Verbs The present tense: stem- i ea Pe eee © Some verbs in the present tense have a spelling change in the stem (the stem is the part of the verb that you ‘add the endings to). There are three main kinds of stem-changing verbs, those where the e in the in changes toe; those where the o changes to ue; and those where the e changes to i. esie o—ue esi pensar (to think) | poder (to be able to/can)_| pedir (to ask for) yo) plenso puedo pido (ti) pilensas puedes pides (Wella/usted) piensa puede pide (nosotros/nosotras) | pensamos podemos pedimos, (osotros/vesotras)_| penséis podéis pedis (cllos/ellas/ustedes) | piensan pueden piden + Look at the six forms of the verb pensar. The stem of a regular verb would be pens-, but you can see that, for all forms of the verb except the ‘we’ and ‘you plural’ forms, the stem is piens-. This is the same for other common verbs of this type: cerrar (to close), empezar (to begin), entender (to understand), querer (to want), preferir (to prefer) and perder (to lose). + When there are two's in the stem, itis the second one that changes (empiezo, prefiero, entiendo) Pienso que es muy simpatica, I think she’s very nice, Quieren ira cine. They want to go to the cinema. + Now look at poder: the o of the stem changes to ue in all but the ‘we’ and ‘you plural’ forms of the verb. Other common verbs that follow this pattern are: doler (to hurt), soler (to usually do something), dormir {to sleep), encontrar (to find), costar (to cost), volver (to return), acostarse (to go to bed), almorzar (to have lunch). Me duele el estémago. My stomach hurts. ¢Cudnto cuestan las botas? How much do the boots cost? + The verb jugar (to play) is also stem-changing, but inthis case itis aw in the stem that changes to ue Guego, etc). Juegan mucho al tenis. They play tennis a lot. + Verbs like pedir change the e of the stem to/, again in all but the ‘we’ and ‘you plural’ forms of the verb. Pido tapas en un restaurante espafiol. _| order tapas in a Spanish restaurant. The endings for stem-changing verbs are the same as for regular -ar, -er, and ir verbs the present tense. 1 Choose the correct form of the verb to complete each sentence. 9 Remember that nal ‘he Mi amigo prefiero / preferimos / prefiere estar al aire libre. ‘we' form of the verb always ends mos Y td, gsiempre cierra /cierras /cerrdis la puerta? on He hey form ebay en Yo no puedo / podemos / puede ir al cine hoy. Nosotros juegas /jugamos / jugdis al badminton después del insti. ‘Ami me duelen / duelo / duele la pierna. Yvosotras, cudndo queréis / quieres / quieren ver la tele? Mi hermano y yo sueles / solemos /suele lavar el coche los sdbados. Las clases empiezan / empiezas / empieza a las nueve. eta nene 2 Unjumble the stem-changing verbs in brackets to complete the sentences. 1 Yo (reopiefr) hacer equitacién. 2 De vacaciones mi hermana (esule) ira Marbella. 3. Los espafioles (anujge) mucho al baloncesto. 4 Nosotros no (dpsmove) salir esta noche. 5 Ytug (useeqir) poner la mesa? wer ‘iva! GCSE Spanish © Pearson Education Limited 20173 Complete the following table with the missing forms of the stem-changing verbs. preferir cerrar jugar volver yo) dierro vuelve [vegas preferes | (@Velia/ustea) ierra prefiere = (aosotros/nosotras) [jugamos ~_lvolvemos (vosotros/vosotras) | cerrais | preferis | volvéis (ellos/ellas/ustedes) [vegan | @4 The sentences must make sense. Complete these sentences with the correct form of one of the stem-changing verbs from page 40. 1 Normalmente, cuando terminan las clases, yo a casa a las cuatro de la tarde. 2 Mihermano salir con sus amigos, pero no porque muchos deberes. 3 Los billetes mas de cien euros, Nosotros no por qué! 4 Y td, scudntas horas por noche? 5 jAy!Me la cabeza, 5 Translate these sentences into Spanish. 1. We play football at the weekend. 2 She wants to go to the centre tomorrow. 3. I prefer to watch films in the cinema O6 Translate this passage into Spanish. Not all forms of stem-changing verbs have a spelling change. See p. 40. Remember, you cant say a el. Use the verb soler with the infinitive My friends usually go on holiday to France but my family and | prefer Spain. My brother always wants to do water sports and there are lots of different activities (The bad thing)is that | usually drink too much cola and | often get stomach ache. | can’t drink water because it’s horrible. Remember that adjectives usually come after the noun they describe. Use /o with an adjective. iViva! GCSE Spanish © Pearson n Limited 2017