10 Most Common Spanish Verbs And How To Use Them

Ready to learn about Spanish verbs?

Connect these action words together with other parts of Spanish sentences to speak like a native. Spring Spanish (a project I co-founded) made a great video on how you can use the verbs in Spanish:

In this blog post, you’ll learn the 10 most common Spanish verbs, their conjugation, and you will see example sentences with chunks!

What are Spanish verbs + types of verbs

So, nothing special, just like in most of other languages! But they are important, because they give meaning to sentences and chunks in the language.

There are several types of verbs in Spanish (click on the links to learn more about them in our dedicated blog posts):

1. Regular Verbs in Spanish: These follow a consistent conjugation pattern based on their infinitive endings (-ar, -er, -ir).
2. Irregular Verbs in Spanish: These do not follow the standard conjugation patterns and have irregular forms.
3. Reflexive Verbs in Spanish: These verbs use reflexive pronouns (me, te, se, nos, os, se) to indicate that the action is being done to the subject.
4. Stem-Changing Verbs: These verbs change their stem vowel when conjugated.
5. Pronominal Verbs: Similar to reflexive verbs, but the pronoun is not necessarily reflexive.
6. Impersonal Verbs: These verbs are conjugated only in the third person singular and do not have a specific subject.
7. Auxiliary Verbs: These are used with other verbs to form compound tenses (haber, ir, ser, estar).
8. Modal Verbs: These express possibility, obligation, or permission (poder, deber, querer, etc.).

1. Ser – To be

The verb ser is most commonly used to describe inherent and permanent characteristics, qualities, or states of a person, place, or thing.

It’s also use for talking about origin, occupation, religion or the material something is made of.

Examples with chunks:

• Soy de Canadá. [I am from Canada.]
• ¿Cómo estás siendo tan paciente? [How are you being so patient?]

2. Estar – To be

Estar typically expresses temporary states, conditions, or locations.

You can use it to describe how someone or something is felling, or to describe the status of situation of something.

Examples with chunks:

• Estoy bien, gracias. [I’m well, thank you.]
• La fiesta está siendo un éxito. [The party is being a success.]

3. Tener – To have

Tener is mainly used to talk about possession or ownership of something.

There’s also an important construct with tener: tener que.

Tener que is followed by the infinitive to show necessity or obligation.

Examples with chunks:

• Tengo que irme ya. [I have to go now.]
• No tengo ni idea de lo que pasa. [I have no idea what’s happening.]

4. Ir – To go

This verb is used to talk about movement.

Ir is also essential to form the future tense in Spanish with Ir a + infinitive.

Examples with chunks:

• Voy a salir con mis amigos. [I’m going to go out with my friends.]
• ¿A dónde vas con tanta prisa? [Where are you going in such a hurry?]

5. Hacer – To do/make

Hacer is always used when talking about an activity or an action.

Examples with chunks:

• Hago ejercicio todas las mañanas. [I do exercise every morning.]
• ¿Qué vas a hacer este fin de semana? [What are you going to do this weekend?]

6. Decir – To say/tell

You can use decir to express opinions or make a comment.

Examples with chunks:

• Me dijeron que era una buena idea. [They told me it was a good idea.]
• ¿Qué quieres decir con eso? [What do you mean by that?]

7. Poder – To be able to

Poder expresses ability, permission or possibility to do something.

It can suggest either physical or mental capacity.

Examples with chunks:

• No puedo creer lo que veo. [I can’t believe what I’m seeing.]
• ¿Podrías ayudarme con esto? [Could you help me with this?]

8. Ver – To see

Beside its primary usage of talking about seeing something, ver can be used to express metaphorical meanings.

Examples with chunks:

• Veo que tienes un nuevo corte de pelo. [I see you have a new haircut.]
• ¿Has visto la nueva película? [Have you seen the new movie?]

9. Querer – To want

This verb is used to express desire, willingness, or the wanting of something: an object, an activity, a personal preference.

Examples with chunks:

• Quiero tomar un descanso. [I want to take a break.]
• ¿Qué quieres hacer hoy? [What do you want to do today?]

10. Saber – To know

Saber means to know something, or to be aware of something in your surrounding.

Examples with chunks:

• No sé cómo explicarlo. [I don’t know how to explain it.]
• ¿Sabes dónde está la estación de tren? [Do you know where the train station is?]

Practice the most common Spanish verbs with our Practice Worksheets

Fill in the blanks with the correct common Spanish verbs!

This is just part of the exercise we have for this blog post, and we have more for other topics, too!

Learn common Spanish verbs with Conversation Based Chunking

You can see that we not only gave you conjugation tables but also examples with chunks. This is exactly how you could learn the correct usage of Spanish verbs.

Honestly, there’s no particular need to memorize the conjugation tables as long as you use the Conversation Based Chunking method. It’s a method that focuses on the natural building blocks of the language – chunks. It’s what native speakers use all the time.

In our example sentences, we formatted these chunks as bold. Curious to learn more about this method?

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