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Ocurrir is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to happen”.
Below are all of the conjugations for ocurrir 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 happen |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | ocurrir |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está ocurriendo) and past continuous (estaba ocurriendo). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. happening).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he ocurrido and hubiera ocurrido. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have happened).
| Gerundio / Gerund | ocurriendo |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | ocurrido |
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 happen” or “they happen”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | ocurro |
| Tú | ocurres |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ocurre |
| Nosotros / as | ocurrimos |
| Vosotros / as | ocurrís |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | ocurren |
| Vos | ocurrís |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I happened” or “she happened” 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 | ocurrí | I happened |
| Tú | ocurriste | You happened |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ocurrió | He / she / you happened |
| Nosotros / as | ocurrimos | We happened |
| Vosotros / as | ocurristeis | You happened |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | ocurrieron | They / you happened |
| Vos | ocurriste | You happened |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was happening” or “she was happening” 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 | ocurría | I was happening |
| Tú | ocurrías | You were happening |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ocurría | He was / she was / you were happening |
| Nosotros / as | ocurríamos | We were happening |
| Vosotros / as | ocurríais | You were happening |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | ocurrían | They / you were happening |
| Vos | ocurrías | You were happening |
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 happened” and “she has happened”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he ocurrido | I have happened |
| Tú | has ocurrido | You have happened |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha ocurrido | He has / she has / you have happened |
| Nosotros / as | hemos ocurrido | We have happened |
| Vosotros / as | habéis ocurrido | You have happened |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han ocurrido | They / you have happened |
| Vos | has ocurrido | You have happened |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would happen” or “she would happen”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | ocurriría | I would happen |
| Tú | ocurrirías | You would happen |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ocurriría | He / she / you would happen |
| Nosotros / as | ocurriríamos | We would happen |
| Vosotros / as | ocurriríais | You would happen |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | ocurrirían | They / you would happen |
| Vos | ocurrirías | You would happen |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will happen” or “they will happen”.
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 ocurrir” means “They are going to happen”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | ocurriré | I will happen |
| Tú | ocurrirás | You will happen |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ocurrirá | He / she / you will happen |
| Nosotros / as | ocurriremos | We will happen |
| Vosotros / as | ocurriréis | You will happen |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | ocurrirán | They / you will happen |
| Vos | ocurrirás | You will happen |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | ocurra |
| Tú | ocurras |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ocurra |
| Nosotros / as | ocurramos |
| Vosotros / as | ocurráis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | ocurran |
| Vos | ocurras |
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 | ocurriera | ocurriese |
| Tú | ocurrieras | ocurriese |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ocurriera | ocurriese |
| Nosotros / as | ocurriéramos | ocurriésemos |
| Vosotros / as | ocurrierais | ocurrieseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | ocurrieran | ocurriesen |
| Vos | ocurrieras | ocurriese |
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 | ocurriere |
| Tú | ocurrieres |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ocurriera |
| Nosotros / as | ocurriéremos |
| Vosotros / as | ocurriereis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | ocurrieren |
| Vos | ocurrieres |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “happen!” and “don’t happen!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | ocurre | no ocurras |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ocurra | no ocurra |
| Nosotros / as | ocurramos | no ocurramos |
| Vosotros / as | ocurrid | no ocurráis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | ocurran | no ocurran |
| Vos | ocurrí | no ocurras |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya ocurrido |
| Tú | hayas ocurrido |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya ocurrido |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos ocurrido |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis ocurrido |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan ocurrido |
| Vos | hayas ocurrido |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera ocurrido / hubiese ocurrido |
| Tú | hubieras ocurrido / hubieses ocurrido |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera ocurrido / hubiese ocurrido |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos ocurrido / hubiésemos ocurrido |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais ocurrido / hubieseis ocurrido |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran ocurrido / hubiesen ocurrido |
| Vos | hubieras ocurrido / hubieses ocurrido |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere ocurrido |
| Tú | hubieres ocurrido |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere ocurrido |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos ocurrido |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis ocurrido |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren ocurrido |
| Vos | hubieres ocurrido |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté ocurriendo |
| Tú | estés ocurriendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté ocurriendo |
| Nosotros / as | estemos ocurriendo |
| Vosotros / as | estéis ocurriendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén ocurriendo |
| Vos | estés ocurriendo |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera ocurriendo / estuviese ocurriendo |
| Tú | estuvieras ocurriendo / estuvieses ocurriendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera ocurriendo / estuviese ocurriendo |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos ocurriendo / estuviésamos ocurriendo |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais ocurriendo / estuvieseis ocurriendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera ocurriendo / estuviese ocurriendo |
| Vos | estuvieras ocurriendo / estuvieses ocurriendo |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere ocurriendo |
| Tú | estuvieres ocurriendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere ocurriendo |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos ocurriendo |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis ocurriendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere ocurriendo |
| Vos | estuvieres ocurriendo |
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 ocurrís |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos ocurriste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos ocurrías |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos ocurrirías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos ocurrirás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos ocurras |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos ocurrieras / Vos ocurriese |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos ocurrí |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no ocurras |
