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. Press Enter to check each answer.
yo: bebo, tú: bebes, él: bebe, nosotros: bebemos, vosotros: bebéis, ellos: beben
Beber is a regular -er verb following the standard -er pattern.
Use beber 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 beber 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. Beber 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.
Last updated 2 August 2026. Written by Daniel Holmes for GCSE & A-Level Spanish students.