Arder means 'to burn' (to be on fire / be ablaze), and it is a regular -er verb. It differs from quemar ('to burn something'): arder describes the thing that is burning, while quemar is the action you do to it. La casa arde (the house is burning / ablaze), la sopa está ardiendo (the soup is boiling hot). It appears in vivid figurative phrases like arder de rabia ('to be burning with anger'). Because it adds intensity to description, arder is a useful higher-level verb. As a regular -er verb the conjugation is predictable.
Quick facts
Arder (to burn) is a regular -er verb.
Real sentences across different tenses — the kind of thing you'd actually say or write.
La casa arde (the house is ablaze).
Arder = to be burning; quemar = to burn something.
Está ardiendo (it's boiling hot).
Arder de rabia (to burn with anger).
Fixed expressions worth knowing — they come up in listening, reading and writing tasks.
Idiomatic expressions
Arder is a regular verb. Make sure you know the endings for each tense — especially the preterite and subjunctive, which is where marks are most often lost.
arder is a regular -er verb — it follows the standard -er pattern in every tense. That makes it a good one to drill: if you know arder, you know the template for all regular -er verbs.
Type conjugations from memory and get instant feedback. That's how you actually build the automatic recall the exam needs — not from reading tables.
Practice arder now →Three questions. Press Enter to check each answer.
yo: ardo, tú: ardes, él: arde, nosotros: ardemos, vosotros: ardéis, ellos: arden
Arder is a regular -er verb following the standard -er pattern.
Use arder in multiple tenses to show range — present, preterite and future at minimum. This is a key criterion for higher GCSE marks.
Verbs that are easy to confuse with arder or that behave like it.
This reference is written for UK GCSE and A-Level Spanish learners and their teachers. It is designed for exam revision: every form is checked against standard conjugation rules, and the examples reflect the registers and topics that come up in the AQA, Edexcel and Eduqas specifications. Arder is a high-frequency verb and appears often in exam papers. For active recall, use the free practice tool rather than only reading the tables.