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Espirar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to breathe out, exhale”.
Below are all of the conjugations for espirar 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 breathe out, exhale |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | espirar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está espirando) and past continuous (estaba espirando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. breathing out).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he espirado and hubiera espirado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have breathed out).
| Gerundio / Gerund | espirando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | espirado |
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 breathe out” or “they breathe out”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | espiro |
| Tú | espiras |
| Él / Ella / Usted | espira |
| Nosotros / as | espiramos |
| Vosotros / as | espiráis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | espiran |
| Vos | espirás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I breathed out” or “she breathed out” 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 | espiré | I breathed out |
| Tú | espiraste | You breathed out |
| Él / Ella / Usted | espiró | He / she / you breathed out |
| Nosotros / as | espiramos | We breathed out |
| Vosotros / as | espirasteis | You breathed out |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | espiraron | They / you breathed out |
| Vos | espiraste | You breathed out |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was breathing out” or “she was breathing out” 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 | espiraba | I was breathing out |
| Tú | espirabas | You were breathing out |
| Él / Ella / Usted | espiraba | He was / she was / you were breathing out |
| Nosotros / as | espirábamos | We were breathing out |
| Vosotros / as | espirabais | You were breathing out |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | espiraban | They / you were breathing out |
| Vos | espirabas | You were breathing out |
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 breathed out” and “she has breathed out”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he espirado | I have breathed out |
| Tú | has espirado | You have breathed out |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha espirado | He has / she has / you have breathed out |
| Nosotros / as | hemos espirado | We have breathed out |
| Vosotros / as | habéis espirado | You have breathed out |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han espirado | They / you have breathed out |
| Vos | has espirado | You have breathed out |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would breathe out” or “she would breathe out”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | espiraría | I would breathe out |
| Tú | espirarías | You would breathe out |
| Él / Ella / Usted | espiraría | He / she / you would breathe out |
| Nosotros / as | espiraríamos | We would breathe out |
| Vosotros / as | espiraríais | You would breathe out |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | espirarían | They / you would breathe out |
| Vos | espirarías | You would breathe out |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will breathe out” or “they will breathe out”.
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 espirar” means “They are going to breathe out”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | espiraré | I will breathe out |
| Tú | espirarás | You will breathe out |
| Él / Ella / Usted | espirará | He / she / you will breathe out |
| Nosotros / as | espiraremos | We will breathe out |
| Vosotros / as | espiraréis | You will breathe out |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | espirarán | They / you will breathe out |
| Vos | espirarás | You will breathe out |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | espire |
| Tú | espires |
| Él / Ella / Usted | espire |
| Nosotros / as | espiremos |
| Vosotros / as | espiréis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | espiren |
| Vos | espires |
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 | espirara | espirase |
| Tú | espiraras | espirase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | espirara | espirase |
| Nosotros / as | espiráramos | espirásemos |
| Vosotros / as | espirarais | espiraseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | espiraran | espirasen |
| Vos | espiraras | espirase |
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 | espirare |
| Tú | espirares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | espirare |
| Nosotros / as | espiráremos |
| Vosotros / as | espirareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | espiraren |
| Vos | espirares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “breathe out!” and “don’t breathe out!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | espira | no espires |
| Él / Ella / Usted | espire | no espire |
| Nosotros / as | espiremos | no espiremos |
| Vosotros / as | espirad | no espiréis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | espiren | no espiren |
| Vos | espirá | no espires |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya espirado |
| Tú | hayas espirado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya espirado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos espirado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis espirado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan espirado |
| Vos | hayas espirado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera espirado / hubiese espirado |
| Tú | hubieras espirado / hubieses espirado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera espirado / hubiese espirado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos espirado / hubiésemos espirado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais espirado / hubieseis espirado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran espirado / hubiesen espirado |
| Vos | hubieras espirado / hubieses espirado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere espirado |
| Tú | hubieres espirado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere espirado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos espirado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis espirado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren espirado |
| Vos | hubieres espirado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté espirando |
| Tú | estés espirando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté espirando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos espirando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis espirando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén espirando |
| Vos | estés espirando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera espirando / estuviese espirando |
| Tú | estuvieras espirando / estuvieses espirando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera espirando / estuviese espirando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos espirando / estuviésamos espirando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais espirando / estuvieseis espirando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera espirando / estuviese espirando |
| Vos | estuvieras espirando / estuvieses espirando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere espirando |
| Tú | estuvieres espirando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere espirando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos espirando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis espirando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere espirando |
| Vos | estuvieres espirando |
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 espirás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos espiraste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos espirabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos espirarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos espirarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos espires |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos espiraras / Vos espirase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos espirá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no espires |