-IR Verbs in Spanish: A Complete Guide

Are you looking to understand how -IR verbs work in Spanish? Would you benefit from a quick conjugation review? Are you looking for the most common irregular Spanish verbs ending in -IR? You’ve come to the right place!

In this article, we’ll briefly explain how Spanish verbs work in general before moving on to regular -IR verbs. We’ll cover the most common Spanish verbs ending in -IR and how they are conjugated in the most used tenses. Finally, we’ll look at some irregular -IR verbs in Spanish.

Are you ready to dive in?

How verbs work in Spanish

As you probably know, the infinitive form of Spanish verbs ends either in “-AR,” “-ER,” or “-IR.” The first part of the verb is called a stem (for example, the “viv” in the verb “vivir” or to live) and always stays the same for regular verbs. Meanwhile, the endings (-AR, -ER, and -IR) change depending on the person—the one who performs the action the verb conveys—and the tense—the time the action occurred.

Verbs in English only change by adding an ‘s’ for he, she, and it (i.e., the third person singular). However, in Spanish, there can be a different ending for each person. Luckily for you, most verbs are regular, meaning they follow the same conjugation rules. We’ll look at these first and focus on those troublesome irregularities later.

Regular -IR verbs in Spanish

In this section, we’ll look at the conjugations for regular -IR verbs in Spanish for the basic tenses in the indicative mood (the mood used to talk about reality). You can read this article for a complete Spanish mood and tense guide.

We’ll start with a list of common -IR verbs in Spanish to expand your vocabulary and then look at the presente (present), pretérito imperfecto (imperfect preterite, a form of the past tense), pretérito (preterite, another form of the past tense) and futuro (future) tenses.

Common regular -IR verbs in Spanish

Here are 18 of the most common regular -IR verbs in Spanish:

1. Vivir (to live)
2. Escribir (to write)
3. Añadir (to add)
4. Abrir (to open)
5. Discutir (to discuss/argue)
6. Describir (to describe)
7. Asistir (to attend/aid)
8. Interrumpir (to interrupt)
9. Ocurrir (to occur)
10. Partir (to leave)
11. Subir (to go up/climb)
12. Sufrir (to suffer)
13. Existir (to exist)
14. Unir (to join)
15. Compartir (to share)
16. Dividir (to divide)
17. Admitir (to admit)
18. Recibir (to receive)

Present tense for -IR verbs in Spanish

Now that we know what verbs fall into this category, let’s move on to the present tense in the indicative mood. You use the present tense to talk about habits or things in general.

We’ll use the verb vivir (to live) as an example for this one, but all regular -IR verbs in Spanish (like the ones mentioned in the previous section) are conjugated the same in every tense.

Subject	Ending	Vivir
Yo (I)	-o	vivo
Tu (You) Vos (Latin America)	-es -ís	vives vivís
Usted (You, formal) El/Ella (He/She/It)	-e	vive
Nosotros (We)	-imos	vivimos
Vosotros (You, plural) Ustedes (Latin America)	-is -en	vivís viven
Ellos (Them)	-en	viven

Examples of the present tense for -IR verbs in Spanish

• Vivo en Nueva York. (I live in New York)
• ¿Vives cerca? (Do you live nearby?)
• No sé dónde vive Marcelo. (I don’t know where Marcelo lives.)
• Marta y yo vivimos juntas. (Marta and I live together.)
• ¿Vivís juntos? (Do you live together?)
• Mis hermanos viven muy lejos. (My siblings live very far.)

Here is the full conjugation of vivir.

Preterite for -IR verbs in Spanish

You can use the Spanish preterite to talk about an event that happened at a specific time in the past.

For this tense, we’ll use the verb escribir (to write) as an example.

Subject	Ending	Escribir
Yo (I)	-í	escribí
Tu (You) Vos (Latin America)	-iste	escribiste
Usted (You, formal) El/Ella (He/She/It)	-ó	escribió
Nosotros (We)	-imos	escribimos
Vosotros (You, plural) Ustedes (Latin America)	-isteis -ieron	escribisteis escribieron
Ellos (Them)	-ieron	escribieron

Examples for the preterite for -IR verbs in Spanish

• Escribí una novela. (I wrote a novel.)
• ¿Le escribiste a Julio? (Did you write to Julio?)
• Escribió todos los días este mes. (He/She wrote every day this month.)
• Escribimos artículos para el periódico. (We wrote articles for the newspaper.)
• ¿Cuando me escribisteis? (When did you guys write to me?)
• Escribieron una queja. (They wrote a complaint.)

Imperfect preterite for -IR verbs in Spanish

We use the imperfect tense to talk about past habits. Let’s try it with the verb recibir (to receive/get).

Subject	Ending	Recibir
Yo (I)	-ía	recibía
Tu (You) Vos (Latin America)	-ías	recibías
Usted (You, formal) El/Ella (He/She/It)	-ía	recibía
Nosotros (We)	-íamos	recibíamos
Vosotros (You, plural) Ustedes (Latin America)	-íais -ían	recibíais recibían
Ellos (Them)	-ían	recibían

Examples for the imperfect preterite for -IR verbs in Spanish

• En esa época, recibía llamadas todos los días. (Back then, I used to get calls every day.)
• Siempre recibías quejas de los vecinos. (You always used to receive complaints from the neighbors.)
• De adolescente, nunca recibía regalos. (As a teenager, I never got any presents.)
• Cuando éramos jóvenes, recibíamos malas notas en la escuela. (When we were young, we used to get bad grades in school.)
• ¿Nunca recibíais cartas? (Did you never use to receive letters?)
• Mis padres recibían dinero de mis abuelos a menudo. (My parents often received money from my grandparents.)

Future tense for -IR verbs in Spanish

Unsurprisingly, this tense is used to discuss the future. Let’s look at this conjugation with the verb partir (to leave).

Subject	Ending	Partir
Yo (I)	-ré	partiré
Tu (You) Vos (Latin America)	-ás	partirás
Usted (You, formal) El/Ella (He/She/It)	-rá	partirá
Nosotros (We)	-iremos	partiremos
Vosotros (You, plural) Ustedes (Latin America)	-iréis -irán	partiréis partirán
Ellos (Them)	-irán	partirán

Examples of the future tense for -IR verbs in Spanish

• Hoy partiré hacia Europa. (I’ll leave for Europe today.)
• ¿Cuándo partirás? (When will you leave?)
• José partirá solo. (José will leave alone.)
• El sábado partiremos juntos. (On Saturday, we’ll leave together.)
• ¿Partirán esta noche? (Will you leave tonight?)
• Nunca partirán. (They will never leave.)

Irregular -IR verbs in Spanish

You are probably familiar with irregular verbs in English. These are verbs that don’t follow the standard conjugation. The same happens in Spanish.

As we’ve mentioned, verbs in Spanish end either in “-AR,” “-ER,” or “-IR.” The rest of the verb, the part that comes before the ending, is called a stem. Most irregular verbs in Spanish are stem-changing, meaning they change the last vowel of the stem in some conjugations. However, some irregular verbs undergo more radical changes than others.

In this section, we’ll look at four verbs: two stem-changing ones (dormir and pedir), one that has three different irregularities (oír) and one of the most irregular verbs in Spanish (ir).

If you want to learn more about irregular verbs in Spanish (particularly stem-changing verbs), you can find more information on this page.

But before we dive into the irregularities…

Common irregular -IR verbs in Spanish

Here are 16 of the most common irregular -IR verbs in Spanish:

1. Ir (to go)
2. Pedir (to ask/request)
3. Venir (to come)
4. Reír (to laugh)
5. Seguir (to follow/keep going)
6. Sentir (to feel)
7. Dormir (to sleep)
8. Morir (to die)
9. Mentir (to lie)
10. Construir (to build)
11. Medir (to measure)
12. Divertirse (to have fun)
13. Preferir (to prefer)
14. Sugerir (to suggest)
15. Vestirse (to get dressed)
16. Invertir (to invert/invest)

Now, let’s look at our four model verbs from least to most irregular.

Pedir (to ask/request)

Pedir is a stem-changing verb and just switches the “e” for and “i” in some cases.

You can see the irregularities in bold below.

Subject	Presente	Pretérito	Pretérito Imperfecto	Futuro
Yo (I)	pido	pedí	pedía	pediré
Tú (You)	pides	pediste	pedías	pedirás
Vos (Latin America)	pedís
El/Ella (He/She/It)	pide	pidió	pedía	pedirá
Usted (You, formal)
Nosotros (We)	pedimos	pedimos	pedíamos	pediremos
Vosotros (You, plural)	pedís	pedisteis	pedíais	pediréis
Ustedes (Latin America)	piden	pidieron	pedían	pedirán
Ellos/Ellas (They/Them)

If you’d like to become proficient at requests in Spanish, this article covers the entire conjugation of pedir.

Dormir (to sleep)

We’d say dormir is a mildly irregular verb as it is just a stem-changing verb where the “o” changes to “ue” in the present tense and to a “u” in the preterite.

There are four fours affected in the present and two on the preterite. You can see the irregularities in bold below.

Subject	Presente	Pretérito	Pretérito Imperfecto	Futuro
Yo (I)	duermo	dormí	dormía	dormiré
Tú (You)	duermes	dormiste	dormías	dormirás
Vos (Latin America)	dormís
El/Ella (He/She/It)	duerme	durmió	dormía	dormirá
Usted (You, formal)
Nosotros (We)	dormimos	dormimos	dormíamos	dormiremos
Vosotros (You, plural)	dormís	dormisteis	dormíais	dormiréis
Ustedes (Latin America)	duermen	durmieron	dormían	dormirán
Ellos/Ellas (They/Them)

If you want to talk in your sleep, here is an article on the full dormir conjugation.

Oír (to hear)

In the present, oír has three irregularities:

1. When the subject is yo (I, first person singular), regular -IR verbs in Spanish will add an “-o” after the stem. However, oír adds an “-go”. Therefore, “I hear” would translate as “Yo oigo”.
2. When the subject is tú (you singular informal), él/ella/usted (he/she/you singular formal) or ellos/ellas/ustedes (they/them/you plural), oír adds a “y” before the ending. For example, “She hears” becomes “Ella oye”.
3. Finally, for nosotros (we), the conjugation adds a tilde or written accent. So “We hear” become “Nosotros oímos”.

In the preterite, all but first person singular change. These changes are the same as 2 and 3 above: adding a “y” and a tilde when needed.

On the bright side, the pretérito imperfecto and futuro tenses for oír are regular!

You can see the irregularities in bold below.

Subject	Presente	Pretérito	Pretérito Imperfecto	Futuro
Yo (I)	oigo	oí	estaba	estaré
Tú (You)	oyes	oíste	estabas	estarás
Vos (Latin America)	oís
El/Ella (He/She/It)	oye	oyó	estaba	estará
Usted (You, formal)
Nosotros (We)	oímos	oímos	estábamos	estaremos
Vosotros (You, plural)	oís	oísteis	estabais	estaréis
Ustedes (Latin America)	oyen	oyeron	estaban	estarán
Ellos/Ellas (They/Them)

Read this article on the oír conjugation for more information and a full rundown of its irregularities.

Ir (to go)

Ir is one of the most common and most irregular verbs in Spanish! As you can see, it’s pretty much made up of only the verb ending, which is quite unusual. When conjugated, this verb changes quite a bit in most tenses.

You can find the main conjugations on the table below.

Subject	Presente	Pretérito	Pretérito Imperfecto	Futuro
Yo (I)	voy	fui	iba	iré
Tú (You)	vas	fuiste	ibas	irás
Vos (Latin America)
El/Ella (He/She/It)	va	fue	iba	irá
Usted (You, formal)
Nosotros (We)	vamos	fuimos	íbamos	iremos
Vosotros (You, plural)	vais	fuisteis	ibais	iréis
Ustedes (Latin America)	van	fueron	iban	irán
Ellos/Ellas (They/Them)

If you want more information on this irregular verb, have a look at this article on the ir conjugation.

If you are passionate about irregularities, we have plenty of other articles on irregular -IR verbs in Spanish. Some of them include sentir (to feel), salir (to go out), and conseguir (to get/accomplish).

Final thoughts on -IR verbs in Spanish

We hope our article on conjugating -IR verbs in Spanish hasn’t scared you away. Luckily, a good number of -IR verbs are regular and easy to conjugate. You should always be wary of exceptions, but these are not as scary as they seem!