While researching the origin of the three conjugation classes of Spanish — ar, er, and ir — I recently turned to the lovely folks at the wordreference.com Spanish-English vocabulary forum to help me think of pairs of Spanish verbs that differ only in their conjugation class. The only two I had thought of were sentar/sentir and crear/creer.
These pairs are a nice reminder that the conjugation classes, by themselves, are void of meaning. Please see my original post (link above) for an example of a language (Hebrew) where the same verb root can appear in more than one conjugation class, with each class adding a predictable nuance to the verb root’s core meaning.
Here is my full list, which I will continue to edit as I learn of more. Note that there are no triplets on the list, and that all the pairs contrast -ar with either -er or -ir. This may be a coincidence, but the fact that -er and -ir verbs have almost identical conjugations (the only difference is in the nosotros and vosotros present indicative) would make triplets or an -er/-ir contrast hard to learn and to maintain.
Please let me know if can think of any more.
- asentar/asentir
- crear/creer
- fundar/fundir
- mentar/mentir
- molar/moler
- morar/morir
- parar/parir
- podar/poder
- rendar/rendir (render is also in the RAE, but only as an antiquated form of rendir).
- salar/salir
- sentar/sentir
- solar/soler
- sumar/sumir
- tejar/tejer
- vivar/vivir
Here are some more pairs and trios. I am only a student of Spanish, so don’t take my word for them. It was a fun exercise to try finding them (I have an interest in linguistics and computer science). I’ve included words that have stems that can sound the same. If you consider these, then asar/asir/hacer make one for each class. Also note that the only other contrast of two different verbs with a similar stem, which also belong to -er and -ir are desasir/deshacer. Interesting because of what you said about difficulty in maintaining contrast.
Verbs whose stems can sound the same, but are in different classes:
aplacer please
aplazar put off
asar roast
asir grasp
hacer make
balar baa, bleat
valer cost
vendar bandage, bind
vender sell
desasir disengage, loosen
deshacer undo
fallar fail, miss
fallir go bankrupt
imprimar prime
imprimir imprint
caber admit
cavar dig
converger converge
convergir converge
consumar complete
consumir consume
malparar damage
malparir miscarry
mecer swing
mesar tear
pacer graze
pasar pass
prendar enchant, pawn
prender turn on
presentar introduce
presentir forebode, suspect
remecer rock, shake, swing
remesar remit, send
repelar crop
repeler repel, repulse
resumir summarize
rezumar leak, ooze
cegar blind, dazzle
segar cut, mow
seguir follow
sumar add
sumir plunge
Verbs whose stems can sound the same, and are in the same class:
abrasar burn
abrazar hug
acecinar cure, dry
asesinar kill
botar throw away
votar vote
errar mistaken, wander
herrar brand with iron
estibar load, stow
estivar estivate
fresar mill
frezar spawn
grabar engrave
gravar burden
casar marry
cazar hunt
cocer cook
coser sew
hozar nuzzle
osar dare, venture
recocer boil over
recoser darn
cerrar close
serrar saw
Kevin, thanks — these are great! I will add those in the first group to my list. Those in the second group show the advantage of being Castilian. Your examples with hacer are the only ones I’ve seen that contrast -er and -ir verbs. And then there’s the converger/ir thing — very, very odd. I have to look into that one. Gracias por leer y escribir — Judy