Verbs are the engine that makes the Galician language run.

Mastering them gives you the freedom to build your own sentences and express exactly what you mean.

Fortunately, Galician verb conjugation follows predictable patterns that are very easy to pick up.

Once you learn a few basic rules, you’ll be able to conjugate hundreds of verbs instantly.

The three types of Galician verbs

All Galician verbs belong to one of three groups based on how their infinitive form ends.

The infinitive is the base dictionary form of a verb.

In English, the infinitive includes the word “to”, such as “to speak” or “to eat”.

In Galician, infinitives end in -ar, -er, or -ir.

• -ar verbs: falar (to speak), cantar (to sing), traballar (to work)
• -er verbs: comer (to eat), beber (to drink), ler (to read)
• -ir verbs: vivir (to live), escribir (to write), durmir (to sleep)

Conjugating regular verbs in the present tense

Regular verbs follow a strict, reliable pattern when you conjugate them.

To conjugate a regular verb, you simply drop the infinitive ending from the word.

Then, you add the correct ending for the person performing the action.

Here’s exactly how you conjugate regular verbs in the present tense.

Let’s look at a few examples of these regular verbs in action.

The most common irregular verbs

Irregular verbs don’t follow the standard patterns you just learned above.

They have their own unique spellings that you simply have to memorize.

Many of the most commonly used verbs in Galician are entirely irregular.

The four most important irregular verbs are ser (to be), estar (to be), ter (to have), and ir (to go).

Just like in Spanish, Galician has two distinct verbs for “to be”.

Ser is used for permanent traits, while estar is used for temporary states or locations.

Here’s how you conjugate these four essential irregular verbs in the present tense.

Here are some examples of these crucial irregular verbs being used in everyday sentences.

Regional variations in Galician verbs

The grammar you learn in textbooks is the standard written Galician, known as the Normativa.

However, spoken Galician features beautiful regional variations depending on the province you’re in.

One of the most noticeable differences happens with the vós (you all) pronoun endings.

In standard Galician, the present tense vós endings are -ades, -edes, and -ides.

In many coastal and southern areas, speakers drop the letter ‘d’ completely.

This means a word like falades becomes falais or falaes in everyday conversation.

Another common variation involves a phonetic phenomenon called the gheada.

In the western half of Galicia, the letter ‘g’ is pronounced like a soft English ‘h’.

This means a verb like gostar (to like) will sound exactly like hostar when spoken by a local.

You don’t need to change how you write these words at all.

Recognizing these regional sounds will simply make it much easier to understand native speakers.