Everything you need to improve your Spanish
Ir is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to go”.
Below are all of the conjugations for ir in Spanish, in all three moods (indicative/indicativo, subjunctive/subjunctivo and imperative/imperativo) and all of the tenses, for each pronoun.
The vosotros pronoun is mainly used in mainland Spain, and is the informal second-person plural – it could be considered the Spanish version of “y’all”. It is rarely found in Latin America, where ustedes is used instead.
The vos form is used instead of tú in some Spanish speaking countries of South America, especially the Southern Cone (e.g. Argentina and Uruguay) and has a different conjugation.
English Infinitive | to go |
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Spanish Infinitive | ir |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está yendo) and past continuous (estaba yendo). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. going).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he ido and hubiera ido. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have gone).
Gerundio / Gerund | yendo |
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Participio / Past Participle | ido |
The basic form of speech, el indicativo is used for making statements, talking about facts, events and things that are certain and objective.
The present tense is as it sounds – it’s for talking about things that are currently going on, which are habitual, or which generally exist. In English, this would be “I go” or “they go”.
Pronoun | Spanish |
---|---|
Yo | voy |
Tú | vas |
Él / Ella / Usted | va |
Nosotros / as | vamos |
Vosotros / as | vais |
Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | van |
Vos | vas |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I went” or “she went” in English.
In Spanish, there are two past tenses where just one is used in English; the pretérite infefinido is typically used to refer to a concrete, specific moment in time.
Pronoun | Spanish | English |
---|---|---|
Yo | fui | I went |
Tú | fuiste | You went |
Él / Ella / Usted | fue | He / she / you went |
Nosotros / as | fuimos | We went |
Vosotros / as | fuisteis | You went |
Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | fueron | They / you went |
Vos | fuiste | You went |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was going” or “she was going” in English, and is typically used to describe things and set a scene, talk about events without a specific timeframe, or talk about habitual events or states in the past.
Pronoun | Spanish | English |
---|---|---|
Yo | iba | I was going |
Tú | ibas | You were going |
Él / Ella / Usted | iba | He was / she was / you were going |
Nosotros / as | íbamos | We were going |
Vosotros / as | ibais | You were going |
Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | iban | They / you were going |
Vos | ibas | You were going |
The perfect tense is for talking about things which happened in the past but are still related to the present or continue into the present.
In English, these use the auxiliary verbs ‘have’ and ‘has’ – i.e. “I have gone” and “she has gone”.
Pronoun | Spanish | English |
---|---|---|
Yo | he ido | I have gone |
Tú | has ido | You have gone |
Él / Ella / Usted | ha ido | He has / she has / you have gone |
Nosotros / as | hemos ido | We have gone |
Vosotros / as | habéis ido | You have gone |
Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han ido | They / you have gone |
Vos | has ido | You have gone |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would go” or “she would go”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
---|---|---|
Yo | iría | I would go |
Tú | irías | You would go |
Él / Ella / Usted | iría | He / she / you would go |
Nosotros / as | iríamos | We would go |
Vosotros / as | iríais | You would go |
Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | irían | They / you would go |
Vos | irías | You would go |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will go” or “they will go”.
It is more commonly used for making a hypothesis about the present. To talk about the future, Spanish speakers frequently use “ir + a + infinivo”, e.g. “van a ir” means “They are going to go”.
Pronoun | Spanish | English |
---|---|---|
Yo | iré | I will go |
Tú | irás | You will go |
Él / Ella / Usted | irá | He / she / you will go |
Nosotros / as | iremos | We will go |
Vosotros / as | iréis | You will go |
Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | irán | They / you will go |
Vos | irás | You will go |
Pronoun | Spanish |
---|---|
Yo | vaya |
Tú | vayas |
Él / Ella / Usted | vaya |
Nosotros / as | vayamos |
Vosotros / as | vayáis |
Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | vayan |
Vos | vayas |
There are two ways to form the imperfect subjunctive.
The first option sees verbs ending in -era (for -er and -ir verbs) and -ara (for -ar verbs), while the second sees verbs ending in -ese (for -er and -ir verbs) and -ase (for -ar verbs).
There is no difference between these two forms, and Spanish speakers use them interchangeably.
Pronoun | Spanish era/ara | Spanish ese/ase |
---|---|---|
Yo | fuera | fuese |
Tú | fueras | fuese |
Él / Ella / Usted | fuera | fuese |
Nosotros / as | fuéramos | fuésemos |
Vosotros / as | fuerais | fueseis |
Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | fueran | fuesen |
Vos | fueras | fuese |
The future subjunctive is no longer used in modern-day Spanish, apart from in literary and legal contexts, and there is no need to learn it.
It is formed the same as the past/imperfect subjunctive, but with -e endings instead of -a endings.
Pronoun | Spanish |
---|---|
Yo | fuere |
Tú | fueres |
Él / Ella / Usted | fuera |
Nosotros / as | fuéremos |
Vosotros / as | fuereis |
Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | fueren |
Vos | fueres |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “go!” and “don’t go!”.
Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
---|---|---|
Tú | ve | no vayas |
Él / Ella / Usted | vaya | no vaya |
Nosotros / as | vayamos | no vayamos |
Vosotros / as | id | no vayáis |
Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | vayan | no vayan |
Vos | andá | no vayas |
Pronoun | Spanish |
---|---|
Yo | haya ido |
Tú | hayas ido |
Él / Ella / Usted | haya ido |
Nosotros / as | hayamos ido |
Vosotros / as | hayáis ido |
Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan ido |
Vos | hayas ido |
Pronoun | Spanish |
---|---|
Yo | hubiera ido / hubiese ido |
Tú | hubieras ido / hubieses ido |
Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera ido / hubiese ido |
Nosotros / as | hubiéramos ido / hubiésemos ido |
Vosotros / as | hubierais ido / hubieseis ido |
Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran ido / hubiesen ido |
Vos | hubieras ido / hubieses ido |
Pronoun | Spanish |
---|---|
Yo | hubiere ido |
Tú | hubieres ido |
Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere ido |
Nosotros / as | hubiéremos ido |
Vosotros / as | hubiereis ido |
Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren ido |
Vos | hubieres ido |
Pronoun | Spanish |
---|---|
Yo | esté yendo |
Tú | estés yendo |
Él / Ella / Usted | esté yendo |
Nosotros / as | estemos yendo |
Vosotros / as | estéis yendo |
Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén yendo |
Vos | estés yendo |
Pronoun | Spanish |
---|---|
Yo | estuviera yendo / estuviese yendo |
Tú | estuvieras yendo / estuvieses yendo |
Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera yendo / estuviese yendo |
Nosotros / as | estuviéramos yendo / estuviésamos yendo |
Vosotros / as | estuvierais yendo / estuvieseis yendo |
Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera yendo / estuviese yendo |
Vos | estuvieras yendo / estuvieses yendo |
Pronoun | Spanish |
---|---|
Yo | estuviere yendo |
Tú | estuvieres yendo |
Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere yendo |
Nosotros / as | estuviéremos yendo |
Vosotros / as | estuviereis yendo |
Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere yendo |
Vos | estuvieres yendo |
Voseo is the practice of using ‘vos’ instead of ‘tú’ as the second-person singular pronoun, and is common throughout much of South America.
There are various versions of ‘voseo’ used throughout the Spanish-speaking world. The conjugations for the most common type – used throughout Argentina, parts of Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguya and Uruguay are below.
The present indicative (presente de indicativo) and affirmative imperative (imperativo) have different conjugations from the tú form, while all other tenses generally use the tú form.
Tense | Vos Conjugation |
---|---|
Present Indicative Presente de Indicativo | Vos vas |
Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos fuiste |
Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos ibas |
Conditional Condicional | Vos irías |
Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos irás |
Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos vayas |
Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos fueras / Vos fuese |
Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos andá |
Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no vayas |