Spanish Verb – Empezar Conjugation

To start, let’s take a look at the conjugation of empezar. The verb is irregular in spanish, so it doesn’t follow a specific pattern. Empezar can be translated to “to start” or “to begin.” It can also mean “to commence” or “to initiate.” The verb is used to express the idea of starting something or beginning an action. 

“COSER Y CANTAR, TODO ES EMPEZAR: After reading this article, you will know the meaning of this phrase”.

Empezar will be your word of choice if…

• You will discuss any information regarding the beginning of a certain action, as in: ¿Cuándo van a empezar las obras de pavimentación de la Avenida Lincoln? (When will the paving work on Lincoln Ave begin?)
• You mention an action that has to occur first for another one to happen, as in: La junta empezará tan pronto lleguen todos los convocados. (The meeting will begin as soon as all the attendees are here.)
• An expression meaning a reboot in life: Después de mi divorcio, lo mejor fue empezar desde cero. (After my divorce, the best was starting from zero.)

Empezar is what you need if you mean to talk about

• People, as in: Los niños en mi familia empiezan a caminar antes de cumplir el año de edad. (The kids in my family start walking before they are one year old.)
• Things, as in: ¿A qué hora empiezan a vender los boletos del juego? (What time do they start selling the game tickets?)

Another of the rare ones in the family

When can a verb be considered irregular? When it needs to constantly change to be conjugated, and guess what? The verb empezar is part of that beautiful family called irregular verbs. First, let’s look at cases where the verb empezar is irregular. In total there are all these forms: first person in present of the indicative mood; present, conditional, future, and preterit of the subjunctive mood. Relax, I know this sounds challenging, but I have always considered that the best way to understand this kind of theory is with practice and examples, and we are almost there.

Verbals of Empezar

Verbals are those verbs that don’t conjugate, yes, what you read, verbs that don’t conjugate. Hey, it’s like those magic tricks where you thought and were sure of what you saw, and it turns out to be different. Infinitive, gerund, and participle are those verbals that are passed off as verbs, these are not conjugated and will normally need another conjugated verb to be used. Let’s explain it with examples. 

	Verbal	Common use	Example	English
Infinitive	Empezar (to start)	Non conjugated / Noun	Quisiera empezar mi tesis lo más pronto posible	I’d like to start my thesis the sooner, the better.
Gerund	Empezando (starting)	Adverb/periphrasis	¿Cómo le pudiste ser infiel empezando la relación?	How could you be unfaithful when just starting the relationship?
Participle	Empezado (started)	Adjective	El estudio empezado en 1985 arrojó datos interesantes	The study started in 1985 brought some interesting data.

To Conjugate? Of course!

The easiest, most classic, and safest way for you to learn how to conjugate the verb empezar is to learn by heart those ways in which it changes (yes, including all the changes in the suffix). Each way of conjugating it is different, and sometimes very different.

Nine out of ten Spanish teachers recommend doing practical exercises by having real conversations to ensure naturalness in speaking (and the tenth one too, but it sounded cool that nine out of ten). So, let’s go to the conjugations and see practical ways to use them. 

Empezar Conjugation: Indicative Mood

 A mood is a focus from which the person using the verb or phrase is speaking in general, and our first and most common mode is the indicative.

Simple Tenses of the Indicative Mood

Subject	Present	Preterite	Imperfect	Conditional	Future
	(Start)	(Started)	(Started)	(Would start)	(Will start)
Yo	Empiezo	Empecé	Empezaba	Empezaría	Empezaré
Tú	Empiezas	Empezaste	Empezabas	Empezarías	Empezarás
Él/Ella/Usted	Empieza	Empezó	Empezaba	Empezaría	Empezará
Nosotros	Empezamos	Empezamos	Empezábamos	Empezaríamos	Empezaremos
Ellos/Ellas/Ustedes	Empiezan	Empezaron	Empezaban	Empezarían	Empezarán

Examples:

• Tú empezaste a aprender español cuando hablaste con clientes latinos. (You started learning Spanish when you spoke to Latin clients.)
• Nosotros empezaríamos a trabajar si tuviéramos todas las herramientas. (We would start working if we had all the tools.)

Compound Tenses of the Indicative Mood

Subject	Present Perfect	Preterite Perfect	Past Perfect (Pluperfect)	Conditional Perfect	Future Perfect
	(Have/Has Started)	(Had Started)	(Had Started)	(Would Have Started)	(Will Have Started)
Yo	He Empezado	Hube Empezado	Había Empezado	Habría Empezado	Habré Empezado
Tú	Has Empezado	Hubiste Empezado	Habías Empezado	Habrías Empezado	Habrás Empezado
Él/Ella/Usted	Ha Empezado	Hubo Empezado	Había Empezado	Habría Empezado	Habrá Empezado
Nosotros	Hemos Empezado	Hubimos Empezado	Habíamos Empezado	Habríamos Empezado	Habremos Empezado
Ellos/Ellas/Ustedes	Han Empezado	Hubieron Empezado	Habían Empezado	Habrían Empezado	Habrán Empezado

Examples:

• Ustedes habrían empezado el lunes pasado, pero se cerró la fábrica. (You would have started last Monday, but the factory closed down.)
• Tomando mis medicinas he empezado a sentirme mucho mejor. (Taking my medicine, I have started feeling much better.)

Empezar Conjugation: Subjunctive Mood

 When any of these three words come to mind: wishes, hopes, desires, or demands, you should definitely use the subjunctive mood conjugations.

Simple Tenses of the Subjunctive Mood

Subject	Present	Imperfect	Imperfect 2	Future
Yo	Empiece	Empezara	Empezase	Empezare
Tú	Empieces	Empezaras	Empezases	Empezares
Él/Ella/Usted	Empiece	Empezara	Empezase	Empezare
Nosotros	Empecemos	Empezáramos	Empezásemos	Empezáremos
Ellos/Ellas/Ustedes	Empiecen	Empezaran	Empezasen	Empezaren

Examples:

• Apenas empiece a trabajar ahorraré para comprarme un carro. (As soon as I start working, I will save to buy a car.)
• Si ustedes empezaran el curso en abril terminarían en diciembre. (If you started the course in April, you would finish it in December.)

Compound Tenses of the Subjunctive Mood

Subject	Present Perfect	Past Perfect (Pluperfect)	Past Perfect 2 (Pluperfect 2)	Future Perfect
Yo	Haya Empezado	Hubiera Empezado	Hubiese Empezado	Hubiere Empezado
Tú	Hayas Empezado	Hubieras Empezado	Hubieses Empezado	Hubieres Empezado
Él/Ella/Usted	Haya Empezado	Hubiera Empezado	Hubiese Empezado	Hubiere Empezado
Nosotros	Hayamos Empezado	Hubiéramos Empezado	Hubiésemos Empezado	Hubiéremos Empezado
Ellos/Ellas/Ustedes	Hayan Empezado	Hubieran Empezado	Hubiesen Empezado	Hubieren Empezado

Examples:

• Ojalá hubiéramos empezado a estudiar antes del mediodía para poder ver The Boys. (I wish we had started studying before noon, so we could watch The Boys.)
• Si el show hubiese empezado a la hora correcta, no habríamos perdido el autobús de regreso a casa. (If the show had started on time, we would not have missed the bus back home.) 

Empezar Conjugation: Imperative Mood

At this point, we find the mood of the bossy. Imperative are the orders or commands that are given to almost all people, in an affirmative or negative way. I say “almost all people” because there is a fact that many of us have overlooked at some time, and that is that we cannot give orders to ourselves!

Imperative Mood’s Conjugations

Subject	Affirmative	Negative
	(Start / Let’s Start)	(Don’t Start / Let’s Not Start)
Yo	Empieces	No Empieces
Tú	Empecemos	No Empecemos
Él/Ella/Usted	Empiecen	No Empiecen

Examples:

• Es muy importante que ustedes empiecen a resolver su examen TOEFL ahora. (It is very important that you start answering your TOEFL exam now.)
• No empieces a inventar excusas por llegar tarde otra vez. (Do not start making up excuses for being late again.)

Empezar Verb – Quiz/Worksheet

Remember what I told you at the beginning? The key is to practice, and here we have some tasks to rehearse your fresh knowledge. In these exercises, you have to choose the correct conjugation of the verb empezar from the box in the right:

Word Bank

había empezado	empezaba	empezaría	empezó
empiece	empezaré	hubiésemos empezado	habrían empezado
empezase	empiezo

1.       Es tiempo que yo __________________ a dejar de gastar tanto. (It is time I stop spending so much.)

2.       Si yo _____________________a ahorrar hoy, el próximo año podría irme de vacaciones a Europa. (If I started saving now, by next year I could go to Europe on vacation.)

3.       José ________________ su discurso cuando llegaron más asistentes. (Jose had started his speech when some more attendants arrived.)

4.       Ojalá _____________________el viaje en Inglaterra y no en Francia. (I wish we had started the trip in England and not in France.)

5.       Yo ________________un nuevo curso si tuviese el dinero. (I would start a new course if I had the money.)

6.       Y le dije “___________________ a creerte cuando dejes de mentir”. (And I told her “I will start believing you when you stop lying to me”.)

7.       Entonces ella _______________ a llorar. (Then she started to cry.)

8.       Yo _____________ con los tiempos perfectos y tú sigues con los pluscuamperfectos. (I start with the perfect tenses and you continue with the pluperfects.)

9.       Si hubiesen sabido sobre el Covid 19 no ___________________ a viajar por el Caribe. (If they had known about the Covid-19, they would not have started traveling the Caribbean.)

10.   Ella _________________ a trabajar a las 7 am, por eso se levantaba a las 4:30. (She started work at 7am, that is why she woke up at 4:30.)

The answers

Let’s see what the answers are, don’t worry if you had a hard time or if you got some of them wrong, and even less if it’s your first time, try to practice daily!

1.    Empiece

2.    Empezase

3.    Había Empezado

4.    Hubiésemos Empezado

5.    Empezaría

6.    Empezaré

7.    Empezó

8.    Empiezo

9.    Habrían empezado

10.   Empezaba

Fun Fact

The title of this lesson, “Coser y cantar, todo es empezar” (to sew and to sing, you just have to start) is a saying in Latin America, meaning that those two actions which are supposed to be difficult, will be less difficult if you just start practicing them. This applies to everything that looks hard and far to accomplish at the beginning.