–AR ending verbs in Spanish with examples and exercises
Let me introduce you to the –AR ending verbs in Spanish. As you know, in the Spanish language, verbs break down into three categories, being most of them –AR ending. The majority of the neo-Latin languages inherited this from their historic source, thus you will find similar groupings in Italian, French, Portuguese, etc.
Since we intend to learn Spanish, keeping in mind some facts will not hurt anyone. For instance, irregular verbs are extremely rare or nearly nonexistent within this group. We should consider this great news, as conjugating AR verbs in Spanish will turn out to be ridiculously straightforward. It suffices not to forget to attach the appropriate ending to the stem according to the verb’s grammatical doer (the one syntactically-wise dubbed “subject”).
As stated above, the number of the –AR ending verbs in Spanish can be safely put as vast. We will show you some of them, each with its corresponding translation into English, in case they just came up to the tip of your tongue (we hope not):
SPANISH AR VERBS CHART
| Amar
(to love) |
Caminar
(to walk) |
Cantar
(to sing) |
Hablar
(to talk/speak) |
| Respirar
(to breathe) |
Bailar
(to dance) |
Tocar
(to touch/to play an instrument) |
Odiar
(to hate) |
| Escuchar
(to listen) |
Preocupar
(to worry) |
Sentar
(to sit) (irregular on the present) |
Pensar
(to think) |
| Opinar
(to say one’s opinion) |
Preparar
(to prepare/to fix [a sandwich]) |
Reparar
(to repair/fix) |
Mejorar
(to better/enhance/improve) |
| Lavar
(to wash) |
Bañar
(to bathe) |
Duchar
(to shower) |
Cepillar
(to brush) |
| Salvar
(to save) |
Guardar
(to put away/save/keep aside) |
Regalar
(to give away) |
Esforzar(se)
(to make an effort) |
| Montar
(to ride [a bike/a horse], to set up [a business, a bear trap]) |
Entrenar
(to train [physical, at the army, for the Olympic Games, to become fit]) |
Adiestrar
(to professionally train someone) |
Capacitar
(to train someone for a skill, trades, etc.) |
| Enseñar
(to teach) |
Rezar
(to pray) |
Orar
(to pray, to chant) |
Soltar
(to let go [irregular on the present]) |
| Tomar
(to take, to drink) |
Sujetar
(to hold) |
Acusar
(to accuse) |
Presentar
(to introduce [a person, to show a TV programme]) |
| Presentar(se)
(to show up [when drafted by the Army], to perform [on TV, at the theatre, on a concert]) |
Dibujar
(to draw, to design) |
Diseñar
(to design) |
Faltar
(to miss [a lesson, an appointment], to be missing) |
CONJUGATING -AR VERBS IN SPANISH
As we have been insisting on, conjugating regular verbs in Spanish should not establish an unsurmountable hardship to overcome. Let us pick some of the most commonly used out of the above list, cut the infinitive ending out and paste the conjugated ending. For example, if we target amar (to love), what do we have left when we remove –ar? The stem, which is am-. It is here where, in the present tense, we add the conjugated ending, namely:
| yo | -o |
| tú | -as |
| él/ella | -a |
| nosotros | -amos |
| vosotros | -áis |
| ellos | -an |
Always keep in mind that, in many places of America (apart from Argentina and Uruguay, certain areas of Central America), usted/ustedes fills in respectively for tú/vosotros as the manner of addressing people we may be not still familiar or confident with.
We will add the one labelled as “irregular” so you warm up to the fact that they are not intended to make your lives as Spanish learners more miserable, while their irregularity responds to very specific and phonetically recognizable rules.
| amar | caminar | soltar | lavar | escuchar | pensar | montar |
| amo | camino | suelto* | lavo | escucho | pienso* | monto |
| amas | caminas | sueltas* | lavas | escuchas | piensas* | montas |
| ama | camina | suelta* | lava | escucha | piensas* | monta |
| amamos | caminamos | soltamos | lavamos | escuchamos | pensamos | montamos |
| amáis | camináis | soltáis | laváis | escucháis | pensáis | montáis |
| aman | caminan | sueltan* | lavan | escuchan | piensan* | montan |
Putting some of them in a sentence, we get:
- Montamos bicicleta cuesta arriba en la montaña al atardecer (We ride our bikes uphill in the evening).
- Opino que, si amas a tu pareja, siempre le escuchas (I think that if you love your partner you always listen to him/her).
AT TIMES THEY ARE A TAD BIT DIFFERENT
Here, we find this soltar special case. Why is this verb irregular? Historically, some sole Latin vowels (some –es- and –os-) widened out when in a stressed/accented position: -e- became -ie- and -o- went to sound -ue-. The Latin vowels turned into diphthongs in many words (porta>puerta [door], centum>ciento [a hundred], neve>nieve [snow]). Just because they were so important, time did not exempt verbs from going through such a transformation. So, whenever the -o- in soltar is stressed, it splits into an -uE- (the -e- carries the accent, whether visible or not based on the Spanish spelling rules we have studied in another article). This means that the forms without the diphthong simply have the stress on some other vowel (soltAmos, soltÁis).
Likewise, pensar’s conjugation is
| pienso* | piensas* | piensa* | pensamos | pensáis | piensan* |
Same explanation, since -e- went to sound -ie- when stressed.
IN THE END…
We hope that, as usual, this helps you big time to improve your understanding of –AR ending verbs in Spanish. Now, to further our assistance, we are leaving you with some exercises.
Would you like to learn more Spanish grammar? Discover the future tense in Spanish effortlessly!
EXERCISES
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