You are at the door, the bank, or a shop that might already be closed, and the verb you need is abrir. Say abro, abrí, and abriendo with the regular -ir endings. The single irregular form is the participle abierto. The stem stays abr- from abro to abrieron.
Quick answer: Present abro, abres, abre, abrimos, abrís, abren. Preterite abrí, abriste, abrió, abrimos, abristeis, abrieron. Gerund abriendo. Participle abierto, so the present perfect is he abierto. The imperfect, both subjunctives, and the commands follow that same regular -ir pattern. Future and conditional keep the full infinitive abrir. Present, preterite, imperfect, future, and conditional sit on the abrir conjugation page.
What abrir is for
Abrir is “to open,” and Spanish uses it for doors, windows, shops, accounts, and a few fixed phrases. When someone opens something, that person is the subject and the thing opened is the direct object.
Abro la ventana porque hace calor. (I open the window because it’s hot.)
Ayer abrí una cuenta en el banco. (Yesterday I opened a bank account.)
¿A qué hora abren? (What time do you open?)
That last question is what you ask a shop. Abren is the ellos/ustedes present. You are speaking to the staff, or about the business, and Spanish uses the same form for both.
¡Abran paso! (Make way!)
En un abrir y cerrar de ojos desapareció. (He or she disappeared in the blink of an eye.)
Inside en un abrir y cerrar de ojos, both verbs stay in the infinitive. You do not conjugate abrir there. Desapareció is a different verb, and it is the one that takes the preterite.
No abrió la boca en toda la reunión. (He or she didn’t open their mouth the whole meeting.)
Action step: Say three lines out loud before you look at a table. Use one for a door (abro la puerta), one for an account (abrí una cuenta), and one for a shop (¿a qué hora abren?). If the subject is clear, the ending has somewhere to land.
Abrir in the present
Drop -ir and add -o, -es, -e, -imos, -ís, -en. The stem is abr- in every person. The yo form is abro, the ordinary -o ending. There is no -go or -zco insert of the kind you meet on tengo or conozco.
These are the same endings as vivir. Knowing vivo still does not mean abro will come out when you are standing at a locked door, so the endings have to be produced on abrir itself. You type the form. A list you only recognise will not be there when you speak.
| Pronoun | Present | English |
|---|---|---|
| yo | abro | I open |
| tú | abres | you open |
| él/ella/usted | abre | he/she opens; you (formal) open |
| nosotros | abrimos | we open |
| vosotros | abrís | you all open (Spain) |
| ellos/ustedes | abren | they / you all open |
El banco abre a las nueve. (The bank opens at nine.)
Siempre abrimos la ventana por la mañana. (We always open the window in the morning.)
Abrís carries the accent. In this table it is vosotros, and it is also the Rioplatense vos present. Usted shares abre with él and ella. Ustedes shares abren with ellos. After a pause, the b in abro is a stop: the lips close. Between vowels, as in la abro, the lips barely meet and the sound softens. The spelling stays b either way.
Abrimos shows up again in the preterite with the same spelling. Siempre abrimos is present. Ayer abrimos is preterite. Hoy on its own does not settle the tense: if the opening is already over, hoy abrimos la tienda is preterite in much of Latin America.
Action step: Read the six forms, then put la puerta after abro, abres, and abre. Say abrís twice. The accent is what keeps abrís from being a misspelling.
Abrir in the preterite
The preterite is for an opening that finished. The endings are the regular -ir set: -í, -iste, -ió, -imos, -isteis, -ieron. The vowel in the stem stays a. Abrir does not follow dormir or morir into a changed stem.
| Pronoun | Preterite | English |
|---|---|---|
| yo | abrí | I opened |
| tú | abriste | you opened |
| él/ella/usted | abrió | he/she/you formal opened |
| nosotros | abrimos | we opened |
| vosotros | abristeis | you all opened (Spain) |
| ellos/ustedes | abrieron | they / you all opened |
Ayer abrí una cuenta. (Yesterday I opened an account.)
El camarero abrió la botella. (The waiter opened the bottle.)
Abrimos la tienda a las ocho. (We opened the shop at eight.)
Abrieron paso entre la gente. (They cleared a path through the crowd.)
Two accents do the work: abrí and abrió. Abriste, abrimos, abristeis, and abrieron take none. Abrio without the accent is a misspelling. Abrieron keeps e, because the ellos preterite of a regular -ir verb is stem plus -ieron.
If the infinitive ends in -brir, the participle ends in -ierto. Abrir gives abierto. The rest of the verb is ordinary -ir: abro, abrí, abriendo. Memorise that one shape, then stop building abrido. The same shape returns on cubrir and descubrir: cubierto, descubierto.
Action step: Cover the Spanish column and write the six preterite forms from the pronouns. Circle abrí and abrió, the two forms that carry an accent. Then write abierto once, so the participle does not borrow the preterite stem.
Abrir in the imperfect
The imperfect is the opening that was a habit, or the backdrop while something else happened. Every form has an accent on the í: abría, abrías, abría, abríamos, abríais, abrían.
| Pronoun | Imperfect | English |
|---|---|---|
| yo | abría | I opened / I used to open |
| tú | abrías | you opened / you used to open |
| él/ella/usted | abría | he/she/you formal opened / used to open |
| nosotros | abríamos | we opened / we used to open |
| vosotros | abríais | you all opened / used to open (Spain) |
| ellos/ustedes | abrían | they / you all opened / used to open |
Antes la tienda abría a las diez. (The shop used to open at ten.)
Abríamos la ventana cada mañana. (We opened the window every morning.)
Abría is the imperfect. Abrí is the yo preterite. The imperfect has one more syllable, and the accent sits on the í in the middle. A finished event yesterday takes abrí or abrió. A habit or a scene takes abría.
Future and conditional
Both tenses hang the ending on the full infinitive abrir. Nothing is chopped off the stem. The future endings are -é, -ás, -á, -emos, -éis, -án. The conditional endings all carry í: -ía, -ías, -ía, -íamos, -íais, -ían.
| Pronoun | Future | Conditional |
|---|---|---|
| yo | abriré | abriría |
| tú | abrirás | abrirías |
| él/ella/usted | abrirá | abriría |
| nosotros | abriremos | abriríamos |
| vosotros | abriréis | abriríais |
| ellos/ustedes | abrirán | abrirían |
Mañana abriremos la terraza. (Tomorrow we will open the terrace.)
Yo abriría la ventana, pero hace frío. (I would open the window, but it’s cold.)
Nosotros is the pair to watch. Abriremos has no accent. Abriríamos has one, on the í. The future presents the opening as planned. The conditional presents it as depending on something else, or as a polite way to say what you would do.
Present subjunctive
The present subjunctive uses the yo present without its -o, then the opposite vowels: abra, abras, abra, abramos, abráis, abran. From abro you are left with abr-, and the endings are -a, -as, -a, -amos, -áis, -an. The only written accent in the set is on abráis.
| Pronoun | Present subjunctive | English |
|---|---|---|
| yo | abra | (that) I open |
| tú | abras | (that) you open |
| él/ella/usted | abra | (that) he/she/you formal open |
| nosotros | abramos | (that) we open |
| vosotros | abráis | (that) you all open (Spain) |
| ellos/ustedes | abran | (that) they / you all open |
Quiero que abras la puerta. (I want you to open the door.)
Espero que abran a las nueve. (I hope they open at nine.)
Ojalá abran temprano. (I hope they open early.)
Abra is also the usted command, and abran is the ustedes command. In a wish or a que clause they are subjunctive. After a request aimed at usted, the same spelling is the command. Context tells you which job it has.
Imperfect subjunctive
Build this tense from the ellos preterite. Abrieron loses -ron and leaves abrier-. Add -a, -as, -a, -amos, -ais, -an for the -ra set, or -se, -ses, -se, -semos, -seis, -sen for the -se set. The accent falls on nosotros only, and it sits on the e of abrier-: abriéramos, abriésemos. Abrieramos and abriesemos leave that accent off. Both sets mean the same thing in Spain and in Latin America.
| Pronoun | -ra form | -se form |
|---|---|---|
| yo | abriera | abriese |
| tú | abrieras | abrieses |
| él/ella/usted | abriera | abriese |
| nosotros | abriéramos | abriésemos |
| vosotros | abrierais | abrieseis |
| ellos/ustedes | abrieran | abriesen |
Le pedí a Ana que abriera la ventana. (I asked Ana to open the window.)
Si abrieses la puerta, entraría el frío. (If you opened the door, the cold would come in.)
Produce the -ra forms first. Use this tense after a past request, a past emotion, or a si that is hypothetical. Abriera can be yo or él/ella/usted. Name the person, as with Ana, when that form could belong to more than one subject.
Commands
Affirmative tú takes the él present: abre. Affirmative usted, nosotros, and ustedes take the present subjunctive: abra, abramos, abran. Affirmative vosotros is the infinitive with -d in place of -r: abrid. Rioplatense vos uses abrí in the affirmative and no abras in the negative. Every negative command uses the present subjunctive.
| Person | Affirmative | Negative |
|---|---|---|
| tú | abre | no abras |
| vos (Río de la Plata) | abrí | no abras |
| usted | abra | no abra |
| nosotros | abramos | no abramos |
| vosotros | abrid | no abráis |
| ustedes | abran | no abran |
Abre la puerta, por favor. (Open the door, please.)
No abras esa carta. (Don’t open that letter.)
Abramos la ventana. (Let’s open the window.)
¡Abrid paso! (Make way! Spain, plural.)
A pronoun attaches to an affirmative command and goes in front of a negative one. With the door as the object, Ábrela means “open it” and no la abras means “don’t open it.” The accent on Ábrela keeps the stress on the first syllable.
La puerta está atascada. Ábrela, por favor. (The door is stuck. Open it, please.)
No la abras todavía. (Don’t open it yet.)
The gerund abriendo
The gerund is abriendo: stem abr- plus -iendo. The i stays i, because the stem ends in a consonant. Use it with estar for an opening in progress.
Estoy abriendo el paquete. (I am opening the package.)
La estoy abriendo. (I am opening it.)
Estoy abriéndola. (I am opening it.)
La estoy abriendo and estoy abriéndola mean the same thing. The attached pronoun pulls an accent onto the e: abriéndola. Abriendo on its own has no accent.
Abierto, and the tenses built on it
A regular -ir participle would look like vivido, from vivir: he vivido. Abrir leaves that pattern. The participle is abierto. Every compound tense is a form of haber plus that one word, and abierto does not change for gender or number.
| Pronoun | Present perfect | English |
|---|---|---|
| yo | he abierto | I have opened |
| tú | has abierto | you have opened |
| él/ella/usted | ha abierto | he/she has opened; you (formal) have opened |
| nosotros | hemos abierto | we have opened |
| vosotros | habéis abierto | you all have opened (Spain) |
| ellos/ustedes | han abierto | they / you all have opened |
He abierto la ventana. (I have opened the window.)
¿Has abierto una cuenta? (Have you opened an account?)
Cuenta is feminine, and abierto stays abierto. He abierta una cuenta puts an adjective ending on a haber participle.
The other compound tenses swap in a different form of haber and keep abierto.
| Pronoun | Pluperfect | Future perfect | Conditional perfect |
|---|---|---|---|
| yo | había abierto | habré abierto | habría abierto |
| tú | habías abierto | habrás abierto | habrías abierto |
| él/ella/usted | había abierto | habrá abierto | habría abierto |
| nosotros | habíamos abierto | habremos abierto | habríamos abierto |
| vosotros | habíais abierto | habréis abierto | habríais abierto |
| ellos/ustedes | habían abierto | habrán abierto | habrían abierto |
Cuando llegué, Ana ya había abierto la tienda. (When I arrived, Ana had already opened the shop.)
Para las ocho habré abierto todas las ventanas. (By eight I will have opened all the windows.)
Yo habría abierto la puerta, pero no tenía la llave. (I would have opened the door, but I didn’t have the key.)
Ventanas is feminine plural. Habré abierto still ends in abierto. The participle is not an adjective in these sentences.
The present perfect subjunctive is haya abierto, hayas abierto, haya abierto, hayamos abierto, hayáis abierto, hayan abierto.
Dudo que Ana haya abierto la carta. (I doubt that Ana has opened the letter.)
The pluperfect subjunctive uses hubiera or hubiese plus abierto, and nosotros keeps an accent: hubiéramos abierto, hubiésemos abierto. Ojalá Ana hubiera abierto la ventana antes. The -se line is Ojalá Ana hubiese abierto la ventana antes. Both mean “I wish Ana had opened the window sooner.”
Ojalá Ana hubiera abierto la ventana antes. (I wish Ana had opened the window sooner.)
RAE also lists a future subjunctive, yo abriere, still used in legal Spanish, and a pretérito anterior, yo hube abierto, found in literary Spanish. The tables above are the tenses to drill.
Abierto as an adjective
Abierto does a second job. After estar or ser, and after a noun, it agrees in gender and number: abierto, abierta, abiertos, abiertas.
He abierto la puerta. He abierto las ventanas. One form. The object can be feminine or plural and abierto stays put.
La puerta está abierta. Las ventanas están abiertas. Estar describes the state, so the ending matches the noun.
La puerta está abierta. (The door is open.)
El museo está abierto. (The museum is open.)
Las tiendas están abiertas. (The shops are open.)
Los bancos están abiertos. (The banks are open.)
Estar abierto is the state: open now, or open on a given day. El banco está abierto los sábados. A person’s character uses ser. Mi hermano es muy abierto means my brother is outgoing, easy to talk to. Mi hermana es muy abierta is the same trait with feminine agreement. Está abierto a escucharte is different again: he is willing to listen, for now, so estar fits a current attitude rather than a fixed character.
El banco está abierto los sábados. (The bank is open on Saturdays.)
Mi hermano es muy abierto. (My brother is very outgoing.)
Mi hermana es muy abierta. (My sister is very outgoing.)
A shop that is open for business takes estar: la tienda está abierta. Calling a person outgoing takes ser: es muy abierto, es muy abierta. La tienda es abierta does not give you the hours.
Abrir and abrirse
Abrir needs an object when you name the person who opens something. Abrirse is what you use when the door, window, or lid opens and you are not naming an agent. It is also how you say someone opened up and confided.
Abrí la puerta. I opened the door. Someone did it, and the door is the object.
La puerta se abrió. The door opened. Se abrió conmigo. He or she opened up to me.
Abrí la puerta. (I opened the door.)
La puerta se abrió sola. (The door opened by itself.)
Se abrió conmigo. (He or she opened up to me.)
El médico se abrió paso entre la gente. (The doctor made his way through the crowd.)
Shop hours stay with plain abrir: el banco abre a las nueve, ¿a qué hora abren? You add se when the thing moves on its own, when someone makes their way through a crowd, or when a person confides. Sola agrees with puerta. Se abrió solo agrees with a masculine noun, as in el cajón se abrió solo.
The form that slips is abierto, and the slip has two shapes: he abrido, and he abierta la puerta. Type he abierto la puerta and la puerta está abierta as a pair. Spaced repetition on the SM-2 schedule brings that pair back when the endings are about to trade places. Reading the chart again is not the drill.
Try VerbPal free →Entreabrir, reabrir, and the same participle
Entreabrir means to open partway. Reabrir means to open again. In the simple tenses they follow abrir, with the prefix left on: entreabrí la puerta, el museo reabrió el lunes. The participle takes the same irregular shape: entreabierto, reabierto.
Entreabrí la puerta. (I opened the door partway.)
La ventana está entreabierta. (The window is ajar.)
El museo reabrió el lunes. (The museum reopened on Monday.)
Han reabierto el puente. (They have reopened the bridge.)
Cubrir and descubrir belong to the same participle family. Their simple tenses are regular -ir — descubro, descubrió — and the participle is cubierto, descubierto. Ha descubierto la carta uses descubierto the way ha abierto uses abierto. As an adjective, cubierto agrees: la mesa está cubierta.
Spain, Latin America, and vos
Most forms of abrir are shared across Spain and Latin America. What changes is the plural “you”, and, in the Río de la Plata, vos.
Spain uses vosotros: abrís, abristeis, abríais, abriréis, abriríais, abráis, abrierais, abrieseis. The affirmative command is abrid. The negative is no abráis. Formal plural in Spain, and plural “you” across Latin America, is ustedes, with the ellos forms: abren, abrieron, abran, no abran.
Rioplatense vos reuses three spellings you already have, and they are easy to mix up once you are writing fast.
- Present vos is abrís, the same spelling as vosotros.
- The affirmative command is abrí, the same spelling as the yo preterite.
- The negative command is no abras, the same as tú.
In the other tenses, vos matches tú: abriste, abrirás, abras. Abrí la puerta can be “I opened the door” or “open the door” said to vos. The rest of the sentence, or the fact that you are giving an order, is what decides it. Ayer abrí la puerta is the preterite. A bare abrí la puerta, said to someone in Buenos Aires, is the command.
Mistakes that keep coming back
Abrido. The regular -ir participle would be abrido. Spanish does not use it. The form is abierto, and the present perfect is he abierto.
Agreement on the wrong side. He abierta la puerta and he abiertas las ventanas put an adjective ending on a haber participle. Keep abierto with haber. Move the agreement to estar: la puerta está abierta, las ventanas están abiertas.
A missing accent. Abrio and abria are missing the accent. The preterite is abrió. The imperfect is abría. Abrí is yo in the preterite, one syllable shorter than abría. Abrieramos and abriesemos drop the nosotros accent too. The forms are abriéramos and abriésemos.
The wrong command. To a tú friend, abre la puerta. Abra la puerta is usted. The negative to a tú friend is no abras, not no abre. Rioplatense vos uses abrí for that same request.
A stem change that belongs to another verb. Dormir goes to duermo and durmió. Abrir keeps a in abro, abres, abrió, abrieron. There is no uebro and no ubrió.
Abrimos in two tenses. Present and preterite share abrimos. Siempre abrimos is present. Ayer abrimos is preterite. If the time marker is missing, add one.
Drill these before you trust the chart
Say the answer, then open it. Each prompt has one form that fits.
1. Preterite, yo: "Yesterday I opened an account."
2. Present perfect, yo: "I have opened the door."
3. Adjective: "The shops are open."
4. Negative command, tú: "Don't open that letter."
5. Present subjunctive, tú: "I want you to open the window."
6. Imperfect subjunctive, -ra, Ana as the subject: "I asked Ana to open the window."
Action step: Answer all six out loud before you open them. Then say the pair that matters most: he abierto la puerta and la puerta está abierta. Same door, two jobs for abierto.
The wider map of Spanish verbs is the Spanish verb guide. Come back and produce abrir from memory, one tense a day, until abierto stops turning into abrido.
Frequently asked questions
Is abrir a regular Spanish verb?
Yes in every simple tense. The present is abro, abres, abre, abrimos, abrís, abren. The preterite is abrí, abriste, abrió, abrimos, abristeis, abrieron. The stem stays abr-. Abrir is not stem-changing. The only irregular form is the past participle abierto.
What is the past participle of abrir?
Abierto. The present perfect is he abierto, has abierto, ha abierto, hemos abierto, habéis abierto, han abierto. Abrido is not a Spanish form. With haber, abierto does not change for a feminine or plural object: he abierto la puerta, he abierto las ventanas.
When does abierto become abierta?
When it is an adjective. La puerta está abierta, las tiendas están abiertas, el museo está abierto, los bancos están abiertos. A person's character uses ser: mi hermano es muy abierto, mi hermana es muy abierta. Business hours use estar.
What is the difference between abrir and abrirse?
Abrir names who opens something: abrí la puerta means I opened the door. Abrirse is for the thing that opens, with no agent named: la puerta se abrió. A shop's hours usually stay non-reflexive: el banco abre a las nueve. Se abrió conmigo means someone confided in me.