So you’ve conquered the Present Tense for Regular verbs and the most known Irregular Present Tense verbs and now you are ready for that final challenge… the Orthographic (AKA Spell Changing) verbs. Well, you’ll find plenty of the spell changing verbs here, but there’s no need to try and learn them all. Once you know a few in each group, you’ll be able to spot new ones. So read on to find out how they change, learn a few and then pick up the rest on your language learning journey.
So what is an Orthographic changing verb?
These are verbs that change their spelling to maintain the right pronunciation. As you make the normal changes to the verb in order to say who is doing it, sometimes the letters you use will change the way that the verb sounded originally.
One thing you will learn about the pronunciation of Spanish is that most of the time, Spanish likes consistency. So, if a spelling change makes you pronounce a key part of the verb differently to it’s original infinitive stem, there will be a another change to help maintain the original sound.
What???
Let’s look at an example:
Fingir (To pretend)
This is an ‘-IR’ verb so the endings are: o/es/e/imos/ís/en
When you form the verb, you would expect:
Fingir (To pretend)
- (yo) fingo (I pretend)
- (tú) finges (you pretend)
- (él/ella) finge (he/she pretends)
- (nosotros/as) fingimos (we pretend)
- (vosotros/as) fingís (you all pretend)
- (ellos/as) fingen (they pretend)
However, if you simply stuck to the rule, the ‘yo fingo’ would be pronounced differently to all the other conjugations.
Listen to this:
As you can hear, the ‘G’ in ‘fingo’ sounds totally different to all the other conjugations. It’s a hard G, whilst the others are soft Gs.
Spanish doesn’t like this, it prefers consistency. Therefore, to ensure that the stem of each formation sounds the same as it does in the infinitive, there has to be a change.
Listen to the consistency when you make the spelling change and say ‘yo finjo’ instead of ‘yo fingo’:
But what if I’m not sure how to pronounce certain letters?
If you need a bit of help with the pronunciation rules, take a look at my PRONUNCIATION GUIDE. However, the main culprits for causing pronunciation problems are C and G, because their pronunciation is either hard or soft depending on the vowel that follows the letter.
Here’s a quick overview on C and G:
C + e or i = soft C
The cinema = El cine (el thee- ney or el see-ney)
C + a, o or u = hard C
My bed = Mi cama (mee kah-mah)
Don’t get bogged down with over thinking this rule. It’s no different to English. We have a soft C and a hard C.
I.e. circle (soft C) card (hard C)
Here’s a look at how G changes:
As in English, the sound changes depending on the vowel that comes after the G. It will result in a soft G or a hard G. Examples in English could be generally (soft G) and ‘gift’ (hard G).
Here are some examples in Spanish:
G + i or e = soft G
My twin = Mi gemelo (mee ghe-meh-loh)
G + o, a or u = hard G
A rubber = Una goma (oon-ah goh-mah)
This is why the pronunciation changes when you conjugate ‘FINGIR’!
How do we keep the consistency?
We sometimes change or add letters to make sure that we pronounce the newly formed stem in the same way as the stem in the infinitive. Therefore:
‘fingo‘ changes to ‘finjo‘.
And consecuently, the conjugation would be:
Fingir (To pretend)
- (yo) finjo (I pretend)
- (tú) finges (you pretend)
- (él/ella) finge (he/she pretends)
- (nosotros/as) fingimos (we pretend)
- (vosotros/as) fingís (you all pretend)
- (ellos/as) fingen (they pretend)
There are many verbs that work like this, in one way or another, so the best way to tackle them is in separate groups and learn the rules of each group one by one.
Let’s look at these individual groups:
Verbs that end in –ger and –gir change the g to j in the yo form.
This is to maintain the original soft ‘g’ that you get when you have ‘g+e’ or ‘g+i’ (like in ‘gemelos’ or ‘girasol’). If you put an ‘o’ after the ‘g’ is will make the ‘g’ sound ‘hard’ (like the ‘guh‘ sound in ‘gordo’).
Take a look at this list and this example but if you are struggling with the sounds check out my PRONUNCIATION GUIDE.
| List of Verbs | Example |
|---|---|
| coger colegir (e:i) corregir (e:i) dirigir elegir (e:i) escoger exigir fingir proteger recoger sumergir surgir | cojo coges coge cogemos cogéis cogen |
Verbs that end in –guir change the gu to g in the yo form.
This is because the original ‘u’ was only placed between ‘g_e’ and ‘g_i’ to have a nice strong ‘guh‘ sound (like in ‘goma’). If not, ‘ge’ together makes a sounds soft (like in ‘gente’). The natural sound of ‘go‘ is a hard ‘guh’ so there’s no longer a need for the extra ‘u’ inbetween ‘g_o’.
| List of Verbs | Example |
|---|---|
| conseguir (e:i) distinguir erguir (e:i) extinguir perseguir (e:i) seguir (e:i) | consigo consigues consigue conseguimos conseguís consiguen |
Verbs that end in a consonant + –cer or –cir change the c to z in the yo form.
Again, this is about hard and soft sounds. If we leave the ‘c’ it will lead to a ‘co’ sound which is hard (like in ‘como’). The original sound was a soft ‘c’ and therefore we change the ‘c’ to a ‘z’ to make a soft sound (like in ‘zumo’).
| List of Verbs | Example |
|---|---|
| coercer convencer ejercer esparcir vencer zurcir mecer* remecer* | convenzo convences convence convencemos convencéis convencen |
Verbs that end in a vowel + -cer or -cir add z before the c in the yo form.
Exceptions: hacer, decir
This is a bit strange because you’ll still get a hard ‘c’ in the ‘yo’ form once you conjugate the verb but by adding the extra ‘z’ you get a soft ‘c’ (th) just before the hard ‘c’. Therefore there is some consistency with the original infinitive sound but not 100%.
| List of Verbs | Example |
|---|---|
| conducir deducir deslucir inducir introducir lucir producir reducir reproducir traducir conocer agradecer aparecer carecer compadecer crecer desaparecer establecer merecer mecer remecer nacer obedecer ofrecer parecer pertenecer placer reconocer yacer | conduzco conduces conduce conducimos conducís conducen |
Verbs that end in -uir (NOT guir) add y before o, e, and a.
This is just because the sound is nice and fluid with that extra y between ‘u_o’, ‘u_e’ and ‘u_a’.
| List of Verbs | Example |
|---|---|
| atribuir concluir constituir construir contribuir distribuir destruir disminuir excluir fluir huir incluir influir instruir sustituir | atribuyo atribuyes atribuye atribuimos atribuís atribuyen |
Adding an accent
Some verbs that end in -iar and nearly all verbs that end in -uar put a written accent on the i or the u in all except the nosotros and vosotros forms.
This is to keep the ‘stress’ (the part of the verb that we say a bit stronger than the rest) in the correct place.
| List of Verbs | Example |
|---|---|
| acentuar continuar actuar ampliar confiar criar enviar espiar fiar graduar habituar liar situar valuar variar | acentúo acentúas acentúa acentuamos acentuáis acentúan |
In conclusion
There you have it! Orthographic/Spell changing verbs in the present tense:
- Verbs that end in –ger and –gir change the g to j in the yo form.
- Verbs that end in –guir change the gu to g in the yo form.
- Verbs that end in a consonant + –cer or –cir change the c to z in the yo form.
- Verbs that end in a vowel + -cer or -cir add z before the c in the yo form.
- Verbs that end in -uir (NOT guir) add y before o, e, and a.
- Some verbs that end in -iar and nearly all verbs that end in -uar put a written accent on the i or the u in all, except the nosotros and vosotros forms.
It’s quite a lot to take in, so just remember not to try learning all of these at once. Tackle a few at a time and the rest will follow. Practice makes perfect when it comes to learning and using verbs, especially the irregulars, so head to Simple Spanish Tips where you’ll find plenty of interactive practice activities to help you learn how to conjugate these orthographic/spell changing verbs, as well as many other irregular verbs in the Present tense.
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