The 32 Most Common -ER Verbs in Spanish + How To Conjugate Them

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As you practice your Spanish verbs, one of the first things you’ll learn is that they’re organized based on their endings. There are -ER, -AR, and -IR verbs, and you’ll need to know the differences among them to properly conjugate each verb successfully.

Some of the most crucial action words you can learn are -ER verbs in Spanish, so let’s take a closer look at them. We’ll go through some common Spanish -ER verbs that are helpful to know, break down what an -ER verb is, and spotlight five important Spanish -ER verbs you should learn.

What is an -ER verb in Spanish?

An -ER verb is a verb that ends with the letters “er.” Spanish verb endings are significant—these final two letters signal how a verb should be conjugated. 

By conjugating a verb, you will be able to express that an action has been performed by a different subject (you, he, they, etc.) or in a different tense (present, past, future, etc.)

In Spanish, the majority of verbs have one of these three endings: 

Note that each of the verbs listed above is in its infinitive form, which means they have not been conjugated. Each type of Spanish verb is conjugated differently, so you’ll want to learn the patterns for the regular verbs and memorize the irregular verb conjugations.

How to conjugate Spanish -ER verbs in present tense

A verb tense allows you to express when something happens. The present tense is the most basic tense you’ll learn in any new language to talk about things happening now or regularly. 

To conjugate a Spanish -ER verb in the present tense, you remove the ending from the infinitive (i.e. unconjugated) form and add the conjugated ending for the tense you need. Take a look at some examples of -ER verbs conjugated in the present tense here:

*Pronouns ending with “-a” are feminine and can be used when “we,” “they,” or “you” refer to a group of all women. 

**The vosotros form is only used in Spain

Conjugate Spanish -ER verbs in the five most common tenses 

If you use an -ER verb to talk about something happening in the past, you would conjugate it differently than an -ER verb used to talk about the present. Each verb has its own conjugation patterns for different tenses. 

There are 18 Spanish tenses, but knowing at least five will help you feel comfortable communicating in any conversation.

• Present tense: things happening now or regularly (“I walk to the store.”)
• Preterite tense: events that have been completed, similar to past tense (“I walked to the store.”)
• Imperfect tense: actions that occurred repeatedly or over an extended period of time (“I was walking to the store when…”)
• Future tense: things that will happen in the future (“I will walk to the store.”)
• Conditional tense: hypothetical actions (“You would get wet if it rained.”)

Here’s how you would conjugate -ER verbs in the first three tenses, using the common Spanish verb comer (to eat). Note that you’ll only keep the stem of the verb and change the ending.

And this chart shows how to conjugate comer in the future and conditional tense, where you keep the infinitive form and add an ending.

27 Common -ER verbs in Spanish

This chart of -ER verbs are noted by the Real Academia Española as some of the most frequently used words in the Spanish language, so they’re helpful to learn. Many of these verbs are irregular, and some are stem-changing or undergo spelling changes when conjugated. This means they don’t follow normal Spanish conjugation rules. We’ve marked the irregular verbs in this list with an asterisk (*). To see how to conjugate these verbs, you can look them up in a reliable conjugation dictionary, such as Spanish Dictionary.

*irregular verbs

5 essential irregular Spanish -ER verbs to know

Many -ER verbs will follow the conjugation patterns you learned earlier. But you also know that quite a few -ER verbs are irregular, which means they have one or more exceptions to typical conjugation rules.

English has irregular verbs, too. As an example, think about the words “cook” and “eat.” When you conjugate “cook” into other tenses, like “cooked,”  “cooks,” or “cooking,” you follow consistent verb ending rules that apply to many other verbs. This makes it a regular verb. However, when you conjugate “eat” into the past tense, you use “ate” instead of “eated.” It doesn’t follow predictable rules, which makes it an irregular verb.

These five Spanish -ER verbs are so common that you should consider them essential. As you learn to speak Spanish, you’ll use them often in basic conversations, so memorizing their irregular conjugations will be necessary.

1. Ser (to be)

Ser is a basic verb meaning “to be.” This verb has a variety of applications, such as describing characteristics, occupations, relationships, ownership, and time.

• Soy arquitecto. = I am an architect.
• Somos hermanas. = We are sisters.

2. Haber (to be, to have)

Depending on the context, haber can mean “to be” or “to have.” When it’s used as an auxiliary verb, it means “to have.” It’s placed before the past participle of another verb to form the perfect tense.

• Ha completado su tarea. = He has completed his homework.
•  Tú has comido bien = You have eaten well.

Haber has a special form, hay, which is used when it means “to be.” It’s used to describe things being present or in a certain place. An equivalent in English is “there is” or “there are.”

• Hay una mosca en la pared. = There is a fly on the wall.

3. Tener (to be, to have)

Tener is another verb that can mean “to be” or “to have” and is used to express possession, emotions, physical state, responsibilities, and age.

• Tengo hambre. = I am hungry.
• Tenía 20 años el año pasado. = I was 20 years old last year.
• Tendrán un bebé el próximo mes. = They’ll have a baby next month.
• Tienes que ir a la escuela hoy. = You have to go to school today..

4. Poder (to be able to)

To communicate your ability to do something, you’ll use the verb poder, which means “to be able to.” It’s another auxiliary verb, so it’s always followed by a second verb.

• Yo puedo hablar tres idiomas. = I can speak three languages.
• Ella puede llevarte a casa esta noche. = She can drive you home tonight.
• Él  puede correr rápidamente. = He is able to run quickly.

5. Hacer (to do, to make)

When you want to show that you can do or make something, use the verb hacer.

• Hicimos un cartel para la venta. = We made a poster for the sale.
• Lo harás mañana. = You’ll do it tomorrow.

You can also use it to express the passing of time. This can be tricky for English speakers to learn since it doesn’t have a clear English equivalent.

• Hace una hora que canta. = He has been singing for an hour.

Use Rosetta Stone to conquer -ER Verbs in Spanish

The intricacies around the most common Spanish -ER verbs can be time-consuming to learn, but you can get yourself up and speaking faster with Rosetta Stone’s Dynamic Immersion method. It’s ideal for practicing all the verb conjugations in context, just as you would have learned them as a child through second language acquisition.