Verbs with Irregular First Person Singular - Present Tense

Many Spanish verbs follow the scheme of conjugations on -ar, -er and -ir, but they have an irregularity in their first person singular.

The Verb "hacer" as an Example

Rule 1: The verb "hacer" (to make) represents, like many others, a verb with an irregular conjugation in the first person. While its remaining conjugations follow that of verbs on -er, a "g" is inserted in its first person (yo hago).

Another example is the verb "tener" (to have), which will be shown further on.

You can see that the verbs follow the regular endings (-o, -es, -e, -emos, -éis, -en) but have some extra changes in the first person singular.

Other Conjugations with Irregular First Person Singular

Examples of the er-Conjugation

Rule 2: While the verb "poner" shows irregularity only in the first person singular, the verb "tener" additionally shows diphtongation (vowel change), which we discuss in more detail in another grammar point.

Examples of the ir-Conjugation

You can see that aside from the irregular first person singular, the rest of the conjugation follows the regular scheme.

Rule 3: There is no rule for forming the irregular first person singular, so these exceptions must be memorized.

Other Irregularities of the Verbs with Special First Persons

The irregular conjugation of the above verbs is not seen in the past and future tenses. There, the verb follows either regular or completely irregular conjugations.

Rule 4: However, the verbs mentioned above show irregularities in the formation of the imperativo as well as the subjuntivo presente.

In the case of the imperative, some verbs show irregularities in their conjugation when they have a special first person present tense.

In the case of the subjuntivo presente, the verbs with special first person singular have irregular forms, since this is derived from the first person singular in the present tense.