acercar = a- + cerca + -ar; envejecer = en- + vejez + -ecer). Neither half exists alone.
- Spelling rules: -izar takes c before e (organicé), -ificar takes qu before e (simplifiqué), -iguar takes ü before e (averigüe).
- The English-to-Spanish mapping: -ize / -ise → -izar, -ify → -ificar, -en (Germanic) → often -ecer with prefix.
Now practice Spanish
Reading grammar gets you part of the way. The exercises are where it sticks — free, no signup needed.
Start learning Spanish→Related Topics
- Prefijos: des-, in-, re-, pre-, pos-B1 — The productive Spanish prefixes — negation (in-/im-/i-, des-, anti-), spatial and temporal (ante-, pre-, pos-, sub-, super-, retro-), quantity (bi-, tri-, multi-, mono-), intensifier (super-, archi-, hiper-, mega-, re-), and the Aktionsart prefixes (a-, en-/em-) that turn adjectives into verbs.
- Sufijos de sustantivos: -ción, -dad, -mientoB1 — The productive noun-forming suffixes of Spanish — what each one does (action, quality, process, agent), what gender it produces, and how to predict the noun from the underlying verb, adjective, or root.
- Sufijos de adjetivos: -oso, -able, -ibleB1 — The productive adjective-forming suffixes — quality and abundance (-oso), possibility (-able / -ible), relation (-al, -ar, -ico, -ístico), origin (-ano, -ense, -eño, -í), and the more colourful evocative or pejorative suffixes (-izo, -esco, -ón).
- Parasíntesis y formación inversaC1 — Two non-obvious word-formation processes in Spanish: parasynthesis (simultaneous prefix + suffix attached to a root that does not exist as a word on its own — acercar from cerca, enrojecer from rojo, empedrar from piedra) and backformation (deriving a simpler word from a more complex one — legislar back-formed from legislador, autoestopear from autoestop). Both processes are easy to miss because the morphology looks ordinary; the diagnostic is the missing intermediate stage.
- Las tres conjugaciones: -ar, -er, -irA1 — The three Spanish conjugation classes side by side — endings, relative frequency, and where -er and -ir actually diverge.
- Cognados verdaderosA2 — The systematic English-Spanish cognate patterns that put thousands of Spanish words within reach the moment you know the suffix rules: -tion → -ción, -ty → -dad, -ous → -oso, -ent → -ente, -al → -al, -ic → -ico, -ity → -idad. Plus the pronunciation traps and the false-friend warnings.