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Volver is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to return”.
Below are all of the conjugations for volver 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 return |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | volver |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está volviendo) and past continuous (estaba volviendo). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. returning).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he vuelto and hubiera vuelto. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have returned).
| Gerundio / Gerund | volviendo |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | vuelto |
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 return” or “they return”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | vuelvo |
| Tú | vuelves |
| Él / Ella / Usted | vuelve |
| Nosotros / as | volvemos |
| Vosotros / as | volvéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | vuelven |
| Vos | volvés |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I returned” or “she returned” 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 | volví | I returned |
| Tú | volviste | You returned |
| Él / Ella / Usted | volvió | He / she / you returned |
| Nosotros / as | volvimos | We returned |
| Vosotros / as | volvisteis | You returned |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | volvieron | They / you returned |
| Vos | volviste | You returned |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was returning” or “she was returning” 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 | volvía | I was returning |
| Tú | volvías | You were returning |
| Él / Ella / Usted | volvía | He was / she was / you were returning |
| Nosotros / as | volvíamos | We were returning |
| Vosotros / as | volvíais | You were returning |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | volvían | They / you were returning |
| Vos | volvías | You were returning |
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 returned” and “she has returned”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he vuelto | I have returned |
| Tú | has vuelto | You have returned |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha vuelto | He has / she has / you have returned |
| Nosotros / as | hemos vuelto | We have returned |
| Vosotros / as | habéis vuelto | You have returned |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han vuelto | They / you have returned |
| Vos | has vuelto | You have returned |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would return” or “she would return”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | volvería | I would return |
| Tú | volverías | You would return |
| Él / Ella / Usted | volvería | He / she / you would return |
| Nosotros / as | volveríamos | We would return |
| Vosotros / as | volveríais | You would return |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | volverían | They / you would return |
| Vos | volverías | You would return |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will return” or “they will return”.
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 volver” means “They are going to return”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | volveré | I will return |
| Tú | volverás | You will return |
| Él / Ella / Usted | volverá | He / she / you will return |
| Nosotros / as | volveremos | We will return |
| Vosotros / as | volveréis | You will return |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | volverán | They / you will return |
| Vos | volverás | You will return |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | vuelva |
| Tú | vuelvas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | vuelva |
| Nosotros / as | volvamos |
| Vosotros / as | volváis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | vuelvan |
| Vos | vuelvas |
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 | volviera | volviese |
| Tú | volvieras | volviese |
| Él / Ella / Usted | volviera | volviese |
| Nosotros / as | volviéramos | volviésemos |
| Vosotros / as | volvierais | volvieseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | volvieran | volviesen |
| Vos | volvieras | volviese |
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 | volviere |
| Tú | volvieres |
| Él / Ella / Usted | volviere |
| Nosotros / as | volviéremos |
| Vosotros / as | volviereis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | volvieren |
| Vos | volvieres |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “return!” and “don’t return!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | vuelve | no vuelvas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | vuelva | no vuelva |
| Nosotros / as | volvamos | no volvamos |
| Vosotros / as | volved | no volváis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | vuelvan | no vuelvan |
| Vos | volvé | no vuelvas |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya vuelto |
| Tú | hayas vuelto |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya vuelto |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos vuelto |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis vuelto |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan vuelto |
| Vos | hayas vuelto |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera vuelto / hubiese vuelto |
| Tú | hubieras vuelto / hubieses vuelto |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera vuelto / hubiese vuelto |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos vuelto / hubiésemos vuelto |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais vuelto / hubieseis vuelto |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran vuelto / hubiesen vuelto |
| Vos | hubieras vuelto / hubieses vuelto |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere vuelto |
| Tú | hubieres vuelto |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere vuelto |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos vuelto |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis vuelto |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren vuelto |
| Vos | hubieres vuelto |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté volviendo |
| Tú | estés volviendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté volviendo |
| Nosotros / as | estemos volviendo |
| Vosotros / as | estéis volviendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén volviendo |
| Vos | estés volviendo |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera volviendo / estuviese volviendo |
| Tú | estuvieras volviendo / estuvieses volviendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera volviendo / estuviese volviendo |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos volviendo / estuviésamos volviendo |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais volviendo / estuvieseis volviendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera volviendo / estuviese volviendo |
| Vos | estuvieras volviendo / estuvieses volviendo |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere volviendo |
| Tú | estuvieres volviendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere volviendo |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos volviendo |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis volviendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere volviendo |
| Vos | estuvieres volviendo |
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 volvés |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos volviste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos volvías |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos volverías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos volverás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos vuelvas |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos volvieras / Vos volviese |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos volvé |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no vuelvas |
