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Spanish irregular present tense (G)

Spanish irregular present tense g Spanish grammar exercise
 

Usa el enlace a continuación para descargar el pdf con este ejercicio de gramática.

 

There are many kinds of Spanish irregular present tense. Some of them change the ending of the verb in the conjugation, while others change some letters of the root of the verb. The verbs that we are going to study in this post only add a letter to the root in the first person singular. However, one must pay attention, because these verbs can combine different irregularities.

The basic rule is that these verbs add a -g- to the root only in the first person singular, while the rest of the persons remain regular. For example:

PONER SALIR
Yo pongo (yo pong-o) Yo salgo (yo salg-o)
Tú pones (tú pon-es) Tú sales (tú sal-es)
Él pone (él pon-e) Él sale (él sal-e)
Nosotros ponemos (nosotros pon-emos) Nosotros salimos (nosotros sal-imos)
Vosotros ponéis (vosotros pon-éis) Vosotros salís (vosotros sal-ís)
Ellos ponen (ellos pon-en) Ellos salen (ellos sal-en)

However, this verbs can fall also into another type of Spanish irregular present tense. For example, it can be also one of the verbs that change the -e- into -ie-, or the -e- into -i-. In most cases, the rules of both need to be followed. Let’s see some examples:

OÍR (“Y” irregularity) DECIR (“E-I” irregularity) TENER (“E-IE” irregularity)
Yo oigo (yo oig-o) Yo digo (yo dig-o) Yo tengo (yo teng-o)
Tú oyes (tú oy-es) Tú dices (tú dic-es) Tú tienes (tú tien-es)
Él oye (él oy-e) Él dice (él dic-e) Él tiene (él tien-e)
Nosotros oímos (nosotros o-ímos) Nosotros decimos (nosotros dec-imos) Nosotros tenemos (nosotros ten-emos)
Vosotros oís (vosotros o-ís) Vosotros decís (vosotros dec-ís) Vosotros tenéis (vosotros ten-éis)
Ellos oyen (ellos oy-en) Ellos dicen (elos dic-en) Ellos tienen (ellos tien-en)

Another thing that can be tricky is that the -g- sometimes is added to the root (as it is the case with salir, yo salgo), and sometimes the -g- substitutes a letter of the root (as it is the case with hacer, yo hago). Download this grammar exercise, and practice with the different verbs in which this Spanish irregular present tense appears. With time, you will be able to conjugate these verbs automatically.

If you want to have a reference book containing all the Spanish grammar you need to know in one volume with easy tables and schemes, check our Spanish grammar book. And, if you want to go deeper in the study of the Spanish language, visit our Spanish school in Madrid. We hope you enjoy and learn!

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