how to identify regular and irregular verbs in Spanish
How to identify regular and irregullar verbs in Spanish?
2 Answers
If you are following a logical means of learning Spanish, either classes, or computer courses like Rosetta stone, or totally oral methods like Pimsleur, the irregular verbs will be introduced to you at appropriate intervals.
There is no way that you can "identify" which verbs are irregular in Spanish. A hint might be that the irregular verbs are the ones that are most used, like "Ser" "Estar" , "Ir" , "hacer," "decir" "tener," and "venir"
There are some verbs like "andar" that are regular in the present tense and irregular in the preterit tense. (past tense-completed action)
So don't worry about them. You would NEVER be able to memorize a list of them. Any good Spanish/English dictionary indicates which verbs are irregular when you are looking up a certain verb.
This is what happens when you try to memorize a list of irregular verbs.
If you are looking at the infinitive of a verb and trying to decide how to conjugate it, . regular vs irregular. There is no definitive way to tell. But once you learn the irregular verb patterns you can make a pretty good guess and be right more often then wrong. But the only sure way is memorization.
For example: Cocer - irregular; Cocinar - regular; Conocer - mostly regular; Colgar - irregular.
I try sounding them out in the 1st and 3rd person singular present tense to "hear" if they sound right. Sometimes it works, other times it doesn't. For example Cuelgo vs. Colgo. Colgo sounds wierd so Colgar must be irregular.
Good luck.
