31 Verbs with irregular “yo” forms

Intro:

With the verbs “tener” and “venir” we saw that the “yo” forms have a “-go” ending, while the other conjugations do not have a “g” in them. “Estar” ends in “-oy” for the “yo” form but the other conjugations—accents aside—are what you would expect for an -ar ending verb. In fact, there are a number of verbs that have something different in the “yo” form, but a common characteristic of these verbs is that the irregularity occurs only in the “yo” form. The other forms of these verbs conjugate as expected.

Yo form ends in -go

Let’s begin by looking at the most common verb in this category: “hacer” (to do, to make). “Hacer” is practical because of its two meanings, and because it is the second verb to talk about plans: What are you going to do? We have to do more. He needs to make preparations. What does she want to make?

Hacer: to do; to make

OJO: Let’s take a moment to review other possible meanings for a verb in the present tense, using just the “tú” form.

Alternative meanings: hacer

English has the auxiliary “do” and the verb “to do” and so to make a question both are used at times. However, in Spanish, the verb is simply conjugated in the correct form: “tú” in the example below:

Let’s move on to other common verbs with the -go ending for the “yo” form.

Other verbs with -go for “yo” ending:

¿Cómo se dice…?:

Now you try out some sentences: use the verbs from the charts above to translate the sentences below.

Some vocabulary you might need: cada = every; que = that; suficiente = enough; antes de = before; conmigo = with me; anything = nada (for #10 below)

1. I don’t bring my books to class every day.
2. Do you go out with your friends Friday nights?
3. I suppose that we have enough time.
4. ¿How much is it worth?
5. I do my homework before class.
6. Where do we put the tables?
7. Who is bringing Carlos home today?
8. Why do they do their homework on Sundays?
9. Do you want to go out with me? (tú)
10. I don’t hear anything.

Traducciones:

1. No traigo mis libros a clase cada día.
2. ¿Sales con tus amigos los viernes por la noche?
3. Supongo que tenemos suficiente tiempo.
4. ¿Cuánto vale?
5. Hago mi tarea antes de clase.
6. ¿Dónde ponemos las mesas?
7. ¿Quién trae a Carlos a casa hoy?
8. ¿Por qué hacen su tarea los domingos?
9. ¿Quieres salir conmigo?
10. No oigo nada.

Grammar Details:

#2 from above: ¿Sales con tus amigos los viernes por la noche?
Did you remember to use “los” with “viernes”? To express, “on” a day of the week, Spanish uses the word “the”. In this case “Friday nights” is plural, so the plural form “los” is used.

#3 from above: Supongo que tenemos suficiente tiempo.
The word “que” (not to be confused with the question word “qué”) without the accent mark over the “e” means “that” and is used to join to two phrases together. If you can insert the word “that” between two phrases in English, then you must insert “que” in Spanish. For example, “I think she’s right” can also be expressed “I think that she’s right”. In Spanish, the equivalent would have to have “que”: Creo que ella tiene razón.

#7 from above: ¿Quién trae a Carlos a casa hoy?
Did you remember to insert the personal “a” before “Carlos”?

#8 from above: ¿Por qué hacen su tarea los domingos?
The singular possessive “su” is used even though “their” seems plural. “Su” always agrees with the noun that follows.

#9 from above: ¿Quieres salir conmigo?
Subject pronouns are used after the preposition “con” (with):

Exception: the subject prounouns “yo” and “tú” are not used after “con”; rather:

#10 from above: No oigo nada.
Mathematicians tell us that two negatives make a positive, but in Spanish using two negatives is good grammar! “Nada” means “nothing”, so literally what you’re saying here is “I don’t hear nothing”. Your English grammar teacher would take off points for that, while the Spanish teacher says “¡muy bien!” for the equivalent en español.