AR Verbs in Spanish Explained: Endings & Common AR Verbs

Anybody in the process of learning Spanish should know that there are 3 main verb groups: AR verbs, ER verbs and IR verbs. In this post, we focus on AR verbs (verbs ending in AR).

Like all verb groups in Spanish, AR verbs follow a specific conjugation pattern, with specific endings in the regular form.

In the next few minutes, you’ll learn the following:

How AR verbs in Spanish end in various tenses
What this looks like in practice and how to use these examples to boost your language skills
What regular, irregular and stem-changing verbs are and why it’s important to learn them

Oh, by the way, this is me! My name is James, I’m a Spanish tutor and the author of most of the language material on this site.

The book I’m holding, Barron’s 501 Spanish Verbs, is the book I used to learn over 500 regular, irregular and reflexive verbs in multiple tenses. I highly recommend it! You can get your copy below 🙂

Regular AR verbs in Spanish

Now, let’s take a look at the most common verbs in Spanish:

🇪🇸 Hablar
Meaning: to talk

🇪🇸 Mirar
Meaning: to watch

🇪🇸 Escuchar
Meaning: to listen

🇪🇸 Gritar
Meaning: to shout

🇪🇸 Desayunar
Meaning: to have breakfast

🇪🇸 Almorzar
Meaning: to have lunch

🇪🇸 Cenar
Meaning: to have dinner

🇪🇸 Regalar
Meaning: to gift

🇪🇸 Ayudar
Meaning: to help

🇪🇸 Amar
Meaning: to love

🇪🇸 Odiar
Meaning: to hate

🇪🇸 Manejar
Meaning: to drive

🇪🇸 Trabajar
Meaning: to work

🇪🇸 Caminar
Meaning: to walk

🇪🇸 Festejar
Meaning: to celebrate

How to conjugate AR verbs in Spanish: 6 different endings

Obviously, we cannot cover the conjugations of all AR verbs in Spanish throughout this post.

Luckily, however, we don’t actually need to. Once you have learned the regular endings, you will be able to conjugate any regular AR verb in Spanish.

Let’s take a look at the endings below. Make sure you’re ready to memorize them!

Now, take a look at the AR verbs below in their infinitive form. Try to conjugate them yourself in the present tense (or el presente).

We have highlighted the two letters in each verb. Take away these letters and replace them with the relevant endings, which you will find above.

We’ll do the first one for you 😉

🇪🇸  Trabaj(ar)

🇪🇸  Limpi(ar)

🇪🇸  Alcanz(ar)

🇪🇸  Festej(ar)

🇪🇸  Camin(ar)

The 15 most common AR verbs in Spanish

Common irregular AR verbs in Spanish

Below, you’ll see a list of common irregular AR verbs. It is difficult to learn these because they are not following formula, as is the case with regular verbs.

🇪🇸 estar
Meaning: to be

🇪🇸 Comenzar
Meaning: to start

🇪🇸 Negar
Meaning: to deny

🇪🇸 Dar
Meaning: to give

🇪🇸 Jugar
Meaning: to play

🇪🇸 Despertar
Meaning: to wake up

🇪🇸 Mostrar
Meaning: to show

🇪🇸 Pensar
Meaning: to think

🇪🇸 Recordar
Meaning: to remember

🇪🇸 Soñar
Meaning: to dream

🇪🇸 Volar
Meaning: to fly

Let’s see a few examples of some of these with their stem changes in the simple present tense.

Note that stem changing verbs are still irregular, but do follow similar patterns, so can be grouped together for context.

What are stem changing verbs in Spanish?

In Spanish, many verbs undergo a stem change when conjugated (in the simple present and past tense).

This often takes place without affecting the ending of the conjugated form, so it’s a little confusing at times.

Stem-changing verbs in the present tense use the same endings as regular -AR, -ER and -IR verbs when conjugated.

However, there is a vowel change in the last syllable of the stem.

But what does this look like in practice for -AR verbs?

Common AR Verbs with e > ie Changes

Looking at the pattern above, you should see the clear formula to follow when conjugating stem changing verbs. Below you will find a list of other verbs which follow the e > ie stem change.

Try writing your own tables, as above, with the verbs you see below.

🇪🇸 despertarse
Meaning: to wake up

🇪🇸 fregar
Meaning: to wash/scrub

🇪🇸 encerrar
Meaning: to lock up/put away

🇪🇸 nevar
Meaning: to snow

🇪🇸 sentarse
Meaning: to sit down

🇪🇸 tropezar
Meaning: to stumble/fall over

🇪🇸 calentar
Meaning: to heat up

🇪🇸 comenzar
Meaning: to start

🇪🇸 helar
Meaning: to freeze

🇪🇸 negar
Meaning: to deny

🇪🇸 remendar
Meaning: to mend

AR Verb endings in the past tense (preterite)

The preterite tense is used to describe actions that have already taken place. It is the simple paste tense in Spanish.

In English, an example of this tense would be “I drove the car.”

For more on how to use the Spanish preterite, see our guide on the imperfect vs the preterite.

Conjugating a regular AR verb in the preterite tense is a little more difficult than in the simple present tense.

Each conjugation and verb ending is as follows:

Simple Future Tense Endings

The future tense is one of the easiest tenses to master in the Spanish language.

Instead of taking away the AR at the end of verb (as we have seen so far), simply add the ending to the full infinitive form.

Let’s use the verb

The simple future conjugation rules are as follows:

Summing up AR verbs in Spanish: What we’ve learned

And that’s a wrap!

Thank you for reading this post on AR verbs in Spanish. We hope that these explanations have helped to clarify some of the most common questions and confusions around conjugating regular, irregular and stem changing verbs. Please do share this article if you have found it helpful.

The video explanations in this post are part of an online Spanish course titled “Spanish For Beginners” with Spanish tutor, James. You can access all 40 lessons for just $15 by visiting the course page.

Finally, remember to continue to use these verbs in your spoken Spanish as much as possible. Additionally, you can use the lists above to master the endings.