UNIT THIRTEEN
Radical changing verbs
So far we have seen how verb endings in Spanish change to indicate the subject of the
verb, thus an ending in -o indicates that the subject is ‘I’, whereas -mos indicates that the
subject is ‘we’. However, some verbs in Spanish also have changes to their stems or roots
(hence the term ‘radical changing’).
The change occurs in the vowel that receives the stress, hence it will not occur in all
persons of the verb. Here is an example of a verb in which a stressed e will change to ue:
poder (to be able) puedo
puedes
puede
podemos (note the stress is not on the o)
podéis (note the stess is not on the o)
pueden
If you look at the rules of stress given on pp. xi–xiii, you will see that in the first and
second persons plural of regular verbs (i.e. ‘we’ and ‘you’) the stress is on the ending, not
on the vowel in the stem.
Other common verbs that behave like poder and have this change from o to ue in the
stem are:
almorzar to have lunch
contar to tell or to count
dormir to sleep
morir to die
mostrar to show
mover to mover
volver to return
This is by no means a complete list, but these are some of the more common verbs that
have this change. There is no way of telling just by looking at the infinitive that a verb is
radical changing – e.g. comer is not radical changing but contar is, but you will usually
find the radical change indicated in brackets in the dictionary, e.g.: morir (ue) (to die). It
is important to learn this along with the verb.
One verb jugar, ‘to play’, has a radical change u to ue: