Spanish verbs end in -ar, -er or -ir. In this lesson we will learn to conjugate verbs ending in -ar in the present tense. The present tense is used to speak both about things that are happening right now and about things that happen frequently.

Some examples of verbs ending in -ar:

hablar
to speak, to talk

llegar
to arrive

preguntar
to ask

trabajar
to work

estudiar
to study

In the present tense, we replace the ending -ar by a different ending, depending on the person who is performing the action.

Replace -ar with	Ending	Example
First person (I)	-o	(yo) hablo I speak
Second person (you)	-as	(tú) hablas, (usted) habla you speak
Third person (he, she)	-a	(él) habla, (ella) habla he speaks, she speaks

Note that the polite form usted uses the third instead of the second person conjugation. Spanish subject pronouns are often omitted, since the verb ending already gives information about who the subject is.

Breakdown of (Usted) habla.