En un abrir y cerrar de ojos: Conjugation of the verb Cerrar
Learning Spanish is a path that is rarely linear, you go back and forth learning adjectives, common phrases, the culture, finding a good teacher, even getting to online tutorials and realizing what you really need. Most Spanish learners go through that whole process, and there is nothing you can do better than looking for information and certainly having a teacher that suits your needs.
In case you have already learned the verb “abrir” you can associate it directly to the verb “cerrar” (as in the phrase “En un abrir y cerrar de ojos”, in English “In the blink of an eye”) because they are antonyms and one cannot exist without the other; doing exercises associating words is a good trick to achieve learning two words at the same time.
Learning verb conjugations is one of those characteristics that distinguish you from other students. When you are trying to have a conversation in Spanish, what usually makes the conversation fluent is first of all to have enough vocabulary and to know how to conjugate verbs that are common. Cerrar, as you can guess, is one of those necessary, everyday verbs, from closing the car door to closing a deal in business. Let’s close this introduction so you can start having more and more fluent conversations in Spanish.
Verbals of the verb Cerrar
There are a couple of details you will need to know, the first is that Cerrarwill not always be presented as a conjugated verb. Those times you see it in any of the following three ways will be in the mood of verbals, that is to say that you will not need to conjugate it since it will no longer be a verb, let’s see a couple of examples to make it easier to understand.
| Verbal | Common use | Example | English | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Infinitive | cerrar (close) | Non conjugated / Noun | Cerrar tratos es su parte favorita de los negocios. | Closing deals is his favorite part of doing business. |
| Gerund | cerrando (closing) | Verbal periphrasis | Ahorita estoy cerrando, puede venir después. | I am closing now, you can come later. |
| Participle | cerrado (closed) | Adjective | El local de pizza está cerrado a esta hora. | The pizza place is closed at this time. |
Cerrar Conjugation: Indicative Mood
The second thing you need to know is that Cerrar is an irregular verb which means that you will see it change every time you change the tense and the person who uses it. In order to conjugate irregular verbs it is necessary to apply a lot of memory, but you will notice that they have similarities, however, you have to pay attention tothe changes in each tense and person to make it more familiar.
Let’s start with the indicative mood, one of the simplest and most common moods.
Simple Tenses of the Indicative Mood
| Subject | Present | Preterite | Imperfect | Conditional | Future |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (close) | (closed) | (closed) | (would close) | (will close) | |
| yo | cierro | cerré | cerraba | cerraría | cerraré |
| tú | cierras | cerraste | cerrabas | cerrarías | cerrarás |
| él/ella/ usted | cierra | cerró | cerraba | cerraría | cerrará |
| nosotros | cerramos | cerramos | cerrábamos | cerraríamos | cerraremos |
| ellos/ella/ ustedes | cierran | cerraron | cerraban | cerrarían | cerrarán |
Examples
Yo cierro la tienda de mi papá todos los días – I close my dad’s store every day.
Nosotros cerramos el partido del viernes – We closed Friday’s game
Compound Tenses of the Indicative Mood
| Subject | Preterite Perfect | Past Perfect (Pluperfect) | Conditional Perfect | Future Perfect |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| yo | he cerrado | había cerrado | habría cerrado | habré cerrado |
| tú | has cerrado | habías cerrado | habrías cerrado | habrás cerrado |
| él/ella/usted | había cerrado | había cerrado | habría cerrado | habrá cerrado |
| nosotros | habíamos cerrado | habíamos cerrado | habríamos cerrado | habremos cerrado |
| ellos/ellas/ustedes | habían cerrado | habían cerrado | habrían cerrado | habrán cerrado |
Cerrar Conjugation: Subjunctive Mood
This mood has a specific use, and it is that when we find ourselves wishing, longing for something or making a hypothesis about a situation, this is the type of conjugation we should use.
Simple Tenses of the Subjunctive Mood
| Subject | Present | Imperfect | Imperfect 2 | Future |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| yo | cierre | cerrara | cerrase | cerrare |
| tú | cierres | cerraras | cerrases | cerrares |
| él/ella/usted | cierre | cerrara | cerrase | cerrare |
| nosotros | cerremos | cerráramos | cerrásemos | cerráremos |
| ellos/ellas/ ustedes | cierren | cerraran | cerrasen | cerraren |
Example:
Que yo cerrare la puerta, no haría ninguna diferencia – If I will close the door, it would make no difference.
Ojalá cerraran ya la oficina, quiero irme a casa – I wish they would close the office already, I want to go home.
Compound Tenses of the Subjunctive Mood
| Subject | Past perfect | Past Perfect (Pluperfect) | Past Perfect 2 (Pluperfect 2) | Future Perfect |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| yo | haya cerrado | hubiera cerrado | hubiese cerrado | hubiere cerrado |
| tú | hayas cerrado | hubieras cerrado | hubieses cerrado | hubieres cerrado |
| él/ella/usted | haya cerrado | hubiera cerrado | hubiese cerrado | hubiere cerrado |
| nosotros | hayamos cerrado | hubiéramos cerrado | hubiésemos cerrado | hubiéremos cerrado |
| ellos/ellas/ustedes | hayan cerrado | hubieran cerrado | hubiesen cerrado | hubieren cerrado |
Cerrar Conjugation: Imperative Mood
This is the last mood we are going to find to make conjugations, the mood of people who love to be in charge.With these conjugations, orders and commands are expressed. can see, the first person is not included and that makes it easier to memorize the changes of each person.
| Subject | Affirmative | Negative |
|---|---|---|
| (close/let’s close) | (don’t close/let’s not close) | |
| tú | cierra | no cierres |
| nosotros | cerremos | no cerremos |
| ustedes | cierren | no cierren |
| usted | cierre | no cierre |
Examples:
¡No cierres la sesión! No recuerdo cuál era mi contraseña. – Don’t (close the session) log out! I don’t remember what my password was.
Cerremos los ojos e imaginemos una playa tranquila – Let’s close our eyes and imagine a calm beach.
Let’s get to practice!
1. No ___ tu mente ante las posibilidades – Do not close your mind to the possibilities
2. Nosotros habríamos ___ el partido ganando, pero perdimos – We would have closed the game by winning, but we lost.
3. Confío en que ustedes ___ de forma exitosa el negocio – I am confident that you will successfully close the deal.
4. Por favor, ___ la llave cuando te estés cepillando los dientes – Please (close) turn off the faucet when you are brushing your teeth.
5. Todos queremos ___ este debate ya – We all want to close this debate now.
The closure
1. cierres
2. cerrado
3. cerrarán
4. cierra
5. cerrar
Fun Fact:
In Spanish the word zipper is used in two contexts, the first is as a verb along with all the conjugations you learned today, and the second is as a noun to name the zipper of garments and accessories. It is normal to hear the expression “Súbete el cierre” (Zip it up) and as strange as it sounds, it makes sense.
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