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Llorar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to cry, weep”.
Below are all of the conjugations for llorar 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 cry, weep |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | llorar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está llorando) and past continuous (estaba llorando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. crying).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he llorado and hubiera llorado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have cried).
| Gerundio / Gerund | llorando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | llorado |
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 cry” or “they cry”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | lloro |
| Tú | lloras |
| Él / Ella / Usted | llora |
| Nosotros / as | lloramos |
| Vosotros / as | lloráis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | lloran |
| Vos |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I cried” or “she cried” 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 | lloré | I cried |
| Tú | lloraste | You cried |
| Él / Ella / Usted | lloró | He / she / you cried |
| Nosotros / as | lloramos | We cried |
| Vosotros / as | llorasteis | You cried |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | lloraron | They / you cried |
| Vos | lloraste | You cried |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was crying” or “she was crying” 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 | lloraba | I was crying |
| Tú | llorabas | You were crying |
| Él / Ella / Usted | lloraba | He was / she was / you were crying |
| Nosotros / as | llorábamos | We were crying |
| Vosotros / as | llorabais | You were crying |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | lloraban | They / you were crying |
| Vos | llorabas | You were crying |
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 cried” and “she has cried”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he llorado | I have cried |
| Tú | has llorado | You have cried |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha llorado | He has / she has / you have cried |
| Nosotros / as | hemos llorado | We have cried |
| Vosotros / as | habéis llorado | You have cried |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han llorado | They / you have cried |
| Vos | has llorado | You have cried |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would cry” or “she would cry”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | lloraría | I would cry |
| Tú | llorarías | You would cry |
| Él / Ella / Usted | lloraría | He / she / you would cry |
| Nosotros / as | lloraríamos | We would cry |
| Vosotros / as | lloraríais | You would cry |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | llorarían | They / you would cry |
| Vos | llorarías | You would cry |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will cry” or “they will cry”.
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 llorar” means “They are going to cry”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | lloraré | I will cry |
| Tú | llorarás | You will cry |
| Él / Ella / Usted | llorará | He / she / you will cry |
| Nosotros / as | lloraremos | We will cry |
| Vosotros / as | lloraréis | You will cry |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | llorarán | They / you will cry |
| Vos | llorarás | You will cry |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | llore |
| Tú | llores |
| Él / Ella / Usted | llore |
| Nosotros / as | lloremos |
| Vosotros / as | lloréis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | lloren |
| Vos | llores |
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 | llorara | llorase |
| Tú | lloraras | llorase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | llorara | llorase |
| Nosotros / as | lloráramos | llorásemos |
| Vosotros / as | llorarais | lloraseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | lloraran | llorasen |
| Vos | lloraras | llorase |
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 | llorare |
| Tú | llorares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | llorare |
| Nosotros / as | lloráremos |
| Vosotros / as | llorareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | lloraren |
| Vos | llorares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “cry!” and “don’t cry!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | llora | no llores |
| Él / Ella / Usted | llore | no llore |
| Nosotros / as | lloremos | no lloremos |
| Vosotros / as | llorad | no lloréis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | lloren | no lloren |
| Vos | no llores |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya llorado |
| Tú | hayas llorado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya llorado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos llorado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis llorado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan llorado |
| Vos | hayas llorado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera llorado / hubiese llorado |
| Tú | hubieras llorado / hubieses llorado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera llorado / hubiese llorado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos llorado / hubiésemos llorado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais llorado / hubieseis llorado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran llorado / hubiesen llorado |
| Vos | hubieras llorado / hubieses llorado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere llorado |
| Tú | hubieres llorado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere llorado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos llorado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis llorado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren llorado |
| Vos | hubieres llorado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté llorando |
| Tú | estés llorando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté llorando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos llorando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis llorando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén llorando |
| Vos | estés llorando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera llorando / estuviese llorando |
| Tú | estuvieras llorando / estuvieses llorando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera llorando / estuviese llorando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos llorando / estuviésamos llorando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais llorando / estuvieseis llorando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera llorando / estuviese llorando |
| Vos | estuvieras llorando / estuvieses llorando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere llorando |
| Tú | estuvieres llorando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere llorando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos llorando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis llorando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere llorando |
| Vos | estuvieres llorando |
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 |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos lloraste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos llorabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos llorarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos llorarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos llores |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos lloraras / Vos llorase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no llores |