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Errar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to err, make a mistake, miss a target, wander”.
Below are all of the conjugations for errar 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 err, make a mistake, miss a target, wander |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | errar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está errando) and past continuous (estaba errando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. making a mistake).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he errado and hubiera errado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have made a mistake).
| Gerundio / Gerund | errando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | errado |
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 make a mistake” or “they make a mistake”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | yerro |
| Tú | yerras |
| Él / Ella / Usted | yerra |
| Nosotros / as | erramos |
| Vosotros / as | erráis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | yerran |
| Vos | errás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I made a mistake” or “she made a mistake” 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 | erré | I made a mistake |
| Tú | erraste | You made a mistake |
| Él / Ella / Usted | erró | He / she / you made a mistake |
| Nosotros / as | erramos | We made a mistake |
| Vosotros / as | errasteis | You made a mistake |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | erraron | They / you made a mistake |
| Vos | erraste | You made a mistake |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was making a mistake” or “she was making a mistake” 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 | erraba | I was making a mistake |
| Tú | errabas | You were making a mistake |
| Él / Ella / Usted | erraba | He was / she was / you were making a mistake |
| Nosotros / as | errábamos | We were making a mistake |
| Vosotros / as | errabais | You were making a mistake |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | erraban | They / you were making a mistake |
| Vos | errabas | You were making a mistake |
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 made a mistake” and “she has made a mistake”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he errado | I have made a mistake |
| Tú | has errado | You have made a mistake |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha errado | He has / she has / you have made a mistake |
| Nosotros / as | hemos errado | We have made a mistake |
| Vosotros / as | habéis errado | You have made a mistake |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han errado | They / you have made a mistake |
| Vos | has errado | You have made a mistake |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would make a mistake” or “she would make a mistake”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | erraría | I would make a mistake |
| Tú | errarías | You would make a mistake |
| Él / Ella / Usted | erraría | He / she / you would make a mistake |
| Nosotros / as | erraríamos | We would make a mistake |
| Vosotros / as | erraríais | You would make a mistake |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | errarían | They / you would make a mistake |
| Vos | errarías | You would make a mistake |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will make a mistake” or “they will make a mistake”.
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 errar” means “They are going to make a mistake”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | erraré | I will make a mistake |
| Tú | errarás | You will make a mistake |
| Él / Ella / Usted | errará | He / she / you will make a mistake |
| Nosotros / as | erraremos | We will make a mistake |
| Vosotros / as | erraréis | You will make a mistake |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | errarán | They / you will make a mistake |
| Vos | errarás | You will make a mistake |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | yerre |
| Tú | yerres |
| Él / Ella / Usted | yerre |
| Nosotros / as | yerremos |
| Vosotros / as | yerréis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | yerren |
| Vos | yerres |
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 | errara | errase |
| Tú | erraras | errase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | errara | errase |
| Nosotros / as | erráramos | errásemos |
| Vosotros / as | errarais | erraseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | erraran | errasen |
| Vos | erraras | errase |
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 | errare |
| Tú | errares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | errare |
| Nosotros / as | erráremos |
| Vosotros / as | errareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | erraren |
| Vos | errares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “make a mistake!” and “don’t make a mistake!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | yerra | no yerres |
| Él / Ella / Usted | yerre | no yerre |
| Nosotros / as | yerremos | no yerremos |
| Vosotros / as | errad | no yerréis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | yerren | no yerren |
| Vos | errá | no yerres |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya errado |
| Tú | hayas errado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya errado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos errado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis errado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan errado |
| Vos | hayas errado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera errado / hubiese errado |
| Tú | hubieras errado / hubieses errado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera errado / hubiese errado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos errado / hubiésemos errado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais errado / hubieseis errado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran errado / hubiesen errado |
| Vos | hubieras errado / hubieses errado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere errado |
| Tú | hubieres errado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere errado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos errado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis errado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren errado |
| Vos | hubieres errado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté errando |
| Tú | estés errando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté errando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos errando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis errando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén errando |
| Vos | estés errando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera errando / estuviese errando |
| Tú | estuvieras errando / estuvieses errando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera errando / estuviese errando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos errando / estuviésamos errando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais errando / estuvieseis errando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera errando / estuviese errando |
| Vos | estuvieras errando / estuvieses errando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere errando |
| Tú | estuvieres errando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere errando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos errando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis errando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere errando |
| Vos | estuvieres errando |
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 errás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos erraste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos errabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos errarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos errarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos yerres |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos erraras / Vos errase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos errá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no yerres |