Verbs with irregular first person singular forms

A handful of common Spanish verbs are basically regular in the present tense except for the first-person singular (yo) form. Notice that many– though not all– of these special forms end in -go (note that you'll be given the chance to practise these irregular verbs below):

Verb	Present tense yo form
caber to fit	quepo I fit, there's room for me
dar to give	doy I give
decir^* to say	digo I say
hacer to make, do	hago I make, do
oír^* to hear, listen	oigo I listen
poner to put	pongo I put

Verb	Present tense yo form
saber to know	sé I know
salir to go out, leave	salgo I go out, leave
tener^* to have	tengo I have
traer to bring	traigo I('ll) bring
valer to be worth	valgo (I'm worth)¹
venir^* to come	vengo I come

Common Spanish verbs with irregular present tense yo forms.

1. As you might expect, valgo isn't a terribly common verb form in itself. But it is worth knowing because it is the basis of the subjunctive form of valer, which is quite common in expressions such as ¿crees que valga la pena? (do you think it's worth it?).

Other forms of these verbs

Apart from the yo forms above, these verbs basically follow the pattern of regular -er/-ir verbs (and in the case of dar, regular -ar verbs).

The verbs marked with an asterisk have some minor irregularities. We'll look at the present tense of tener, venir, decir and oír on the next page.

Practise the present tense of these irregular verbs

To practise the present tense of the verbs above, fill in the grid below. Remember:

If it's the I form, then you use the form from the grid above;
If it's one of the other forms, you need to add the regular verb endings depending on the infinitive (e.g. singular you give > das).

Next...

When you think you know these verbs well enough, go on to the next page, which will include tener, venir, decir and oír.

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