Verbs
Regular present tense endings
Three sets of endings cover most verbs in the language.
Take the infinitive, remove the last two letters, add the ending. -ar verbs take o, as, a, amos, an. -er verbs take o, es, e, emos, en. -ir verbs are identical to -er except in the we form, which is imos.
Examples
hablo, hablas, habla, hablamos, hablanfrom hablar, to speakthe -ar set
como, comes, come, comemos, comenfrom comer, to eatthe -er set
vivo, vives, vive, vivimos, vivenfrom vivir, to liveonly vivimos differs from the -er set
no hablo francésI do not speak Frenchno goes in front of the verb, and that is the whole negative
The mistake this causes
Reaching for estoy hablando every time English says I am speaking. The plain present covers it.