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Crecer is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to grow”.
Below are all of the conjugations for crecer 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 grow |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | crecer |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está creciendo) and past continuous (estaba creciendo). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. growing).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he crecido and hubiera crecido. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have grown).
| Gerundio / Gerund | creciendo |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | crecido |
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 grow” or “they grow”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | crezco |
| Tú | creces |
| Él / Ella / Usted | crece |
| Nosotros / as | crecemos |
| Vosotros / as | crecéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | crecen |
| Vos | crecés |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I grew” or “she grew” 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 | crecí | I grew |
| Tú | creciste | You grew |
| Él / Ella / Usted | creció | He / she / you grew |
| Nosotros / as | crecimos | We grew |
| Vosotros / as | crecisteis | You grew |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | crecieron | They / you grew |
| Vos | creciste | You grew |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was growing” or “she was growing” 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 | crecía | I was growing |
| Tú | crecías | You were growing |
| Él / Ella / Usted | crecía | He was / she was / you were growing |
| Nosotros / as | crecíamos | We were growing |
| Vosotros / as | crecíais | You were growing |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | crecían | They / you were growing |
| Vos | crecías | You were growing |
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 grown” and “she has grown”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he crecido | I have grown |
| Tú | has crecido | You have grown |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha crecido | He has / she has / you have grown |
| Nosotros / as | hemos crecido | We have grown |
| Vosotros / as | habéis crecido | You have grown |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han crecido | They / you have grown |
| Vos | has crecido | You have grown |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would grow” or “she would grow”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | crecería | I would grow |
| Tú | crecerías | You would grow |
| Él / Ella / Usted | crecería | He / she / you would grow |
| Nosotros / as | creceríamos | We would grow |
| Vosotros / as | creceríais | You would grow |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | crecerían | They / you would grow |
| Vos | crecerías | You would grow |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will grow” or “they will grow”.
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 crecer” means “They are going to grow”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | creceré | I will grow |
| Tú | crecerás | You will grow |
| Él / Ella / Usted | crecerá | He / she / you will grow |
| Nosotros / as | creceremos | We will grow |
| Vosotros / as | creceréis | You will grow |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | crecerán | They / you will grow |
| Vos | crecerás | You will grow |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | crezca |
| Tú | crezcas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | crezca |
| Nosotros / as | crezcamos |
| Vosotros / as | crezcáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | crezcan |
| Vos | crezcas |
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 | creciera | creciese |
| Tú | crecieras | creciese |
| Él / Ella / Usted | creciera | creciese |
| Nosotros / as | creciéramos | creciésemos |
| Vosotros / as | crecierais | crecieseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | crecieran | creciesen |
| Vos | crecieras | creciese |
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 | creciere |
| Tú | crecieres |
| Él / Ella / Usted | creciere |
| Nosotros / as | creciéremos |
| Vosotros / as | creciereis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | crecieren |
| Vos | crecieres |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “grow!” and “don’t grow!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | crece | no crezcas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | crezca | no crezca |
| Nosotros / as | crezcamos | no crezcamos |
| Vosotros / as | creced | no crezcáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | crezcan | no crezcan |
| Vos | crecé | no crezcas |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya crecido |
| Tú | hayas crecido |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya crecido |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos crecido |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis crecido |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan crecido |
| Vos | hayas crecido |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera crecido / hubiese crecido |
| Tú | hubieras crecido / hubieses crecido |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera crecido / hubiese crecido |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos crecido / hubiésemos crecido |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais crecido / hubieseis crecido |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran crecido / hubiesen crecido |
| Vos | hubieras crecido / hubieses crecido |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere crecido |
| Tú | hubieres crecido |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere crecido |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos crecido |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis crecido |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren crecido |
| Vos | hubieres crecido |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté creciendo |
| Tú | estés creciendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté creciendo |
| Nosotros / as | estemos creciendo |
| Vosotros / as | estéis creciendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén creciendo |
| Vos | estés creciendo |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera creciendo / estuviese creciendo |
| Tú | estuvieras creciendo / estuvieses creciendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera creciendo / estuviese creciendo |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos creciendo / estuviésamos creciendo |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais creciendo / estuvieseis creciendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera creciendo / estuviese creciendo |
| Vos | estuvieras creciendo / estuvieses creciendo |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere creciendo |
| Tú | estuvieres creciendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere creciendo |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos creciendo |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis creciendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere creciendo |
| Vos | estuvieres creciendo |
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 crecés |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos creciste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos crecías |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos crecerías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos crecerás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos crezcas |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos crecieras / Vos creciese |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos crecé |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no crezcas |