There are some semi-regular -ar verbs in Spanish in El Presente.
Have a look at these three cases:
| VOLAR to fly |
ENCONTRAR to find |
ALMORZAR to have lunch |
|
| yo | vuelo | encuentro | almuerzo |
| tú | vuelas |
encuentras |
almuerzas |
|
él / ella / usted |
vuela | encuentra |
almuerza |
| nosotros / nosotras |
volamos | encontramos | almorzamos |
| vosotros / vosotras |
voláis | encontráis | almorzáis |
| ellos / ellas/ ustedes |
vuelan | encuentran |
almuerzan |
Notice how for all three groups, the first vowel -o- becomes -ue-
EXCEPT for nosotros/nosotras and vosotros/vosotras where it remains -o-.
Listen to these examples:
Yo siempre almuerzo a las dos en punto.
I always have lunch at two o'clock.
¿Tú almuerzas con tus padres los domingos?
Do you have lunch with your parents on Sundays?
Miguel vuela con Ryanair casi siempre.
Miguel flies with Ryanair most of the time.
Nosotros volamos en primera clase.
We fly first class.
Vosotros no encontráis las llaves de la casa.
You can't find the house keys.
Ellos no encuentran la reserva de hotel.
They can't find the hotel reservation.
See also List of common Spanish Stem-changing Verbs: present tense (o > ue).
Learn more about these related Spanish grammar topics
Examples and resources
Nosotros volamos en primera clase.
We fly first class.
Ellos no encuentran la reserva de hotel.
They can't find the hotel reservation.
Nosotros colgamos los cuadros en la pared.
We hang the pictures on the wall.
Miguel vuela con Ryanair casi siempre.
Miguel flies with Ryanair most of the time.
Ellos vuelan todos los viernes de Madrid a Barcelona.
They fly every Friday from Madrid to Barcelona.
Yo siempre almuerzo a las dos en punto.
I always have lunch at two o'clock.
¿Tú almuerzas con tus padres los domingos?
Do you have lunch with your parents on Sundays?
Vosotros no encontráis las llaves de la casa.
You can't find the house keys.
Q&A
Susan
Kwiziq community member
5 November 2017
1 reply
Encontrar ?
This lesson seems to define encontrar as 'being able to find': ex. I can't find my keys' : Yo no encuentro mis llaves. Why not : Yo no puedo encontrar mis llaves.
Inma
Kwiziq language super star
5/11/17
Encontrar means "to find" but somehow it sounds a bit odd to translate the sentence in the lesson "Vosotros no encontráis las llaves" into "You don't find the keys" [literal translation] so we went for a more realistic translation in English which is "You can't find the keys." In many cases, when using the simple present in Spanish, the literal translation in English doesn't work well.
Margaret
Kwiziq community member
24 April 2018
1 reply
I, too, don't understant your explanation of why "Yo no puedo encontrar las llaves" is not acceptable. Can you be a bit more specific?
Gruff
Kwiziq language super star
24 April 2018
24/04/18
The point is not about whether you can or can't use 'poder' but in Spanish people will say You no encuentro las llaves and mean they can't find the keys. It would sound strange in English to translate this literally as I don't find the keys so we have translated it more loosely into the appropriate expression.
If you imagine looking for keys, failing, and speaking aloud to someone in the room: "I'm not finding my keys anywhere!" you can get a sense of how that communicates "unable to" without actually needing to use "can't".
Make sense?