1. Present Tense Stem-changing Verbs eie

2. Remember, there are three types of infinitives: -ar, -er, -ir. Infinitives are made up of two parts: the ending and the stem. In the following examples, the stem is underlined and the ending is in bold. hablar comer vivir

3. Endings on Regular Verbs With regular verbs, the stem stays the same, and the ending changes as they are conjugated. Hablo, hablas, habla, hablamos, hablan Como, comes, come, comemos, comen Vivo, vives, vive, vivimos, viven

4. Stem-changing Verb With some verbs, the stem also changes when you conjugate them. In the present tense, there are four groups of stem- changing verbs: eie

5. Stem-Changing Verbs (e > ie) empezar querer preferir pensar cerrar entender to begin to want to prefer to think, plan to close to understand

6. e ie With the first group of stem-changing verbs, the letter e in the stem changes to ie in all forms except the nosotros and vosotros. Pensar (to think) Stem-change verbs are sometimes called boot verbs. Can you see why? piensopensamos piensaspensáis piensapiensan

7. cerrar (e:ie) hablar (regular -ar verb) cierro hablo cierras hablas cierra habla cerramos hablamos cerráis habláis cierran hablan Here's another e:ie stem changing verb. Compare it to the regular verb hablar. Notice that the endings are the same for regular verbs and stem-changing verbs.

8. entender (e:ie) comer (regular -er verb) entiendo como entiendes comes entiende come entendemos comemos entienden comen Here's another e:ie stem changing verb. Compare it to the regular verb comer. Notice that the endings are the same for regular verbs and stem-changing verbs

9. e-ie Here's another e:ie stem-changing verb. Notice how the stem doesn't change in the nosotros. preferir (e:ie) prefiero prefieres prefiere preferimos preferís prefieren