Stem-Changers

Present Indicative Tense 

The most common set of irregular verbs in present tense are the stem changers, or boot verbs. All of these verbs will have a small change in the last syllable of the stem. There are four types of stem changers.

There are e to ie verbs like recomendar, e to i verbs like pedir, o to ue verbs like recordar, amd u to ue verbs like jugar.

The reason that these are sometimesreferred to as boot verbs is that if you were to draw a line around the stems that change, it would look like a boot. That is, the yoform, tú form, él, ella, usted form, and ellos, ellas, ustedes form all get a stem change, whereas nosotros and vosotros do not. Look at the table below.

 

e to ie verbs like recomendar 

Singular		Plural
Yo	recomiendo	Nosotros	recomendamos
Tú	recomiendas	Vosotros	recomendais
El Ella Usted	recomienda	Ellos Ellas Ustedes	recomiendan

 

e to i verbs like pedir

Singular		Plural
Yo	pido	Nosotros	pedimos
Tú	pides	Vosotros	pedís
El Ella Usted	pide	Ellos Ellas Ustedes	piden

 

o to ue verbs like dormir

Singular		Plural
Yo	duermo	Nosotros	dormimos
Tú	duermes	Vosotros	dormís
El Ella Usted	duerme	Ellos Ellas Ustedes	duermen

 

u to ue verbs like jugar

Singular		Plural
Yo	juego	Nosotros	jugamos
Tú	juegas	Vosotros	jugáis
El Ella Usted	juega	Ellos Ellas Ustedes	juegan

 

Here are a few more example of stem changing verbs:

 

e to ie	e to i	o to ue
acertar – to guess, get right encender – to light advertir – to advise, warn entender – to understand cerrar – to close, shut comenzar – to begin hervir – to boil confesar – to confess mentir – to lie consentir – to consent negar – to deny convertir – to convert pensar (en) – to think about defender – to defend perder – to lose empezar – to begin preferir – to prefer	impedir – to impede colegir – to deduce competir – to compete medir – to measure conseguir – to get, obtain pedir – to ask for, to order corregir – to correct perseguir – to pursue, to persecute reír – to laugh despedir – to dismiss, fire repetir – to repeat seguir – to follow, continue freír – to fry servir – to serve gemir – to groan, moan sonreír – to smile	almorzar – to eat lunch morir – to die aprobar – to approve mostrar – to show contar – to count, to tell probar – to prove, test, sample, taste costar – to cost recordar – to remember devolver – to return (an object) volver – to return (from someplace) rogar – to beg, pray dormir – to sleep encontrar – to find soñar (con) – to dream (about) morder – to bite volar – to fly

 

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