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Abrir is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to open”.
Below are all of the conjugations for abrir 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 open |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | abrir |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está abriendo) and past continuous (estaba abriendo). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. opening).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he abrido and hubiera abrido. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have opened).
| Gerundio / Gerund | abriendo |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | abrido |
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 open” or “they open”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | abro |
| Tú | abres |
| Él / Ella / Usted | abre |
| Nosotros / as | abrimos |
| Vosotros / as | abrís |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | abren |
| Vos | abrís |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I opened” or “she opened” 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 | abrí | I opened |
| Tú | abriste | You opened |
| Él / Ella / Usted | abrió | He / she / you opened |
| Nosotros / as | abrimos | We opened |
| Vosotros / as | abristeis | You opened |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | abrieron | They / you opened |
| Vos | abriste | You opened |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was opening” or “she was opening” 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 | abría | I was opening |
| Tú | abrías | You were opening |
| Él / Ella / Usted | abría | He was / she was / you were opening |
| Nosotros / as | abríamos | We were opening |
| Vosotros / as | abríais | You were opening |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | abrían | They / you were opening |
| Vos | abrías | You were opening |
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 opened” and “she has opened”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he abrido | I have opened |
| Tú | has abrido | You have opened |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha abrido | He has / she has / you have opened |
| Nosotros / as | hemos abrido | We have opened |
| Vosotros / as | habéis abrido | You have opened |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han abrido | They / you have opened |
| Vos | has abrido | You have opened |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would open” or “she would open”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | abriría | I would open |
| Tú | abrirías | You would open |
| Él / Ella / Usted | abriría | He / she / you would open |
| Nosotros / as | abriríamos | We would open |
| Vosotros / as | abriríais | You would open |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | abrirían | They / you would open |
| Vos | abrirías | You would open |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will open” or “they will open”.
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 abrir” means “They are going to open”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | abriré | I will open |
| Tú | abrirás | You will open |
| Él / Ella / Usted | abrirá | He / she / you will open |
| Nosotros / as | abriremos | We will open |
| Vosotros / as | abriréis | You will open |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | abrirán | They / you will open |
| Vos | abrirás | You will open |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | abra |
| Tú | abras |
| Él / Ella / Usted | abra |
| Nosotros / as | abramos |
| Vosotros / as | abráis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | abran |
| Vos | abras |
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 | abriera | abriese |
| Tú | abrieras | abriese |
| Él / Ella / Usted | abriera | abriese |
| Nosotros / as | abriéramos | abriésemos |
| Vosotros / as | abrierais | abrieseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | abrieran | abriesen |
| Vos | abrieras | abriese |
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 | abriere |
| Tú | abrieres |
| Él / Ella / Usted | abriera |
| Nosotros / as | abriéremos |
| Vosotros / as | abriereis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | abrieren |
| Vos | abrieres |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “open!” and “don’t open!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | abre | no abras |
| Él / Ella / Usted | abra | no abra |
| Nosotros / as | abramos | no abramos |
| Vosotros / as | abrid | no abráis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | abran | no abran |
| Vos | abrí | no abras |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya abrido |
| Tú | hayas abrido |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya abrido |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos abrido |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis abrido |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan abrido |
| Vos | hayas abrido |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera abrido / hubiese abrido |
| Tú | hubieras abrido / hubieses abrido |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera abrido / hubiese abrido |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos abrido / hubiésemos abrido |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais abrido / hubieseis abrido |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran abrido / hubiesen abrido |
| Vos | hubieras abrido / hubieses abrido |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere abrido |
| Tú | hubieres abrido |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere abrido |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos abrido |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis abrido |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren abrido |
| Vos | hubieres abrido |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté abriendo |
| Tú | estés abriendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté abriendo |
| Nosotros / as | estemos abriendo |
| Vosotros / as | estéis abriendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén abriendo |
| Vos | estés abriendo |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera abriendo / estuviese abriendo |
| Tú | estuvieras abriendo / estuvieses abriendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera abriendo / estuviese abriendo |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos abriendo / estuviésamos abriendo |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais abriendo / estuvieseis abriendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera abriendo / estuviese abriendo |
| Vos | estuvieras abriendo / estuvieses abriendo |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere abriendo |
| Tú | estuvieres abriendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere abriendo |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos abriendo |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis abriendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere abriendo |
| Vos | estuvieres abriendo |
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 abrís |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos abriste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos abrías |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos abrirías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos abrirás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos abras |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos abrieras / Vos abriese |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos abrí |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no abras |
