Conjugating the Spanish Verb Tomar (to Take/Drink)

Spanish verbs fall into different groups, and each group is conjugated a little differently. If you’re going to master Spanish verbs like tomar, 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).

Tomar (toh-mahr) (to take/drink) is a regular -ar verb, so its conjugation is pretty straightforward. Here it is in the present tense:

The following examples put tomar to work:

• Usted toma mucho, mi amigo. (You drink too much, my friend.)

• No. Yo solo tomo un poco. (No. I only drink a little.)

Need to know how to conjugate tomar in another tense? The following tables show you the preterit, imperfect, and future forms.

You use the preterit tense like this:

• ¿Tomaste ese consejo en serio? (Did you take that advice seriously?)

• Sí. Lo tomé muy en serio. (Yes. I took it very seriously.)

Here are some examples of the imperfect tense:

• ¿Tomaban ellos clases de inglés por la tarde? (Did they used to take English classes in the afternoon?)

• Sí. Ellos y yo tomábamos inglés por la tarde. (Yes. They and I used to take English in the afternoon.)

The following samples show the future tense in action:

• ¿Tomarán ustedes clases de francés mañana? (Will you take French classes tomorrow?)

• No. Tomaremos clases de español. (No. We will take Spanish classes.)