Imagine watching the movie “Back to the Future” in Spanish and understanding each time Martin and the Doc say “Vengo del futuro”, “Vamos al pasado” or “¡Tienes que venir!”. Venir is one of those words that is said more times than we actually realize: in everyday life it represents daily movement along with its sister word “Ir”. Hence, the title of this article (In a back and forth in English), if “Ir” represents the action of moving towards some point, we could say that Venir means to return from that point, and not only has that definition or use, this is just a taste of all the uses that you will be able to acquire in this article.
As you could notice in the examples about “Back to the future”, “Venir” comes in several presentations, and we are going to find changes in how we use this verb according to the tenses and the people who say it, we call this irregular verb, but no more ado! Let’s learn how to conjugate the verb Venir.
Venir: Verbals
In Spanish, there are chameleon-like words, they may seem like verbs, but in reality they have a different function, this happens because the use that is given to them changes. These words are called Verbals, and the best way to notice them is by identifying the conjugated verb that accompanies them to make sense. Also, in the sentence in which the verbal is being used, it does not play the role of a verb but of a noun, adverb or adjective. Let’s put it in a more graphic way to know what we are talking about.
| Verbal | Common use | Example | English | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Infinitive | venir (to come) | Non conjugated / Noun | Pregúntale a tu amiga si quiere venir con nosotros. | Ask your friend if she wants to come with us. |
| Gerund | viniendo (coming) | Adverb/ Periphrasis | He estado viniendo todos los días a entrenar | I have been coming here every day to train. |
| Participle | venido (come) | Adjective | Él ha venido a explicarnos química | He has come to explain chemistry to us |
In these cases, we will find the use of two common verbs that are linked to it, “haber” and “estar”, and you will find them in these two ways:
Haber: Conjugation of haber + past participle of venir
Estar: Conjugation of estar + gerund form of venir
Venir Conjugation: Indicative Mood
From this moment we start with the memory games, we are going to find all the ways to conjugate verbs, and those ways are separated according to their moods, the first one is this one that you will have below, the indicative mood in its simple and compound tenses. The name leaves no room for doubt, but just in case, the first one is the simplest form of conjugation in Spanish, and maybe the most common too.
Simple Tenses of the Indicative Mood
| Subject | Present | Preterite | Imperfect | Conditional | Future |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (come) | (came) | (came) | (would come) | (will come) | |
| yo | vengo | vine | venía | vendría | vendré |
| tú | vienes | viniste | venías | vendrías | vendrás |
| él/ella/ usted | viene | vino | venía | vendría | vendrá |
| nosotros | venimos | vinimos | veníamos | vendríamos | vendremos |
| ellos/ella/ustedes | vienen | vinieron | venían | vendrían | vendrán |
Examples:
- Ángelo viene en el carro con nosotras. – Ángelo comes in the car with us.
- Sin duda vendría más a la playa si tuviese vacaciones – I would definitely come to the beach more if I had a vacation.
Compound Tenses of the Indicative Mood
| Subject | Preterite Perfect | Past Perfect (Pluperfect) | Conditional Perfect | Future Perfect |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| (have/has come) | (had come) | (would have come) | (will have come) | |
| yo | he venido | había venido | habría venido | habré venido |
| tú | has venido | habías venido | habrías venido | habrás venido |
| él/ella/usted | ha venido | había venido | habría venido | habrá venido |
| nosotros | hemos venido | habíamos venido | habríamos venido | habremos venido |
| ellos/ellas/ustedes | Han venido | habían venido | habrían venido | habrán venido |
Venir Conjugation: Subjunctive Mood
In the subjunctive mood we find the conjugations in sentences that refer to desires, hypotheses and wishes. It is a slightly more complex way of speaking, but in general, you can use it very similar to how you would use this mood in English.
Simple Tenses of the Subjunctive Mood
| Subject | Present | Imperfect | Imperfect 2 | Future |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| yo | venga | viniera | viniese | viniere |
| tú | vengas | vinieras | vinieses | vinieres |
| él/ella/usted | venga | viniera | viniese | viniere |
| nosotros | vengamos | viniéramos | viniésemos | viniéremos |
| ellos/ellas/ustedes | vengan | vinieran | viniesen | vinieren |
Examples:
- Si vinieses a la fiesta me divertiría más – If you came to the party I would have more fun.
- Cuando venga mi primo, salimos a bailar – When my cousin comes, we go out dancing.
Compound Tenses of the Subjunctive Mood
| Subject | Present Perfect | Past Perfect (Pluperfect) | Past Perfect 2 (Pluperfect 2) | Future Perfect |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| yo | haya venido | hubiera venido | hubiese venido | hubiere venido |
| tú | hayas venido | hubieras venido | hubieses venido | hubieres venido |
| él/ella/usted | haya venido | hubiera venido | hubiese venido | hubiere venido |
| nosotros | hayamos venido | hubiéramos venido | hubiésemos venido | hubiéremos venido |
| ellos/ellas/ustedes | hayan venido | hubieran venido | hubiesen venido | hubieren venido |
Venir Conjugation: Imperative Mood
I know, I know, the word “Imperative” makes it clear what the mood is about, but there is still something to clarify. At the moment of giving an order or command the first-person singular will not be included, I don’t know if you have thought about this before, but grammatically speaking you cannot give an order to yourself, even when you speak to yourself, it comes up in second or third person.
| Subject | Affirmative | Negative |
|---|---|---|
| (come/let’s come) | (don’t come/let’s not come) | |
| tú | ven | no vengas |
| nosotros | vengamos | no vengamos |
| ustedes | vengan | no vengan |
Examples:
- No vengamos más a este restaurante, son groseros – Let’s not come to this restaurant anymore, they are rude.
- ¡Vengan! Ya va a comenzar el partido – Come! The match is about to start.
Spanish Verb Venir – Quiz/Worksheet
You will be able to find the answers to these exercises right away, but no cheating!
1. Yo ___ por mis propios medios, llegué caminando – I came by my own means, I arrived walking.
2. ¿Por qué ___? – Why did you come?
3. Yo solía ___ a patinar en navidad – I used to come skating at Christmas.
4. ___! Vamos a jugar – Come! Let’s play
5. Carolina ___ con nosotros al cine más seguido si no tuviese que trabajar – Carolina would come to the movies with us more often if she didn’t have to work.
The answers
Using this verb can be tricky because of its irregularity, so don’t forget to practice a lot, and you will be able to handle this and more.
1. vine
2. viniste
3. venir
4. ven
5. vendría
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