Beber means 'to drink', and it is a model regular -er verb that sits squarely in the food and drink topic — a guaranteed feature of GCSE Spanish. Bebo agua (I drink water), ¿qué quieres beber? (what do you want to drink?). Because it is perfectly regular, it doubles as clean practice for the whole -er family. Note that Spanish also uses tomar for drinking in many contexts (especially ordering), so the two overlap. The detail to watch, as with all -er verbs, is the preterite accents (bebí, bebió), which carry meaning and marks.
Quick facts
Beber (to drink) is a regular -er verb.
Real sentences across different tenses — the kind of thing you'd actually say or write.
Bebo agua (I drink water).
¿Qué quieres beber? (what do you want to drink?).
In ordering, tomar is often used: tomo un zumo.
A clean regular -er verb for drilling endings.
Fixed expressions worth knowing — they come up in listening, reading and writing tasks.
Idiomatic expressions
Beber is a model regular -er verb: once you can conjugate comer, you can conjugate beber, correr and the whole -er family. Watch the accents in the preterite — bebí, bebió, bebieron — a missing accent is a cheap lost mark. In Latin America tomar is often used for drinks, but beber is standard in Spain and always safe in your written work.
beber 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 beber, 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 beber now →Three questions, no account needed. Type the form, then press Enter or tap Check.
yo: bebo, tú: bebes, él: bebe, nosotros: bebemos, vosotros: bebéis, ellos: beben
The past participle is bebido (he bebido) and the gerund is bebiendo (estoy bebiendo).
Verbs that are easy to confuse with beber or that behave like it.
Beber is on the AQA, Edexcel and Eduqas GCSE Spanish vocabulary lists. Compare the exam boards.
Written by Daniel Holmes for GCSE & A-Level Spanish students.