150 irregular verbs in Spanish??
I would like to make several suggestions to lovely_lovel's reference article:
First of all, a lot of those verbs are perfectly regular.
When we add an e to the last letter of the stem c then (c -> qu)
That is not an irregularity, but a regular spelling convention. All verbs ending in -ar (I repeat: 100%) change to qu when the next vowel is e or i. The reason is simple: edificar sounds like edifikar, but if we write the subjunctive with c too, then edifice would sound like edifise, not edifike, which is how it is supposed to sound if it is regular. Regular verbs have regular sound changes, not regular spellings.
When we add an e to the last letter of the stem z then (z-> c):
The letter z is used instead of c when we do not want the 'k' sound we get with 'ca', 'co', and 'cu'. Abrazar sounds like abrasar, since abracar would sound like abrakar, which is the wrong sound. But in subjunctive the spelling uses the preferred c, because abrace does sound like abrase, which is how it is supposed to be. This happens 100% of the time, so it is not irregular at all.
When we add an a or o to the last letter of the stem g then (g -> j):
More regular verbs, similar regular orthographic issues: ge and gi do not sound like ga, go or gu.
When we add an e to the last letter of the stem g then (g ->gu)
Idem.
When we add an (a/ e/ o) then (u -> ü):
Ibidem.
No pattern followed here (ui->uy):
No pattern?? I'll skip the historical explanation, but all verbs (again, 100%) ending in -uir systematically change to y. All 41 verbs with this ending follow the exact same pattern.
I don't think it is a good idea to scare people with non-existent irregularities.
10 Answers
There are only three real irregular Spanish verbs: Ser, Haber, & Ir
The others with stem changes still follow the basic endings... Why do people consider stuff like zar->cé or car>qué irregular?
*ga gue gui go gu
ca que qui co cu
za ce ci zo zu*
I went to Google and found a very very interesting paper on this very topic which I will link below:
I got as far as the 3rd paragraph. The explanation of "person" (when talking about verb inflections) is nonsense. "person" indicates who is speaking but has nothing to do with the person(s) being addressed (unless one is thinking about the "tú"/"usted" and "vosotros"/"ustedes" distinction [and those are all 2nd person singular/plural]. The difference is in register, not "person").
Example:
localizar, abrazar, actualizar, adelgazar, alcanzar, amenazar, analizar, aterrizar, aterrorizar, avanzar, capitalizar, cazar, climatizar, comercializar, cristalizar, cruzar, danzar, desplazar, destrozar, ecualizar, embarazar, encabezar, familiarizar, finalizar, garantizar, generalizar, gozar, horrorizar, idealizar, ilegalizar, inmovilizar, inmunizar, lanzar, memorizar, modernizar, monitorizar, monopolizar, nacionalizar, neutralizar, normalizar, optimizar, organizar, personalizar, popularizar, privatizar, realizar, rezar, suavizar, tranquilizar, utilizar, visualizar, abalanzar, acorazar, aderezar, adrezar, adulzar, adverbializar, afianzar, agilizar...
There are 802 regular verbs ending in -zar, and all of them always change to c before e or i. Practice conjugating a few ones until you get the idea; then you'll know what to do next time you see one, since they are predictable. Isn't that better than memorizing 802 verbs which are terrifyingly irregular?*
According to my database, 57 of those verbs in the list are 100% regular, and 13 of them follow a perfectly predictable pattern (those ending in -uir), i.e. only 47% of the verbs in that list are truly irregular.
abrazar, acoger, adelgazar, agregar, alcanzar, alzar, amordazar, analizar, apagar, aparcar, aterrizar, aterrorizar, blocar, castigar, cazar, certificar, chocar, civilizar, clarificar, coger, complicar, cotizar, cualificar, edificar, electrificar, encoger, escoger, explicar, fabricar, falsificar, fatigar, generalizar, gozar, halagar, intensificar, justificar, juzgar, lanzar, llegar, madrugar, marcar, mascar, mascar, memorizar, picar, platicar, provocar, punzar, recoger, refrescar, rozar, sacar, suplicar, tocar, tragar, unificar, utilizar
Also, dormir and acostar exist as verbs; "dormir" and "acostarse" are their pronominal counterparts.
Ah, comparecer has only one e.
Another example, to clarify things further:
Let's take a regional pronunciation of Spanish where Z and S have exactly the same sound. Now let's take the verb "casar" (to marry):
Present indicative: caso, casas, casa, casamos, casáis, casan.
Present subjunctive: case, cases, case, casemos, caséis, casen.
That was a regular verb, and everything was to be expected from a regular verb. Now let's take another regular verb: cazar (to hunt). If Z and S are pronounced the same, it should sound like "casar". Let's conjugate it:
Present indicative: cazo, cazas, caza, cazamos, cazáis, cazan.
Present subjunctive: cace, caces, cace, cacemos, cacéis, cacen.
Irregular? Ask a native to read it for you, because all its forms sound identical to "casar" if Z and S are pronounced the same. This is a regular verb. As regular as "cazar" is, despite its ortography.
I haven't counted, but it seems to me there is a short list of "really irregular" verbs like ir, several families that follow similar patterns, such as tener and traer. The rest of the stem changing -er and -ir verbs follow simple patterns, leaving only a list of stem changing -ar verbs.
Tener has irregularities in six tenses, so except for the impefect, the "gerundio" and the participio, everything is irregular.
Traer is slightly more regular: its future is also regular.
If those are your standards for very irregular verbs, then there are at least 165 verbs "that" irregular, and I am not making up the figures. If you include verbs with up to three irregular tenses, the count goes up to 473, and 585 with only two irregularities.
According to my lists, there are 766 irregular verbs that you are likely to meet in normal cirumstances, from which 259 are frequent ones, and 76 essential.
I haven't counted, but it seems to me there is a short list of "really irregular" verbs like ir, several families that follow similar patterns, such as tener and traer. The rest of the stem changing -er and -ir verbs follow simple patterns, leaving only a list of stem changing -ar verbs.
There are only a few really irregular verbs, and the arbitrary stem changing -ar verbs. . .the rest fit simple patterns. Even the -ar verbs only require remembering that they are stem changing.
What Lazarus wrote got me to thinking and off I went to Google and found a very very interesting paper on this very topic which I will link below:
Perhaps her article could be titled "Verbs: Patterns of Spelling Changes".
Then, you can give us a list of the truly irregular verbs. Seeing both lists side by side might be helpful for some in order to note the difference.
