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Irse is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to go away, depart, leave”.
It’s a reflexive verb, which means the subject performs the action upon themselves – e.g. “I wake myself”.
Reflexive verbs always carry a reflexive pronoun – me, te, se, nos or os – which is often placed before the conjugated verb (e.g. me voy) or after the infinitive (e.g. Él tiene que irse).
Below are all of the conjugations for irse 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 go away, depart, leave |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | irse |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está yéndose) and past continuous (estaba yéndose). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. leaving).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he ido and hubiera ido. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have left).
| Gerundio / Gerund | yéndose |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | ido |
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 leave” or “they leave”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | me voy |
| Tú | te vas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | se va |
| Nosotros / as | nos vamos |
| Vosotros / as | os vais |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | se van |
| Vos | te vas |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I left” or “she left” 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 | me fui | I left |
| Tú | te fuiste | You left |
| Él / Ella / Usted | se fue | He / she / you left |
| Nosotros / as | nos fuimos | We left |
| Vosotros / as | os fuisteis | You left |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | se fueron | They / you left |
| Vos | te fuiste | You left |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was leaving” or “she was leaving” 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 | me iba | I was leaving |
| Tú | te ibas | You were leaving |
| Él / Ella / Usted | se iba | He was / she was / you were leaving |
| Nosotros / as | nos íbamos | We were leaving |
| Vosotros / as | os ibais | You were leaving |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | se iban | They / you were leaving |
| Vos | te ibas | You were leaving |
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 left” and “she has left”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | me he ido | I have left |
| Tú | te has ido | You have left |
| Él / Ella / Usted | se ha ido | He has / she has / you have left |
| Nosotros / as | nos hemos ido | We have left |
| Vosotros / as | os habéis ido | You have left |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | se han ido | They / you have left |
| Vos | te has ido | You have left |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would leave” or “she would leave”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | me iría | I would leave |
| Tú | te irías | You would leave |
| Él / Ella / Usted | se iría | He / she / you would leave |
| Nosotros / as | nos iríamos | We would leave |
| Vosotros / as | os iríais | You would leave |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | se irían | They / you would leave |
| Vos | te irías | You would leave |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will leave” or “they will leave”.
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 irse” means “They are going to leave”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | me iré | I will leave |
| Tú | te irás | You will leave |
| Él / Ella / Usted | se irá | He / she / you will leave |
| Nosotros / as | nos iremos | We will leave |
| Vosotros / as | os iréis | You will leave |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | se irán | They / you will leave |
| Vos | te irás | You will leave |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | me vaya |
| Tú | te vayas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | se vaya |
| Nosotros / as | nos vayamos |
| Vosotros / as | os vayáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | se vayan |
| Vos | te vayas |
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 | me fuera | me fuese |
| Tú | te fueras | me fuese |
| Él / Ella / Usted | se fuera | se fuese |
| Nosotros / as | nos fuéramos | nos fuésemos |
| Vosotros / as | os fuerais | os fueseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | se fueran | se fuesen |
| Vos | te fueras | me fuese |
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 | me fuere |
| Tú | te fueres |
| Él / Ella / Usted | se fuera |
| Nosotros / as | nos fuéremos |
| Vosotros / as | os fuereis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | se fueren |
| Vos | te fueres |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “leave!” and “don’t leave!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | vete | no te vayas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | váyase | no se vaya |
| Nosotros / as | vámonos | no nos vayamos |
| Vosotros / as | íos | no os vayáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | váyanse | no se vayan |
| Vos | ¡andá! | no te vayas |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya ido |
| Tú | hayas ido |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya ido |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos ido |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis ido |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan ido |
| Vos | hayas ido |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera ido / hubiese ido |
| Tú | hubieras ido / hubieses ido |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera ido / hubiese ido |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos ido / hubiésemos ido |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais ido / hubieseis ido |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran ido / hubiesen ido |
| Vos | hubieras ido / hubieses ido |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere ido |
| Tú | hubieres ido |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere ido |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos ido |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis ido |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren ido |
| Vos | hubieres ido |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté yéndose |
| Tú | estés yéndose |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté yéndose |
| Nosotros / as | estemos yéndose |
| Vosotros / as | estéis yéndose |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén yéndose |
| Vos | estés yéndose |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera yéndose / estuviese yéndose |
| Tú | estuvieras yéndose / estuvieses yéndose |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera yéndose / estuviese yéndose |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos yéndose / estuviésamos yéndose |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais yéndose / estuvieseis yéndose |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera yéndose / estuviese yéndose |
| Vos | estuvieras yéndose / estuvieses yéndose |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere yéndose |
| Tú | estuvieres yéndose |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere yéndose |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos yéndose |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis yéndose |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere yéndose |
| Vos | estuvieres yéndose |
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 te vas |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos te fuiste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos te ibas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos te irías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos te irás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos te vayas |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos te fueras / Vos me fuese |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos ¡andá! |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no te vayas |