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Hervir is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to boil”.
Below are all of the conjugations for hervir 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 boil |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | hervir |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está hirviendo) and past continuous (estaba hirviendo). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. boiled).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he boiled and hubiera boiled. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have boiling).
| Gerundio / Gerund | hirviendo |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | boiled |
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 boil” or “they boil”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hiervo |
| Tú | hierves |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hierve |
| Nosotros / as | hervimos |
| Vosotros / as | hervís |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hierven |
| Vos | hervís |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I boil” or “she boil” 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 | herví | I boil |
| Tú | herviste | You boil |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hirvió | He / she / you boil |
| Nosotros / as | hervimos | We boil |
| Vosotros / as | hervisteis | You boil |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hirvieron | They / you boil |
| Vos | herviste | You boil |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was boiled” or “she was boiled” 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 | hervía | I was boiled |
| Tú | hervías | You were boiled |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hervía | He was / she was / you were boiled |
| Nosotros / as | hervíamos | We were boiled |
| Vosotros / as | hervíais | You were boiled |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hervían | They / you were boiled |
| Vos | hervías | You were boiled |
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 boiling” and “she has boiling”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he boiled | I have boiling |
| Tú | has boiled | You have boiling |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha boiled | He has / she has / you have boiling |
| Nosotros / as | hemos boiled | We have boiling |
| Vosotros / as | habéis boiled | You have boiling |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han boiled | They / you have boiling |
| Vos | has boiled | You have boiling |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would boil” or “she would boil”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | herviría | I would boil |
| Tú | hervirías | You would boil |
| Él / Ella / Usted | herviría | He / she / you would boil |
| Nosotros / as | herviríamos | We would boil |
| Vosotros / as | herviríais | You would boil |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hervirían | They / you would boil |
| Vos | hervirías | You would boil |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will boil” or “they will boil”.
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 hervir” means “They are going to boil”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | herviré | I will boil |
| Tú | hervirás | You will boil |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hervirá | He / she / you will boil |
| Nosotros / as | herviremos | We will boil |
| Vosotros / as | herviréis | You will boil |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hervirán | They / you will boil |
| Vos | hervirás | You will boil |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hierva |
| Tú | hiervas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hierva |
| Nosotros / as | hirvamos |
| Vosotros / as | hirváis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hiervan |
| Vos | hiervas |
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 | hirviera | hirviese |
| Tú | hirvieras | hirviese |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hirviera | hirviese |
| Nosotros / as | hirviéramos | hirviésemos |
| Vosotros / as | hirvierais | hirvieseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hirvieran | hirviesen |
| Vos | hirvieras | hirviese |
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 | hirviere |
| Tú | hirvieres |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hirviera |
| Nosotros / as | hirviéremos |
| Vosotros / as | hirviereis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hirvieren |
| Vos | hirvieres |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “boil!” and “don’t boil!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | hierve | no hiervas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hierva | no hierva |
| Nosotros / as | hirvamos | no hirvamos |
| Vosotros / as | hervid | no hirváis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hiervan | no hiervan |
| Vos | herví | no hiervas |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya boiled |
| Tú | hayas boiled |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya boiled |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos boiled |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis boiled |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan boiled |
| Vos | hayas boiled |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera boiled / hubiese boiled |
| Tú | hubieras boiled / hubieses boiled |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera boiled / hubiese boiled |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos boiled / hubiésemos boiled |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais boiled / hubieseis boiled |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran boiled / hubiesen boiled |
| Vos | hubieras boiled / hubieses boiled |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere boiled |
| Tú | hubieres boiled |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere boiled |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos boiled |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis boiled |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren boiled |
| Vos | hubieres boiled |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté hirviendo |
| Tú | estés hirviendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté hirviendo |
| Nosotros / as | estemos hirviendo |
| Vosotros / as | estéis hirviendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén hirviendo |
| Vos | estés hirviendo |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera hirviendo / estuviese hirviendo |
| Tú | estuvieras hirviendo / estuvieses hirviendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera hirviendo / estuviese hirviendo |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos hirviendo / estuviésamos hirviendo |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais hirviendo / estuvieseis hirviendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera hirviendo / estuviese hirviendo |
| Vos | estuvieras hirviendo / estuvieses hirviendo |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere hirviendo |
| Tú | estuvieres hirviendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere hirviendo |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos hirviendo |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis hirviendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere hirviendo |
| Vos | estuvieres hirviendo |
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 hervís |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos herviste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos hervías |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos hervirías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos hervirás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos hiervas |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos hirvieras / Vos hirviese |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos herví |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no hiervas |