Spanish: An Essential Grammar

Consonant changing verbs

An important category of stem irregularities comprises verbs in which a

consonant is inserted or changed at the end of the stem, e.g. pones‘you

put’ but pongo‘I put’, dices‘you say’ but digo‘I say’.

Insertion of g or change to g

In a small but important group of -erand -irverbs a gis inserted between

the stem and the ending in the 1st person singular present indicative and

throughout the present subjunctive. In other words, gis inserted whenever

oor a follow the stem. This type of irregularity is illustrated in Table 10.7.

Other common verbs that follow this pattern include:

salir go out tener have

venir come valer be worth

Decir ‘say’ and hacer ‘do’ have a similar pattern, except that in their case

greplaces another consonant, namely c: digo,dices,(vos)decís, dice,

decimos,decís,dicen (present indicative),diga,digas,diga,digamos,digáis,

digan (present subjunctive).

Caer‘fall’, traer‘bring’ and oir‘hear’ also follow the ponerpattern, but the

aor o in the stem is changed to aior oiwhenever the gis inserted: caigo,

10.1.2.2

1111

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

1011

1

12111

3 4 5 6 7 8 9

20111

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

30111

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

40

41111

10

Verb forms

104

Radical changing verbs

No radical changing verbs in any conjugation show a vowel change

in the 1st or 2nd persons plural of the present indicative.

Stem consonant irregularities

1 When the irregularity affects the 1st person singular of the

present indicative, this also affects the present subjunctive which

is usually based upon it: salg-(from salgo ‘I go out’) becomes

salga, salgasetc.

2 Stem consonantal irregularities never occur in the 1st or 2nd

persons plural of the present indicative.