Yeah, I know Spanish verbs are hard to learn but sometimes you just need to follow a pattern and bingo! you get it right.

Our first irregular verb pattern is when the root vowel ‘e’ becomes ‘ie’. Check out the verb apretar (to tighten).

Yo aprieto
Tú aprietas
Él / ella / usted aprieta
Nosotros apretamos
Vosotros apretáis
Ellos/ellas / ustedes aprietan

So, you change the ‘e’ to ‘ie’ in the yo, tú, él/ella/usted and ellos/ellas/ustedes persons.

Here are some more verbs that follow this rule.

Alentar (to encourage)
Aterrar (to terrify)
Atravesar (to go across)
Calentar (to heat up)
Cegar (to blind)
Cerrar (to close)
Comenzar (to start)
Confesar (to confess)
Desconcertar (to disconcert)
Desenterrar (to unearth, to dig up)
Desmembrar (to dismember, to split)
Despertarse (to wake up)
Desplegar (to spread, to unfurl, to deploy)
Desterrar (to exile)
Empedrar (to pave)
Empezar (to begin)
Encomendar (to entust)
Fregar (to wash)
Gobernar (to rule)
Manifestar (to manifest)
Merendar (to have a snack)
Pensar (to think)
Quebrar (to break)
Recomendar (to recommend)
Regar (to water)
Remendar (to patch)
Sembrar (to sow)
Sentar (to sit)
Sosegar (to settle down)
Temblar (to shiver)
Tropezar (to trip)