Conjugating the Spanish Verb Subir (to Go Up/Ascend)

Spanish verbs fall into different groups, and each group is conjugated a little differently. If you’re going to master Spanish verbs like subir, you need to be able to identify which group a verb belongs to: regular (follows regular conjugation rules for -ar, -er, and -ir verbs), stem-changing (morphs depending on how you use it in a sentence), spelling-changing (has consonant-spelling changes in some forms to follow pronunciation rules), or reflexive (reflects the action back on the subject of the sentence).

Subir (soo-bveer) (to go up) is a regular -ir verb, so its conjugation is pretty straightforward. Here it is in the present tense:

The following examples show you subir in action:

• ¿Suben ellos las escaleras? (Do they go up the stairs?)

• Sí. Todos subimos las escaleras. (Yes. We all go up the stairs.)

Need to know how to conjugate subir in another tense? The following tables show you the preterit, imperfect, and future forms.

You use the preterit tense like this:

• ¿Subiste al cuarto piso? (Did you go up to the fourth floor.)

• No. Subí al quinto piso. (No. I went up to the fifth floor.)

Here are some examples of the imperfect tense:

• El precio de la leche subía cada día. (The price of milk used to go up every day.)

• Mis hermanos subían las gradas corriendo. (My brothers used to go up the steps running.)

The following samples put the future tense to work:

• ¿Subirá el precio de la gasolina? (Will the price of gas go up?)

• Subiremos el precio de nuestro servicio profesional. (We will increase the price of our professional service.)