This exam tips covers Exam Tips — Key Irregular Verbs within Key irregular verbs: hacer, querer, poder, volver for GCSE Spanish. Revise Key irregular verbs: hacer, querer, poder, volver in Core Verbs — Present Tense for GCSE Spanish with 13 exam-style questions and 15 flashcards. Use this page as part of a wider topic revision path rather than treating it as an isolated fact. It is section 4 of 4 in this topic. Treat this as a marking guide for what examiners are looking for, not just a fact list.
💡 Exam Tips — Key Irregular Verbs
- hago — not haco. The yo form of hacer is the only irregular part. All other present forms (haces, hace, hacemos, hacen) are regular. Write hago every time — AO3 marks depend on it.
- Nosotros never stem-changes. querer → queremos ✓, poder → podemos ✓, volver → volvemos ✓. Never write queremos with an ie — the nosotros form sits outside the boot and keeps the original vowel.
- Weather uses hacer — not ser or estar. It is always hace calor / hace frío / hace sol. Writing es calor or está caliente for weather is a mark-losing error. Examiners note this every session.
- ¿Puedo + infinitivo? → is the standard polite request formula. Use puedo (yo form) or ¿Puedes ayudarme? (tú form) in role-play speaking tasks. Examiners credit accurate modal + infinitivo constructions under AO2.
- Volver vs volverte. volver = to return (physical). volverse + adjective = to become (change of state). These are two different verbs — do not confuse them in Higher writing.
Practice questions for Key irregular verbs: hacer, querer, poder, volver
Quick recall flashcards
No puedo venir mañana.
I can't come tomorrow.
¿Qué deporte haces?
What sport do you do?