Useful everyday Spanish verbs: 100 more to learn

100 more useful Spanish verbs

Infinitives ending in -se are reflexive (quejarse, quedarse). This list picks up where the 100 common Spanish verbs leave off, and the Contos web app uses it for flashcard review.

Which preposition goes with the verb?

A good number of these verbs need a particular preposition, and it is rarely the one English would choose. Learn the verb and its preposition as one unit.

When de meets el, they merge into del, which is why the story line below says se queja del gato.

Spelling patterns: aparezco, destruyo, protejo

Many verbs in this list are regular apart from the yo form or the stem, and they fall into a few families. Once you know the family, you can conjugate a verb you have never seen.

Watch the past participle of a few of them: cubrir gives cubierto, descubrir gives descubierto, and resolver, devolver and envolver end in -uelto (he devuelto el libro).

Everyday verbs that Spain says its own way

Some of these verbs are correct but are not what you would hear in a Spanish kitchen or street, and a few belong to Spain rather than to Latin America.

• pedir prestado is to borrow, but people usually ask to be lent something instead: ¿me prestas un boli? or, in Spain, ¿me dejas un boli?
• The list gives echar for to pour, which is what Spain says at the table: échame un poco de agua. Verter also means to pour, but mostly in writing.
• tumbarse (to lie down) is the Spain word; much of Latin America says acostarse. Aparcar (to park) is estacionar in Latin America.
• fracasar is to fail at a plan or a business. Failing an exam is suspender in Spain and reprobar in Mexico.
• ganar means to win and also to earn: ganar un partido, ganar dinero.

The stories show many of these verbs in plain present-tense sentences, which makes them easy to notice: