Spanish Verbs Made Simple(r) - Hillcrest Elementary

IRREGULARITIES: PRESENT TENSE 27
Compound verb forms almost always follow the same pattern, e.g.,
infinitive 1s
absolver absuelvo “to absolve”
aprobar apruebo “to approve”
comprobar compruebo “to verify”, “to check”
concertar concierto “to harmonize”, “to arrange”
contender contiendo “to contend”, “to contest”
entender entiendo “to understand”
demoler demuelo “to demolish”
desenvolver desenvuelvo “to unwrap”, “to evolve”
envolver envuelvo “to wrap up”, “to involve”
revolver revuelvo “to mix”, “to turn over”, “to revolve”
remover remuevo “to remove”, “to stir”
with the following major exceptions: 7
pretender pretendo “to try to”, “to aspire to”
interrogar 8 interrogo “to interrogate”
There exist a much smaller number of verbs with no associated commonly used
diphthonged nouns or adjectives which nevertheless are diphthonged, including:
infinitive 1s
ascender asciendo “to ascend”
cocer cuezo 9 “to cook”
confesar 10 confieso “to confess”
costar cuesto “to cost”
defender 11 defiendo “to defend”
descender desciendo “to descend”
encender enciendo “to light”
heder hiedo “to stink”
7 Aterrar is essentially two separate verbs: a diphthong verb like desterrar when its meaning has
to do with tierra (“to cover with earth”, “to demolish”, “to land”); a regular verb when it relates to
terror (“to frighten”, “to terrify”).
8 Similarly, abrogar, arrogar, derogar, prorrogar, subrogar are conjugated without diphthongs.
9 See Chapter 7 for an explanation of the (regular orthographic) change of the ending to -zo.
10 Profesar does not diphthong: yo profeso.
11 Ofender does not diphthong: yo ofendo.