Verb Soler is normally used to indicate that someone does something like a routine or that something usually happens. It is a terribly convenient verb and very easy to use, just have a couple of peculiarities that you must learn:
How to use the Spanish verb SOLER
1. It is always followed by an infinitive.
En Marbella suele haber muchas fiestas en la playa durante el verano. (In Marbella, there are usually a lot of parties on the beach in the summer.)
2. Soler is mainly used in the present tense and the imperfect indicative.
Suelo ir siempre al mismo hotel (I usually go always to the same hotel)
Solíamos irnos de vacaciones a Santander. (We used to go on vacation to Santander.)
Notice the differences, these two sentences below have exactly the same meaning:
Normalmente siempre voy al mismo hotel.
Antes siempre ibamos de vacaciones a Santander.
3. You can find it also in the compound tenses and in the subjunctive, although not very often:
YouTube no es un sitio web que yo suela visitar. (YouTube is not a website I regularly visit.) – Present subjunctive.
Soler conjugation
Notice that it is a stem-changing verb; when the stem is stressed, the –o- changes to –ue-. in the presents tenses, the imperfect is completely regular (check verb «soler» whole conjugation):
Ramón suele venir todos los fines de semana.
No creo que Ramón suela vernir todos los fines de semana.
Finally, to sum up, Soler can be translated in a variety of ways, depending on the context, although its basic meaning is always the same: «to be used to,» «usually,» «customarily,» «regularly» and the like.
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