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Criar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to raise, bring up, breed, create”.
Below are all of the conjugations for criar 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 raise, bring up, breed, create |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | criar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está criando) and past continuous (estaba criando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. raising).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he criado and hubiera criado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have raised).
| Gerundio / Gerund | criando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | criado |
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 raise” or “they raise”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | crío |
| Tú | crías |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cría |
| Nosotros / as | criamos |
| Vosotros / as | criáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | crían |
| Vos | crías |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I raised” or “she raised” 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 | crié | I raised |
| Tú | criaste | You raised |
| Él / Ella / Usted | crió | He / she / you raised |
| Nosotros / as | criamos | We raised |
| Vosotros / as | criasteis | You raised |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | criaron | They / you raised |
| Vos | criaste | You raised |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was raising” or “she was raising” 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 | criaba | I was raising |
| Tú | criabas | You were raising |
| Él / Ella / Usted | criaba | He was / she was / you were raising |
| Nosotros / as | criábamos | We were raising |
| Vosotros / as | criabais | You were raising |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | criaban | They / you were raising |
| Vos | criabas | You were raising |
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 raised” and “she has raised”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he criado | I have raised |
| Tú | has criado | You have raised |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha criado | He has / she has / you have raised |
| Nosotros / as | hemos criado | We have raised |
| Vosotros / as | habéis criado | You have raised |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han criado | They / you have raised |
| Vos | has criado | You have raised |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would raise” or “she would raise”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | criaría | I would raise |
| Tú | criarías | You would raise |
| Él / Ella / Usted | criaría | He / she / you would raise |
| Nosotros / as | criaríamos | We would raise |
| Vosotros / as | criaríais | You would raise |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | criarían | They / you would raise |
| Vos | criarías | You would raise |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will raise” or “they will raise”.
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 criar” means “They are going to raise”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | criaré | I will raise |
| Tú | criarás | You will raise |
| Él / Ella / Usted | criará | He / she / you will raise |
| Nosotros / as | criaremos | We will raise |
| Vosotros / as | criaréis | You will raise |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | criarán | They / you will raise |
| Vos | criarás | You will raise |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | críe |
| Tú | críes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | críe |
| Nosotros / as | criemos |
| Vosotros / as | criéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | críen |
| Vos | críes |
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 | criara | criase |
| Tú | criaras | criase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | criara | criase |
| Nosotros / as | criáramos | criásemos |
| Vosotros / as | criarais | criaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | criaran | criasen |
| Vos | criaras | criase |
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 | criare |
| Tú | criares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | criare |
| Nosotros / as | criáremos |
| Vosotros / as | criareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | criaren |
| Vos | criares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “raise!” and “don’t raise!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | cría | no críes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | críe | no críe |
| Nosotros / as | criemos | no criemos |
| Vosotros / as | criad | no criéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | críen | no críen |
| Vos | cría | no críes |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya criado |
| Tú | hayas criado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya criado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos criado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis criado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan criado |
| Vos | hayas criado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera criado / hubiese criado |
| Tú | hubieras criado / hubieses criado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera criado / hubiese criado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos criado / hubiésemos criado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais criado / hubieseis criado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran criado / hubiesen criado |
| Vos | hubieras criado / hubieses criado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere criado |
| Tú | hubieres criado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere criado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos criado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis criado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren criado |
| Vos | hubieres criado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté criando |
| Tú | estés criando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté criando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos criando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis criando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén criando |
| Vos | estés criando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera criando / estuviese criando |
| Tú | estuvieras criando / estuvieses criando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera criando / estuviese criando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos criando / estuviésamos criando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais criando / estuvieseis criando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera criando / estuviese criando |
| Vos | estuvieras criando / estuvieses criando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere criando |
| Tú | estuvieres criando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere criando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos criando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis criando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere criando |
| Vos | estuvieres criando |
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 crías |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos criaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos criabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos criarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos criarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos críes |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos criaras / Vos criase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos cría |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no críes |