Conjugating the Irregular Spanish Verb Jugar (to Play)

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

Jugar (Hoo-gahr) (to play) is the only verb that has a u-to-ue stem change, but like other stem-changers, it changes in all but the nosotros and vosotros forms in the present tense. Other popular irregular Spanish verbs include: querer, ir, tener, ser. Here’s the present tense conjugation:

The following examples show you jugar in action:

• ¿Juegan ustedes con ellos? (Do you play with them?)

• Sí. Jugamos con ellos todos los días. (Yes. We play with them every day.)

Jugar doesn’t undergo a stem change in the preterit, but it does undergo a slight spelling change in the yo form to keep the proper pronunciation; otherwise, the conjugation is normal. Take a look: You use the preterit tense like this:

• Ayer jugué con mi amigo. (I played with my friend yesterday.)

• Lucía jugó con su hermanito. (Lucía placed with her little brother.)

You’re off the hook with crazy conjugation rules in the imperfect and future forms; jugar conjugates normally in these tenses. Check out the following tables and examples. Here are some examples of the imperfect tense:

• Mis padres jugaban tenis cuando eran jóvenes. (My parents used to play tennis when they were young.)

• Nosotros también jugábamos tenis. (We too used to play tennis.)

The following samples put the future tense to work:

• ¿Jugarás esta noche? (Will you play tonight?)

• No. Yo jugaré mañana. (No. I will play tomorrow.)