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Barrer is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to sweep. sweep away”.
Below are all of the conjugations for barrer 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 sweep. sweep away |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | barrer |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está barriendo) and past continuous (estaba barriendo). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. sweeping).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he barrido and hubiera barrido. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have swept).
| Gerundio / Gerund | barriendo |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | barrido |
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 sweep” or “they sweep”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | barro |
| Tú | barres |
| Él / Ella / Usted | barre |
| Nosotros / as | barremos |
| Vosotros / as | barréis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | barren |
| Vos | barrés |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I swept” or “she swept” 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 | barrí | I swept |
| Tú | barriste | You swept |
| Él / Ella / Usted | barrió | He / she / you swept |
| Nosotros / as | barrimos | We swept |
| Vosotros / as | barristeis | You swept |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | barrieron | They / you swept |
| Vos | barriste | You swept |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was sweeping” or “she was sweeping” 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 | barría | I was sweeping |
| Tú | barrías | You were sweeping |
| Él / Ella / Usted | barría | He was / she was / you were sweeping |
| Nosotros / as | barríamos | We were sweeping |
| Vosotros / as | barríais | You were sweeping |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | barrían | They / you were sweeping |
| Vos | barrías | You were sweeping |
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 swept” and “she has swept”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he barrido | I have swept |
| Tú | has barrido | You have swept |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha barrido | He has / she has / you have swept |
| Nosotros / as | hemos barrido | We have swept |
| Vosotros / as | habéis barrido | You have swept |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han barrido | They / you have swept |
| Vos | has barrido | You have swept |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would sweep” or “she would sweep”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | barrería | I would sweep |
| Tú | barrerías | You would sweep |
| Él / Ella / Usted | barrería | He / she / you would sweep |
| Nosotros / as | barreríamos | We would sweep |
| Vosotros / as | barreríais | You would sweep |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | barrerían | They / you would sweep |
| Vos | barrerías | You would sweep |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will sweep” or “they will sweep”.
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 barrer” means “They are going to sweep”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | barreré | I will sweep |
| Tú | barrerás | You will sweep |
| Él / Ella / Usted | barrerá | He / she / you will sweep |
| Nosotros / as | barreremos | We will sweep |
| Vosotros / as | barreréis | You will sweep |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | barrerán | They / you will sweep |
| Vos | barrerás | You will sweep |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | barra |
| Tú | barras |
| Él / Ella / Usted | barra |
| Nosotros / as | barramos |
| Vosotros / as | barráis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | barran |
| Vos | barras |
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 | barriera | barriese |
| Tú | barrieras | barriese |
| Él / Ella / Usted | barriera | barriese |
| Nosotros / as | barriéramos | barriésemos |
| Vosotros / as | barrierais | barrieseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | barrieran | barriesen |
| Vos | barrieras | barriese |
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 | barriere |
| Tú | barrieres |
| Él / Ella / Usted | barriere |
| Nosotros / as | barriéremos |
| Vosotros / as | barriereis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | barrieren |
| Vos | barrieres |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “sweep!” and “don’t sweep!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | barre | no barras |
| Él / Ella / Usted | barra | no barra |
| Nosotros / as | barramos | no barramos |
| Vosotros / as | barred | no barráis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | barran | no barran |
| Vos | barré | no barras |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya barrido |
| Tú | hayas barrido |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya barrido |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos barrido |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis barrido |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan barrido |
| Vos | hayas barrido |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera barrido / hubiese barrido |
| Tú | hubieras barrido / hubieses barrido |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera barrido / hubiese barrido |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos barrido / hubiésemos barrido |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais barrido / hubieseis barrido |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran barrido / hubiesen barrido |
| Vos | hubieras barrido / hubieses barrido |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere barrido |
| Tú | hubieres barrido |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere barrido |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos barrido |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis barrido |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren barrido |
| Vos | hubieres barrido |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté barriendo |
| Tú | estés barriendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté barriendo |
| Nosotros / as | estemos barriendo |
| Vosotros / as | estéis barriendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén barriendo |
| Vos | estés barriendo |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera barriendo / estuviese barriendo |
| Tú | estuvieras barriendo / estuvieses barriendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera barriendo / estuviese barriendo |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos barriendo / estuviésamos barriendo |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais barriendo / estuvieseis barriendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera barriendo / estuviese barriendo |
| Vos | estuvieras barriendo / estuvieses barriendo |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere barriendo |
| Tú | estuvieres barriendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere barriendo |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos barriendo |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis barriendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere barriendo |
| Vos | estuvieres barriendo |
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 barrés |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos barriste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos barrías |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos barrerías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos barrerás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos barras |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos barrieras / Vos barriese |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos barré |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no barras |