Conjugating the Irregular Spanish Verb Hacer (to Do/Make)

Spanish verbs fall into different groups, and each group is conjugated a little differently. If you’re going to master Spanish verbs like hacer, you need to be able to identify which group a verb belongs to: regular (follows regular conjugation rules for -ar, -er, and -ir verbs), stem-changing (morphs depending on how you use it in a sentence), spelling-changing (has consonant-spelling changes in some forms to follow pronunciation rules), or reflexive (reflects the action back on the subject of the sentence).

In the present tense, hacer (ah-sehr) (to do/make) has an irregular yo form, but otherwise it conjugates like a regular -er verb. Other popular irregular Spanish verbs include: ser, ir, dormir and estar. Here’s the present tense conjugation:

The following examples show you hacer in action:

• ¿Haces tu trabajo con buena voluntad? (Do you do your work willingly?)

• Yo hago mi trabajo en silencio. (I do my work in silence.)

In the preterit, hacer has an irregular stem: hic-. The third-person singular form undergoes a c-to-z spelling-change to preserve the correct pronunciation. Notice also that hacer doesn’t have the accent marks regular verbs use in the preterit. Take a look: You use the preterit tense like this:

• Hice mucho ejercicio anoche. (I exercised a lot last night.)

• Los turistas hicieron una parada en Madrid. (The tourists made a stop in Madrid.)

Good news: Hacer conjugates regularly in the imperfect form. Check out the following table and examples. Here are some examples of the imperfect tense:

• ¿Hacían ustedes buenas obras? (Did you used to do good works?)

• Si. Hacíamos buenas obras siempre. (Yes. We always used to do good works.)

Hacer also has an irregular stem in the future tense: har-. However, it does use the normal future endings: The following samples put the future tense to work:

• Yo haré el pastel este fin de semana. (I will make the cake this weekend.)

• ¿Harán ellos sus deberes escolares? (Will they do their school work?)