Learn Spanish: 100 Most Common Verbs and Expressions

When you're learning a language, especially as an adult, it pays to know the most common verbs you'll encounter. This can help with travel and basic communication.

Of course, the list I've compiled below are verbs that I feel, from years of teaching Spanish, are the most beneficial to know.

This is not an alphabetical list.

• Simple, regular -AR verbs are first.
• Other verbs are grouped as opposites.
• Still, others are grouped according to whether they stem-change or have interesting forms.

This is all an effort to help you memorize and assimilate these verbs into your vocabulary.

Included with many verb are common expressions and meanings that you might hear people say in Spanish.

Of course, these words and phrases can vary from country to country.

Furthermore, this is just a small sampling of an entire language - it's impossible to capture everything.

Learning More Verbs

As you learn more verbs and vocabulary, you can help yourself to learn and memorize them in several ways:

• reading them out loud and repeating to yourself several times
• writing down the verbs
• acting them out
• learning them in "clusters" - such as the way a particular group of verbs follow a pattern, or if they're opposites, etc.
• watching television in Spanish and listening for some of these verbs so you can hear them in context
• putting the verb into a sentence in the target (Spanish) language

Before diving right into the verbs, it's helpful to know if they're regular or not.

If you know a verb follows a regular pattern, that's part of the battle.

If it doesn't, then you can memorize those verbs separately.

Breaking down all the verbs into their specific parts is beyond the scope of this article, but you'll have a good feel for lots of common verbs after reading and studying them.

Regular Verbs All Follow a Pattern

For -AR, -ER, and -IR verbs, when you break a verb down (conjugate) it, the endings of those verbs follow a predictable pattern:

Irregular Verbs Do Not Follow Typical Patterns

They are separated into different groups in this article.

Most textbooks you'll see start with the regular verbs in Spanish, and for good reason: they follow a pattern.

Here is a group of regular verbs that end in -AR, plus some common expressions that go with them:

• Bailar - to dance

-un baile - a dance

-un bailador, una bailadora - a dancer

• Mirar - to look

-¡Mira! - Look! (informal)

-miremos - let's look

• Necesitar - to need

-es necesario - it's necessary

-la necesidad - necessity

• Escuchar - to listen to

-escucho la radio - I listen to the radio

-escúchame - listen to me (informal)

• Tomar - to take (something to eat/drink)

-¿Algo de tomar? - Something to drink? (Waiters will often ask this in restaurants.)

-tomar en cuenta - to consider

• Desear - to want, desire

-deseable - desirable

-es poco deseable - it's not desirable

• Estudiar - to study

-el estudiante, la estudiante - student

-estudioso, estudiosa - studious

• Aceptar - to accept, to agree to

-¿Acepta el trato? - Do you agree to the deal?

• Cantar - to sing

-la canción - the song

-el cantador, la cantadora - singer

• Limpiar - to clean

-estoy limpio - I'm broke (Used in Latin America; literally: I'm clean)

-la limpieza - the cleaning or cleanliness

• Enseñar - to teach

-la enseñanza - teaching

-enseñaba - I used to teach; he (or she) used to teach

Here are a few more of regular -AR verbs that people frequently use in Spanish.

• Buscar - to look for (this verb really does include the "for" part: "busco un papel" means I'm looking for a paper)
• Ayudar - to help; ayúdeme means "help me"
• Cambiar - to change; "en cambio" means "on the other hand"
• Llegar - to arrive; "la llegada" means "arrival" and its opposite, "la salida" is "departure."
• Llorar - to cry; "no llores" means "don't cry"
• Pasar - to pass, happen; "¿Qué pasa?" means "What's up?" or "What's happening?"
• Lavar - to wash; "lávese las manos" means "wash your hands"
• Amar - to love; "te amo" means "I love you"
• Gritar - to scream; "el grito" is "a scream"
• Entrar - to enter
• Cortar - to cut; "corto" is something that is "short" as in "pelo corto" or "short hair"

These verbs should be easier to memorize together because they all involve some sort of "action:" The only one of these that is irregular is "andar," in the past tense.

Caminar - to walk

Andar - to walk, stroll, hike

Correr - to run

Nadar - to swim

Marchar - to march, to leave

Hablar - to speak, talk

Escribir - to write

Cocinar - to cook

Comer - to eat

Beber - to drink

Preparar - to prepare

These are regular verbs for the most part. "Recoger" is a little irregular. If you're looking for more regular -ER and -IR verbs, check the section on opposites. You can also look in the section of stem-changing verbs for more -ER and -IR verbs that are irregular.

Comprender - to understand, comprehend

Aprender - to learn

Sacudir - to shake

Recoger - to gather, to collect, to get

These two verbs are a little different than most verbs.

When you express that you like something, you use the verb "gustar" - but it's not formulated in the same way as the typical verb.

Me gusta - I like; Te gusta - you like; Le gusta - he/she/it likes

It literally means "to be pleasing to" - thus "me gusta" literally means "it is pleasing to me."

Quite a few verbs take on this format in Spanish, but to keep things simple, here's one more:

Importar - to be important to, to matter to

Me importa - it's important to me; Te importa - it matters to you; Le importa - it's important to her (him, it).

Sometimes it's helpful to learn and understand verbs if you can pair them with the opposite meaning. The verbs with an asterisk (*) next to them are irregular verbs.

Sentarse* / levantarse* - to sit / to stand up, lift up; "levántese" - stand up; "siéntese" - sit down

Perder* / encontrar* - to lose / to find; "no pierda mi tiempo" - don't waste my time

Olvidar / recordar* - to forget / to remember; "olvídelo" - forget it

Gastar / ahorrar - to spend / to save

Cerrar* / abrir - to close / to open; "cerrado" - closed; "abierto" - open

Vivir / morir* - to live / to die; "murió" - he, she or it died

Vender / comprar - to sell / to buy; "ir de compras" - to go shopping

Apagar / encender* - to turn off, extinguish / to turn on; "el apagafuegos" means "fire extinguisher"

Empezar* / terminar - to begin / to finish, terminate; "el término" is "term" (when talking about vocabulary words)

Dormirse* / despertarse* - to fall asleep / to wake up; "Me dormí en el sofá" - I fell asleep on the couch.

The next group of verbs have "go" in their first person, present tense form to help make them easier to remember.

Most of these are irregular verbs, meaning they have different forms, especially in different tenses, with different subjects (I, you, Tom, Dick, Jane, we, etc.). Some of them are a little more regular.

Tener - to have / tengo - I have

Hacer - to do, to make / hago - I do, I make

Decir - to say / digo - I say

Oír - to hear / oigo - I hear

Venir - to come / vengo - I come

Poner - to put / pongo - I put

Caer - to fall / caigo - I fall

Jugar - to play / juego - I play

Pagar - to pay / pago - I pay

Salir - to leave, to go out / salgo - I leave, I go out

Traer - to bring / traigo - I carry

The following group of verbs have "oy" in the first person present tense. These are all irregular verbs.

Estar - to be (not permanent) / estoy - I am

Ser - to be (permanent) / soy - I am

Ir - to go / voy - I go

Dar - to give / doy - I give

These particular verbs are grouped together because the middle part changes from the letter O to UE when the verb is conjugated, or broken down by subject. They are all at least somewhat irregular, too.

Poder - to be able / puedo - I am able, I can

Volar - to fly / vuelo - I fly

Volver - to return / vuelvo - I return

Contar - to tell, to count / cuento - I tell, I count

Dormir - to sleep / duermo - I sleep

Some verbs in Spanish have a change from the letter E in the center of the verb (or in its "root") to include the letters IE. For this reason, all of these are irregular.

Pensar - to think / pienso - I think

Entender - to understand / entiendo - I understand

Querer - to want / quiero - I want

Sentir - to feel / siento - I feel

Preferir - to prefer / prefiero - I prefer

A few verbs change from the letter "E" in the center to the letter "I":

Pedir - to ask for / pido - I ask for

Seguir - to follow, to continue / sigo - I follow, I continue

In Spanish, some words seem to have a lot of vowels. They really aren't that different from most other verbs when you break them down.

Leer - to read / leo - I read; tú lees - you read

Creer - to believe / creo - I believe; tú crees - you believe

Ver - to see / veo - I see; tú ves - you see

Some verbs in Spanish end with -cer. In that case, when you break it down in the first person form, that "C" has a "Z" that gets added to it:

Parecer - to seem / parezco - I seem

Conocer - to know (a person), to be familiar with / conozco - I know

Merecer - to deserve / merezco - I deserve

These verbs have a "J" in their formulations.

Dibujar - to draw / dibujo - I draw

Trabajar - to work / trabajo - I work

Festejar - to party / festejo - I party

Viajar - to travel / viajo - I travel

Manejar - to drive, to manage / manejo - I drive, I manage

Exigir - to demand / exijo - I demand