regarding verbs

Question

how can know whether the verb is stem changing or not?is there any trick?

There are not that many as far as I can tell the best way is to memorise them . - ray76, Apr 26, 2015

Answer 1

Unfortunately, is it largely a matter of memorization. However, as you study, you will begin to get a feel for which verbs seem like they should change their stems. Sounds odd, but it's true.

One pattern you might or might not notice: When the stem contains two E's, the second E changes to IE. Always.

encender - enciendo

entender - entiendo

defender - defiendo

preferir - prefiero

merendar - meriendo

empezar - empiezo

Thanks. I had not noticed that. - gringojrf, Apr 26, 2015

Answer 2

Verbs that have stem changes without prefixes have the same stem changes when prefixes are added. The same with the reflexive versions of the verbs.

tener - to have
atener - to guard
contener - to contain
contenerse - to restrain oneself
detener, to stop, to detain, to delay
entretener - to entertain, to distract
mantener - to maintain, to support mantenerse - to support oneself, to remain
obtener - to obtain, to get
retener - to retain, to keep
sostener - to support

One way to build verb vocabulary quickly is as follows:

Take any verb you know
Go to the Spanish Rhyming Dictionary
Put the verb in the search box in its infinitive form
Put the number of letters of the verb in the number of rhyming letters box
See all the possible verbs that are the same verb but with prefixes
Check the definition of each verb on SpanishDict
Pay special attention to reflexive versions of each verb
Make flashcards with the above information (a separate card for each verb and it's reflexive form, if any.
Study

By the way, when making flashcards, another very good alternative to making simple flashcards of the Spanish verbs and their definitions is to make flashcards using one or more complete sentences from the SD dictionary.