STEM CHANGING VERBS
Remember, there are three types of infinitives: -ar, -er, -ir. Infinitives are made up of two parts: the ending and the stem. You already know how to conjugate verbs in the present tense, so the actual conjugation is easy. With stem change verbs we are adding the step of making a small vowel spelling change in the stem in all forms of the conjugation except the nosotros and vosotros.
In the present tense, there are three groups of stem-changing verbs: e-ie, o-ue, and e-i.
We will do e-ie first:
Notice the 2nd e in the stem is bold, that’s the e we will change to ie.
Empezar; to begin, start: stem = empIEz
yo empIEzo
tú empIEzas
Ud. empIEza
él empIEza
ella empIEza
nosotros(as) empEzamos (no stem-change in nosotros)
vosotros(as) empEzáis (no stem-change in vosotros)
Uds. empIEzan
ellos empIEzan
ellas empIEzan
Here are some common e-ie stem change verbs:
Advertir to warn
Ascender to go up
Atravesar to cross
Cerrar to close
Comenzar to begin
Descender to go down
Despertarse to wake up
Divertirse to have fun
Entender to understand
Mentir to lie
Pensar to think
Perder to lose
Preferir to prefer
Quebrar to break
Querer to want
Recomendar to recommend
Sentarse to sit down
Sentir to feel
Confesar to confess
Negar to deny
Notice the verb Recomendar, there are 2 “e’s” in the stem: REcomEnd
When this happens you use the 2nd e for the stem change
Therefore I recommend… is Yo recomIEndo and NOT Yo riecomendo.
