Why are some stem changing verbs considered regular?
I have not been able to find an answer to completely separate the regular verbs from the irregular verbs since no one seems to give a clear cut answer to what the difference is. I have looked up verbs in my 501 Spanish Verbs text book and it tells you whether the verb is regular or irregular. In the many lessons on the net, you get the sense that a regular _ar, _er, _ir verb will form an easy pattern in the conjugation and the irregular verbs are ever changing to confuse you. For example, entender is a regular verb BUT it is also a stem-changing verb which is totally irregular, so now I am totally confused and I have had to cut and paste my 2 lists switching the verbs back and forth. I would really appreciate some clarity. Gracias!
4 Answers
I believe that the term "stem changing" is one developed/used by textbooks aimed at foreigners. On at least one occasion, Lazarus lumped them in with "irregular" verbs (resulting in just two categories regular/irregular). However with the so-called "stem changing" verbs, the irregularities are confined to the stems and putting them in a separate category may be helpful to some students.
Verbs that conjugate 'normally' are considered regular (their endings follow the normal conjugation 'pattern'), if they don't conjugate normally, you guessed it, they are irregular. Whether a verb is stem changing or not is irrelevant as it regards being regular or irregular (it's the stem that's changing, the ending is 'regular'). The verb ending determines whether it's irregular or not.
501 verbs? Here's a link to a verb conjugator site that purports to have 10,000 verbs. I have no idea how many the conjugator on this site claims to do.
If all they do is change stems or have orthographic spelling changes, then the pattern is almost as simple as for completely regular verbs. For the -er and -ir verbs, there is even a fairly simple pattern to which verbs are stem changing.
