Modern Spanish Grammar: A Practical Guide

See also adquirir‘to acquire’ and jugar‘to play’ in the verb table in the Appendix.

16.1.2.2 Orthographic-changing verbs
Some verbs, whilst not irregular to the ear, need changes in the written form of their
stem:

• z in the stem of an -ar verb is written as c before e (comenzar‘to begin’, but
  comience).


• c in the stem of an -er verb is written as z before a or o (vencer‘to conquer’, but
  venza, venzo).


• c in the stem of an -ar verb is written qu before e (atacar‘to attack’, but
  ataquemos).


• g in the stem of an -ar verb is written gu before e (rogar‘to ask’, but ruegue).


• gu in the stem of an -ar verb is written gü before e (averiguar‘to verify’, but
  averigüe).


• g in the stem of an -er verb is written j before a or o (coger‘to pick up’, but coja,
  cojo).


• ie at the beginning of a word is written ye (yerro‘I stray’, from errar‘to stray’). But
  a radical-changing verb which has he- in the infinitive spells this sound hie- in
  the radical-changed forms (hiela‘it freezes’, from helar‘to freeze’).


• ue at the beginning of a word is written hue (oler‘to smell’, but huele).


• gu in the stem of an -ir verb is written g before a or o (distinguir‘to distinguish’,
  but distinga, distingo).


• qu in the stem of an -ir verb is written c before a or o (delinquir‘to commit an
  offence’, but delinca, delinco).


• ñ which would regularly be followed by a ‘weak’ i (see 1.2) is written simply asñ
  (tañó, not *tañio, from tañer‘to strum’).


• ll which would regularly be followed by a ‘weak’ i is written simply as ll (bulló, not
  *bullió, from bullir‘to boil’).


• An unstressed i between two vowels is written y (leí, but leyó, leyendo from leer
  ‘to read’; caí, but cayó, cayendo from caer‘to fall’).

16.1.2.3 Irregular first person singular of the present indicative
A substantial number of verbs have a first person singular form of the present indicative
which is irregular. The present subjunctive, which is formed from the first person
singular of the present indicative, is correspondingly irregular. An example is:

Gerund Gerund Gerund

sintiendo durmiendo pidiendo

PONER (pongo) ‘to put’, ‘place’

Present indicative Present subjunctive

pongoponga

pones (ponés) pongas (pongás)

pone ponga

ponemos pongamos

ponéis pongáis

ponen pongan

VERB FORMS 16.1