Present Tense Stem-Changing Verbs - e > ie Verbs

Stem-changing verbs are verbs that undergo a slight change to one of the vowels in the stem during conjugation.  In the case of e > ie verbs, the "e" in the stem would change to "ie" before adding the endings.  A common e>ie verb is cerrar (to close).  If you drop the AR ending you are left with the stem cerr.

So before we conjugate the verb, let's modify the stem.

cerr > cierr

So you can see the "e" has become "ie in our modified stem.  This particular change happens everywhere except in the nosotros and vosotros subjects.  The conjugated forms of all the other subjects (first, second and third person singular, and the third person plural - including usted and ustedes) will experience the stem change.  To save time, we call this area of the conjugation grid "the boot."  The following is the complete present tense conjugation of the verb cerrar with a line drawn around the boot:

So you can see the stem change only happens in the boot.  Outside of the boot (nosotros and vosotros) you use the unmodified stem.  You will find that all stem-changing verbs in the present indicative follow this pattern.

So what happenes if you have an e>ie verb that has two "e's" in the stem?  Which "e" gets changed?  The answer is the last one.  Take the verb preferir (to prefer).  You can see the stem has two e's.

prefer

Just change the second "e" before adding the endings.  The final product looks like this:

                                              prefiero          preferimos

                                              prefieres         preferís

                                              prefiere          prefieren

You can see that the stem change has happened only in the boot.  Some common e>ie verbs are:

acertar - to be correct, guess correctly

arrepentirse - to repent, regret

atender - to attend to, pay attention

calentar - to warm

cerrar - to close

comenzar - to begin

consentir - to consent, allow, spoil (pamper)

descender - to descend

divertirse - to have fun

empezar - to begin

encender - to light, turn on

encerrar - to enclose, confine

entender - to understand

herir - to wound, injure

hervir - to boil

mentir - to lie

merendar - to snack

perder - to lose, miss

preferir - to prefer

querer - to want

sentarse - to sit down

sentirse - to feel

verter - to pour, spill

This list is far from complete, but it's a good place to start.  There are two other types of stem-changing verbs - o > ue and e > i.  We will discuss these verbs in the next post.  ¡Hasta la próxima!