Spanish Conjugator and Charts
Type a verb, pick a tense, read the chart. Five persons and no vosotros, because Mexico says ustedes, and under every chart the sentence that says what the tense is for.
Type a verb in the infinitive
to have
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | tengo |
| tú | tienes |
| él, ella, usted | tiene |
| nosotros | tenemos |
| ellos, ellas, ustedes | tienen |
What is true now, what happens usually, and — in Mexico far more than in a textbook — what is about to happen.
Mañana te hablo.
It also carries feelings and age: tengo hambre, tengo frío, tengo cuarenta años.
Five persons, not six. There is no vosotros here, because Mexico does not use it: the plural you is ustedes, and it takes the same form as ellos.
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What this is
A conjugation chart is easy to find and hard to use, because most of them print six persons, seven tenses and no explanation. This one prints one tense at a time, five persons, and under it the thing a chart almost never says: what that tense is for, and a line somebody would really say in it.
Five persons, not six. There is no vosotros here. Mexico uses ustedes for the plural you, and it takes the same form as ellos, so a sixth row is a fifth of a learner's practice spent on a form he will not hear in Mexico City, Guadalajara or Mérida.
The forms are composed from the rules rather than looked up: the regular endings, the stem-changing classes, the strong preterites, the twelve irregular future stems, and the one rule that explains most of the subjunctive — take the yo of the present, drop the o, add the opposite endings. Sixty verbs carry what no rule can predict, typed by hand against the Real Academia Española's own conjugation models and checked form by form.
How to use it
- Type the infinitiveThe dictionary form, ending in ar, er or ir. A verb that is not in the irregular table is conjugated as a regular one, and the tool says so rather than pretending.
- Pick the tensePresent, preterite, imperfect, future, conditional, present subjunctive and the imperative. Each one says what it is for in a sentence, not a grammar label.
- Read the line under the chartThe forms are the easy half. The sentence under them is the half that decides whether you use the tense at all, and the example is one somebody would really say.
The regular endings, all three families
Every regular verb in the language is one of these three, and most irregular verbs are one of them with a single cell changed. The table is conjugated by the same rules the tool above uses, so it cannot drift away from what the chart says.
| Tense | Verb | yo | tú | él, ella, usted | nosotros | ellos, ellas, ustedes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Present | hablar | hablo | hablas | habla | hablamos | hablan |
| comer | como | comes | come | comemos | comen | |
| vivir | vivo | vives | vive | vivimos | viven | |
| Preterite | hablar | hablé | hablaste | habló | hablamos | hablaron |
| comer | comí | comiste | comió | comimos | comieron | |
| vivir | viví | viviste | vivió | vivimos | vivieron | |
| Imperfect | hablar | hablaba | hablabas | hablaba | hablábamos | hablaban |
| comer | comía | comías | comía | comíamos | comían | |
| vivir | vivía | vivías | vivía | vivíamos | vivían | |
| Future | hablar | hablaré | hablarás | hablará | hablaremos | hablarán |
| comer | comeré | comerás | comerá | comeremos | comerán | |
| vivir | viviré | vivirás | vivirá | viviremos | vivirán | |
| Conditional | hablar | hablaría | hablarías | hablaría | hablaríamos | hablarían |
| comer | comería | comerías | comería | comeríamos | comerían | |
| vivir | viviría | vivirías | viviría | viviríamos | vivirían | |
| Present subjunctive | hablar | hable | hables | hable | hablemos | hablen |
| comer | coma | comas | coma | comamos | coman | |
| vivir | viva | vivas | viva | vivamos | vivan |
The 50 verbs that do not follow them
The stem changers and the irregulars a learner meets in his first month, with what each one does differently. A verb is in this table because a rule cannot predict one of its forms, and the last column says which rule it breaks.
| Verb | Means | Its yo | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|
| ser | to be, permanently | soy | One of the three verbs with an irregular imperfect, and it shares its whole preterite with ir: fui is both I was and I went, and only the sentence says which. |
| estar | to be, right now or right here | estoy | Where you are, how you are and what you are doing. Ser is what you are. |
| ir | to go | voy | Voy a comer is how Mexico says the future far more often than comeré. |
| haber | to have, as an auxiliary | he | Not the verb for owning something, which is tener. This one carries the perfect tenses, and its third person alone means there is or there are: hay. |
| saber | to know a fact | sé | Knowing a fact or knowing how. Knowing a person or a place is conocer, and mixing them is the mistake everybody makes once. |
| dar | to give | doy | An -ar verb that takes -er endings in the preterite, and the accent on dé is what keeps it apart from the preposition de. |
| tener | to have | tengo | It also carries feelings and age: tengo hambre, tengo frío, tengo cuarenta años. |
| hacer | to do, to make | hago | The one cell no rule reaches is hizo, where the c becomes a z to keep the sound. |
| poder | to be able to | puedo | In the preterite it means managed to, not was able to: pude is I pulled it off. |
| decir | to say, to tell | digo | A preterite stem ending in j swallows the i of the last ending: dijeron, not dijieron. |
| poner | to put | pongo | A strong preterite. An irregular future and conditional stem. A short tú command. |
| venir | to come | vengo | A boot verb, e to ie. A strong preterite. An irregular future and conditional stem. A short tú command. |
| querer | to want, to love | quiero | Te quiero is what people say to each other in Mexico; te amo is heavier and rarer than a course suggests. |
| ver | to see | veo | The third verb with an irregular imperfect, and the only one nobody warns you about. |
| salir | to leave, to go out | salgo | An irregular future and conditional stem. A short tú command. |
| traer | to bring | traigo | A strong preterite. |
| oír | to hear | oigo | Oye is also how a conversation starts in Mexico, and it is not rude. |
| conocer | to know a person or a place | conozco | Every -cer and -cir verb does this: the yo gains a z, and the whole subjunctive follows it. |
| conducir | to drive | conduzco | In Mexico manejar is the everyday word for driving, and conducir sounds like a form. |
| traducir | to translate | traduzco | A strong preterite. |
| andar | to walk, to go about | ando | Ando cansado, ando en el centro: in Mexico it is how you are and where you are as much as walking. |
| caber | to fit | quepo | No cabe is what a taxi driver says when the boot is full. |
| caer | to fall | caigo | Me cae bien, he strikes me well, is the ordinary way to say you like somebody. |
| valer | to be worth | valgo | An irregular future and conditional stem. |
| leer | to read | leo | The i between two vowels becomes a y: leyó, not leió. |
| creer | to believe, to think | creo | |
| construir | to build | construyo | Every -uir verb grows a y wherever the ending does not already start with i. |
| huir | to flee | huyo | |
| pensar | to think | pienso | Pienso, pero pensamos: the change stops at nosotros, every time, in every boot verb. |
| entender | to understand | entiendo | A boot verb, e to ie. |
| perder | to lose | pierdo | A boot verb, e to ie. |
| empezar | to begin | empiezo | A boot verb AND a spelling verb: empiezo, but empecé and empiece, because a z cannot sit in front of an e. |
| comenzar | to start | comienzo | A boot verb, e to ie. |
| cerrar | to close | cierro | A boot verb, e to ie. |
| sentir | to feel | siento | An -ir boot verb, so it changes twice: siento in the present, and sintió and sintamos where the stress moves off the stem. |
| preferir | to prefer | prefiero | A boot verb, e to ie. |
| mentir | to lie | miento | A boot verb, e to ie. |
| encontrar | to find, to meet | encuentro | A boot verb, o to ue. |
| contar | to count, to tell | cuento | Cuéntame is tell me the whole thing, and it is the warmest thing you can say to somebody who just got back. |
| volver | to come back | vuelvo | A boot verb, o to ue. |
| volar | to fly | vuelo | A boot verb, o to ue. |
| dormir | to sleep | duermo | An -ir boot verb, so the o goes to u where the stress leaves: durmió, durmieron, durmamos. |
| morir | to die | muero | A boot verb, o to ue. |
| costar | to cost | cuesto | Almost always third person: ¿cuánto cuesta? and cuestan cien pesos. |
| jugar | to play | juego | The only u to ue verb in the language, and it is a spelling verb too: juego, but jugué. |
| pedir | to ask for, to order | pido | What you do at a table. Preguntar is to ask a question, and they are not interchangeable. |
| servir | to serve | sirvo | A boot verb, e to i. |
| vestir | to dress | visto | A boot verb, e to i. |
| repetir | to repeat | repito | Repite, por favor is the most useful imperative on this list. |
| seguir | to follow, to carry on | sigo | A boot verb whose spelling moves too: the u of segu- is there to keep the g hard, and it goes when the ending starts with o or a. |
Questions
Why does this chart have five persons instead of six?
Because Mexico does not use vosotros. The plural you is ustedes, which takes the ellos form, so the sixth row of a Spanish chart is a form you will never hear in Mexico. Spain uses it, and a learner headed there needs it; a learner headed for Mexico is spending a fifth of his practice on it for nothing.
What is the rule for the present subjunctive?
Take the yo of the present, drop the o, and add the endings of the other family: an -ar verb takes e, es, e, emos, en, and an -er or -ir verb takes a, as, a, amos, an. That is why tengo gives tenga, digo gives diga and conozco gives conozca. Only ser, estar, ir, haber, saber and dar escape it.
What is a stem-changing verb?
One whose stem vowel changes wherever the stress falls on it, which is every person except nosotros. Pienso, piensas, piensa, pensamos, piensan. Teachers draw a boot around the four cells it touches. An -ir stem changer changes again, more quietly, in the third persons of the preterite: durmió, pidieron.
When do I use the preterite and when the imperfect?
The preterite is what happened and finished, and it is the tense a story is told in. The imperfect is what used to happen, what was going on and what things were like. Fui al mercado is one trip; iba al mercado is a habit or a scene somebody interrupted.
Is the future tense used much in Mexico?
Less than a course suggests for plans, where voy a comer does the work, and more than a course suggests for guessing: ¿dónde estará mi celular? is where can my phone be, not where will it be.
How do I tell somebody not to do something?
With the subjunctive, not the command form. No hables, not no habla. The affirmative tú command is its own shape — habla, come, ven — and the negative borrows the subjunctive, which is one of the places that rule pays for itself.
What to remember
- Five persons in Mexico, not six. No vosotros, and ustedes takes the ellos form.
- Three regular models carry the language: hablar, comer and vivir. Most irregulars are one of them with a cell changed.
- The subjunctive comes from the yo of the present, which explains tenga, diga and conozca at one stroke. Six verbs escape it.
- A boot verb changes its vowel everywhere except nosotros, and an -ir boot verb changes again in the preterite third persons.
- Twelve verbs have an irregular future stem, and the conditional always shares it: tendré and tendría, diré and diría.
- The negative tú command is the subjunctive: no hables, no vengas, no vayas.
- Buscar, llegar and empezar are regular. Busqué, llegué and empecé are what regular looks like when a consonant meets an e.
Where the numbers and the words come from
- Diccionario panhispánico de dudas, Real Academia EspañolaIts Apéndice 1 is the list of conjugation models every form in the verb table was typed against.
- Nueva gramática de la lengua española, Real Academia EspañolaWhat each tense and mood is for, and the rule that builds the present subjunctive from the first person of the present.
- Diccionario de la lengua española, Real Academia EspañolaPrints the full conjugation of any verb under Conjugar, which is where any single cell of this page can be checked.
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