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Escribir is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to write”.
Below are all of the conjugations for escribir 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 write |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | escribir |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está escribiendo) and past continuous (estaba escribiendo). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. writing).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he escrito and hubiera escrito. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have written).
| Gerundio / Gerund | escribiendo |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | escrito |
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 write” or “they write”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | escribo |
| Tú | escribes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | escribe |
| Nosotros / as | escribimos |
| Vosotros / as | escribís |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | escriben |
| Vos | escribís |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I wrote” or “she wrote” 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 | escribí | I wrote |
| Tú | escribiste | You wrote |
| Él / Ella / Usted | escribió | He / she / you wrote |
| Nosotros / as | escribimos | We wrote |
| Vosotros / as | escribisteis | You wrote |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | escribieron | They / you wrote |
| Vos | escribiste | You wrote |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was writing” or “she was writing” 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 | escribía | I was writing |
| Tú | escribías | You were writing |
| Él / Ella / Usted | escribía | He was / she was / you were writing |
| Nosotros / as | escribíamos | We were writing |
| Vosotros / as | escribíais | You were writing |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | escribían | They / you were writing |
| Vos | escribías | You were writing |
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 written” and “she has written”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he escrito | I have written |
| Tú | has escrito | You have written |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha escrito | He has / she has / you have written |
| Nosotros / as | hemos escrito | We have written |
| Vosotros / as | habéis escrito | You have written |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han escrito | They / you have written |
| Vos | has escrito | You have written |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would write” or “she would write”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | escribiría | I would write |
| Tú | escribirías | You would write |
| Él / Ella / Usted | escribiría | He / she / you would write |
| Nosotros / as | escribiríamos | We would write |
| Vosotros / as | escribiríais | You would write |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | escribirían | They / you would write |
| Vos | escribirías | You would write |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will write” or “they will write”.
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 escribir” means “They are going to write”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | escribiré | I will write |
| Tú | escribirás | You will write |
| Él / Ella / Usted | escribirá | He / she / you will write |
| Nosotros / as | escribiremos | We will write |
| Vosotros / as | escribiréis | You will write |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | escribirán | They / you will write |
| Vos | escribirás | You will write |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | escriba |
| Tú | escribas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | escriba |
| Nosotros / as | escribamos |
| Vosotros / as | escribáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | escriban |
| Vos | escribas |
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 | escribiera | escribiese |
| Tú | escribieras | escribiese |
| Él / Ella / Usted | escribiera | escribiese |
| Nosotros / as | escribiéramos | escribiésemos |
| Vosotros / as | escribierais | escribieseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | escribieran | escribiesen |
| Vos | escribieras | escribiese |
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 | escribiere |
| Tú | escribieres |
| Él / Ella / Usted | escribiera |
| Nosotros / as | escribiéremos |
| Vosotros / as | escribiereis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | escribieren |
| Vos | escribieres |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “write!” and “don’t write!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | escribe | no escribas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | escriba | no escriba |
| Nosotros / as | escribamos | no escribamos |
| Vosotros / as | escribid | no escribáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | escriban | no escriban |
| Vos | escribí | no escribas |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya escrito |
| Tú | hayas escrito |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya escrito |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos escrito |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis escrito |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan escrito |
| Vos | hayas escrito |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera escrito / hubiese escrito |
| Tú | hubieras escrito / hubieses escrito |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera escrito / hubiese escrito |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos escrito / hubiésemos escrito |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais escrito / hubieseis escrito |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran escrito / hubiesen escrito |
| Vos | hubieras escrito / hubieses escrito |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere escrito |
| Tú | hubieres escrito |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere escrito |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos escrito |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis escrito |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren escrito |
| Vos | hubieres escrito |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté escribiendo |
| Tú | estés escribiendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté escribiendo |
| Nosotros / as | estemos escribiendo |
| Vosotros / as | estéis escribiendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén escribiendo |
| Vos | estés escribiendo |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera escribiendo / estuviese escribiendo |
| Tú | estuvieras escribiendo / estuvieses escribiendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera escribiendo / estuviese escribiendo |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos escribiendo / estuviésamos escribiendo |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais escribiendo / estuvieseis escribiendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera escribiendo / estuviese escribiendo |
| Vos | estuvieras escribiendo / estuvieses escribiendo |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere escribiendo |
| Tú | estuvieres escribiendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere escribiendo |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos escribiendo |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis escribiendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere escribiendo |
| Vos | estuvieres escribiendo |
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 escribís |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos escribiste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos escribías |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos escribirías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos escribirás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos escribas |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos escribieras / Vos escribiese |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos escribí |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no escribas |
