Ser Conjugation Guide (How To Conjugate Ser In Spanish)

Ser is an irregular verb, so it’s one of the more challenging verbs to learn how to conjugate.

In this guide, I’ll help you learn how to fully conjugate all moods and tenses of the Spanish verb ser.

Below you’ll find conjugation charts of all tenses of ser categorized by mood (there are 3 moods in Spanish). I’ve also included sample sentences for each.

I’ll start with the Indicative mood but you can jump ahead using this navigation.

Indicative Mood

The Indicative mood in Spanish is used for expressing factual statements, objective information, and actions that are considered real or certain.

Your simple tenses fall under this category.

Present Indicative

The Present Indicative is the simplest and most basic tense in Spanish, which is commonly used for facts and descriptions in the present, as well as for habits and actions that happen in the present.

Preterite (Past) Indicative

The Preterite — or Past — Indicative is used to describe actions that finished at a point in the past.

Imperfect Indicative

The Imperfect Indicative is used to talk about past actions that were ongoing or never finished.

This is often the equivalent of “was/were doing” in English.

Future Indicative

The Future Indicative is used to express future actions or conditions.

Conditional Indicative

The Conditional Indicative is used to express hypothetical situations and actions, as well as politeness.

It often corresponds to the English “would”.

Present Perfect Indicative

The Present Perfect Indicative is used to talk about something that started in the past and is still relevant or continuing in the present, or about something that has happened in the recent past.

It’s formed with the present indicative of the auxiliary verb haber and the past participle sido.

Past Perfect (Pluperfect) Indicative

The Past Perfect (Pluperfect) Indicative is used to describe something that had occurred before another action in the past.

It’s formed with the imperfect indicative of the auxiliary verb haber and the past participle sido.

Future Perfect Indicative

The Future Perfect Indicative is used to indicate that something will have happened by a certain point in the future.

It’s formed with the future indicative of the auxiliary verb haber and the past participle sido.

Conditional Perfect Indicative

The Conditional Perfect Indicative is used to express what would have happened but did not.

It’s formed with the conditional indicative of the auxiliary verb haber and the past participle sido.

Subjunctive Mood

The Subjunctive mood in Spanish is used to express subjective or hypothetical situations.

This includes doubts, desires, wishes, and emotions.

It’s often used in dependent clauses to convey uncertainty, possibility, necessity, or unreality.

English translations for these subjunctives might sound strange, because English typically doesn’t use the subjunctive in the same way as Spanish. They’re literal translations.

Present Subjunctive

Imperfect Subjunctive

In Spanish, the Imperfect Subjunctive can end in either -se or -ra.

Both are accepted, and they’re used interchangeably.

Future Subjunctive

This mood is rarely, if ever, used, and it’s pretty much only used in legal documents and literature.

It can be replaced by the conditional or present subjunctive in nearly all contexts.

Present Perfect Subjunctive

The Present Perfect Subjunctive is used to express the same subjectivity as the subjunctive mood, but about something that has already happened.

It’s formed with the present subjunctive of the auxiliary verb haber and the past participle sido.

Past Perfect (Pluperfect) Subjunctive

The Past Perfect Subjunctive is formed using the imperfect subjunctive of the auxiliary verb haber and the past participle sido.

Just as the Imperfect Subjunctive, hubiera and hubiese are interchangeable.

Future Perfect Subjunctive

This one’s archaic and rarely used in Spanish today.

You’ll most likely find it in literature and legal documents. It’s formed with the Future Subjunctive of the auxiliary verb haber and the past participle sido.

Imperative Mood

The Imperative mood in Spanish is used to give commands, make requests, or offer instructions.

Affirmative Imperative

These are positive commands (telling someone to do something).

Negative Imperative

These are commands telling someone not to do something.

Refer also to the note above under Affirmative Imperative.

Non-Finite Forms

In Spanish, non-finite verb forms don’t indicate tense or subject. They’re not conjugated to match a specific person or number, but rather function as verb forms that are not bound by time or subject agreement.

These are the three main non-finite forms in Spanish:

• Infinitive: expresses the action of the verb in its most basic form. It is identified by the endings -ar, -er, or -ir.
• Gerund: used to express ongoing or continuous actions. It is formed by adding -ando (for -ar verbs) or -iendo (for -er and -ir verbs) to the verb stem.
• Past participle: used to form compound tenses and passive constructions. It is created by adding -ado (for -ar verbs) or -ido (for -er and -ir verbs) to the verb stem.

So how do you conjugate ser?

You now have the complete conjugation for ser in this guide. You shouldn’t attempt to memorize it all at once - just use it as a reference point.

Here’s an important tip:

I recommend starting off by learning the Present Indicative and Preterite (Past) Indicative. These are the most common and an ideal place for any new learner to begin.

Don’t get hung up on some of the less important tenses either, like the Future Perfect Subjunctive. They’re not something you’ll use often, if ever, so there’s no rush for you to memorize these forms.

Also, as I mentioned above, some of these Indicative and Subjunctive tenses are actually conjugating haber, not ser (haber + sido structure). I’ll cover these in more detail shortly.

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