Everything you need to improve your Spanish
Menu
Everything you need to improve your Spanish
Cerrar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to close, shut, heal”.
Below are all of the conjugations for cerrar 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 close, shut, heal |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | cerrar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está cerrando) and past continuous (estaba cerrando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. closing).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he cerrado and hubiera cerrado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have closed).
| Gerundio / Gerund | cerrando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | cerrado |
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 close” or “they close”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | cierro |
| Tú | cierras |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cierra |
| Nosotros / as | cerramos |
| Vosotros / as | cerráis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cierran |
| Vos | cerrás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I closed” or “she closed” 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 | cerré | I closed |
| Tú | cerraste | You closed |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cerró | He / she / you closed |
| Nosotros / as | cerramos | We closed |
| Vosotros / as | cerrasteis | You closed |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cerraron | They / you closed |
| Vos | cerraste | You closed |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was closing” or “she was closing” 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 | cerraba | I was closing |
| Tú | cerrabas | You were closing |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cerraba | He was / she was / you were closing |
| Nosotros / as | cerrábamos | We were closing |
| Vosotros / as | cerrabais | You were closing |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cerraban | They / you were closing |
| Vos | cerrabas | You were closing |
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 closed” and “she has closed”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he cerrado | I have closed |
| Tú | has cerrado | You have closed |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha cerrado | He has / she has / you have closed |
| Nosotros / as | hemos cerrado | We have closed |
| Vosotros / as | habéis cerrado | You have closed |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han cerrado | They / you have closed |
| Vos | has cerrado | You have closed |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would close” or “she would close”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | cerraría | I would close |
| Tú | cerrarías | You would close |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cerraría | He / she / you would close |
| Nosotros / as | cerraríamos | We would close |
| Vosotros / as | cerraríais | You would close |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cerrarían | They / you would close |
| Vos | cerrarías | You would close |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will close” or “they will close”.
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 cerrar” means “They are going to close”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | cerraré | I will close |
| Tú | cerrarás | You will close |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cerrará | He / she / you will close |
| Nosotros / as | cerraremos | We will close |
| Vosotros / as | cerraréis | You will close |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cerrarán | They / you will close |
| Vos | cerrarás | You will close |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | cierre |
| Tú | cierres |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cierre |
| Nosotros / as | cerremos |
| Vosotros / as | cerréis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cierren |
| Vos | cierres |
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 | cerrara | cerrase |
| Tú | cerraras | cerrase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cerrara | cerrase |
| Nosotros / as | cerráramos | cerrásemos |
| Vosotros / as | cerrarais | cerraseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cerraran | cerrasen |
| Vos | cerraras | cerrase |
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 | cerrare |
| Tú | cerrares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cerrare |
| Nosotros / as | cerráremos |
| Vosotros / as | cerrareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cerraren |
| Vos | cerrares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “close!” and “don’t close!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | cierra | no cierres |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cierre | no cierre |
| Nosotros / as | cerremos | no cerremos |
| Vosotros / as | cerrad | no cerréis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cierren | no cierren |
| Vos | cerrá | no cierres |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya cerrado |
| Tú | hayas cerrado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya cerrado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos cerrado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis cerrado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan cerrado |
| Vos | hayas cerrado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera cerrado / hubiese cerrado |
| Tú | hubieras cerrado / hubieses cerrado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera cerrado / hubiese cerrado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos cerrado / hubiésemos cerrado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais cerrado / hubieseis cerrado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran cerrado / hubiesen cerrado |
| Vos | hubieras cerrado / hubieses cerrado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere cerrado |
| Tú | hubieres cerrado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere cerrado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos cerrado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis cerrado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren cerrado |
| Vos | hubieres cerrado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté cerrando |
| Tú | estés cerrando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté cerrando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos cerrando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis cerrando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén cerrando |
| Vos | estés cerrando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera cerrando / estuviese cerrando |
| Tú | estuvieras cerrando / estuvieses cerrando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera cerrando / estuviese cerrando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos cerrando / estuviésamos cerrando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais cerrando / estuvieseis cerrando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera cerrando / estuviese cerrando |
| Vos | estuvieras cerrando / estuvieses cerrando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere cerrando |
| Tú | estuvieres cerrando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere cerrando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos cerrando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis cerrando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere cerrando |
| Vos | estuvieres cerrando |
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 cerrás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos cerraste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos cerrabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos cerrarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos cerrarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos cierres |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos cerraras / Vos cerrase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos cerrá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no cierres |