What’s easier, to ask for permission or to ask for forgiveness?: Conjugation of the verb Pedir
A few years ago, in a beauty pageant, this was one of the questions asked to a Miss: “What is easier, to ask for permission or to ask for forgiveness?” (in spanish: “Es mejor pedir perdón, que pedir permiso), I guess this kind of question takes a couple of minutes of internal debate to know what you would choose, but how long would it take you to formulate this same sentence in Spanish? How easy is it for you to conjugate the verb Pedir?
Perhaps the easiest thing to do would be to think of situations where you would have to consider ordering or asking. Whether you are in a restaurant or if you are a romantic who wants to ask for the hand of that girl; if your purpose is to ask for any of these things (without fear of being wrong in Spanish) come and let’s learn how to conjugate this verb.
From -i to -e: Pedir, irregular verb
Pedir is an irregular verb, which means that we are going to see it change in several ways depending on the person who is saying it, and the moment in which they say it (the tenses). Many times, what can be scary about irregular verbs is having to memorize the variations in order to say it correctly, but we all make mistakes when we are learning something new, so the best thing to do is to practice as much as possible in real conversations to distinguish those conjugations that are more difficult, and to know where to make an effort.
You will notice that in Spanish we use this verb in several contexts, while in English we can see how it varies, here are a couple of common phrases and their equivalents to help you with the examples below:
- Pedir ayuda – To ask for help
- Pedir un taxi – To call a cab
- Pedir perdón – To apologize
- Pedir comida – To order food
Variety in its finest, isn’t it? But, looking at the glass half full, from four verbs in English, we went to just one in Spanish, easy peasy!
Pedir: one verb, three verbals
Before we start with the conjugations, let’s first go with a hack. There are three ways in which the verb “pedir” is presented that are not considered conjugations, those ways are called Verbals. The key point to knowing what a Verbal looks like (and also knowing how to use them) is to remember that they are accompanied by another verb that is conjugated. Verbals come in three forms: infinitive, gerund y participle.
| Verbal | Common use | Example | English | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Infinitive | pedir (to ask, asking) | Non conjugated / Noun | El acto de pedir puede ser muy difícil. | The act of asking can be very difficult. |
| Gerund | pidiendo (asking for) | Adverb/verbal periphrasis | Mejor voy pidiendo mi taxi, para llegar a tiempo. | I'd better order my cab, so I can get there on time. |
| Participle | pedido (asked for) | Adjective | Debí haber pedido más refresco. | I should have ordered more soda. |
Pedir Conjugation: Indicative Mood
When you encounter the indicative mood, you are dealing with the simplest version of the conjugations, in this mood the verbs (actions) are presented in a straightforward manner.
Simple Tenses of the Indicative Mood
| Subject | Present | Preterite | Imperfect | Conditional | Future |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (ask) | (asked) | (asked) | (would ask) | (will ask) | |
| yo | pido | pedí | pedía | pediría | pediré |
| tú | pides | pediste | pedías | pedirías | pedirás |
| él/ella/ usted | pide | pidió | pedía | pediría | pedirá |
| nosotros | pedimos | pedimos | pedíamos | pediríamos | pediremos |
| ellos/ella/ ustedes | piden | pidieron | pedían | pedirían | pedirán |
Examples:
Si hubiese café, lo pediríamos. – If there was coffee, we would order it.
Él pidió demasiado, tuve que terminar lo nuestro. – He asked for too much, I had to end it.
Compound Tenses of the Indicative Mood
| Subject | Present Perfect | Past Perfect (Pluperfect) | Conditional Perfect | Future Perfect |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| (have/has asked) | (had asked) | (would have asked) | (will have asked) | |
| yo | he pedido | había pedido | habría pedido | habré pedido |
| tú | has pedido | habías pedido | habrías pedido | habrás pedido |
| él/ella/usted | ha pedido | había pedido | habría pedido | habrá pedido |
| nosotros | hemos pedido | habíamos pedido | habríamos pedido | habremos pedido |
| ellos/ellas ustedes | han pedido | habían pedido | habrían pedido | habrán pedidohabrán pedido |
Pedir Conjugation: Subjunctive Mood
With the subjunctive mood we go one level further, instead of formulating simple sentences with direct actions, the subjunctive is directed towards expressing desires and hypotheses; in this mood the verb remains irregular (from -e to -i) in the simple tense, and remains regular in the compound tense.
Simple Tenses of the Subjunctive Mood
| Subject | Present | Imperfect | Imperfect 2 | Future |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| yo | pida | pidiera | pidiese | pidiere |
| tú | pidas | pidieras | pidieses | pidieres |
| él/ella/usted | pida | pidiera | pidiese | pidiere |
| nosotros | pidamos | pidiéramos | pidiésemos | pidiéremos |
| ellos/ellas/ustedes | pidan | pidieran | pidiesen | pidieren |
Examples:
Me enamoró que pidiese té en vez de café – I loved that he ordered tea instead of coffee.
Que pida tu mano ahora no significa que no lo deseara antes – Just because I ask for your hand now doesn’t mean that I didn’t want it before.
Compound Tenses of the Subjunctive Mood
| Subject | Present Perfect | Past Perfect (Pluperfect) | Past Perfect 2 (Pluperfect 2) | Future Perfect |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| yo | haya pedido | hubiera pedido | hubiese pedido | hubiere pedido |
| tú | hayas pedido | hubieras pedido | hubieses pedido | hubieres pedido |
| él/ella/usted | haya pedido | hubiera pedido | hubiese pedido | hubiere pedido |
| nosotros | hayamos pedido | hubiéramos pedido | hubiésemos pedido | hubiéremos pedido |
| ellos/ellas/ustedes | hayan pedido | hubieran pedido | hubiesen pedido | hubieren pedido |
Pedir Conjugation: Imperative Mood
In this mood we put ourselves in the shoes of the policemen, since it is the mood of orders and commands. Here the number of changes to memorize is reduced because the number of people (and times) is reduced too.
Imperative Mood’s Conjugations
| Subject | Affirmative | Negative |
|---|---|---|
| (ask / let’s ask) | (don’t ask / let’s not ask) | |
| tú | pide | no pidas |
| nosotros | pidamos | no pidamos |
| usted | pida | no pida |
| ustedes | pidan | no pidan |
Examples:
Pide lo que quieras, yo te lo doy. – Ask for what you want, I will give it to you.
No pidan camarones, les pueden caer mal. – Don’t ask for shrimp, they may be bad for you.
A bit of practice!
Let’s finish with a couple of exercises, there is only one rule, this is like an open book exam, you can go up and consult the lesson to guide you with the answers, just don’t cheat by going to the end to see the answers without having answered first.
1. No ____ esa pizza, me dieron malas recomendaciones de este restaurante. – Let’s not order that pizza, I got bad recommendations from this restaurant.
2. Ella ____ disculpas a su hermana por comerse su pastel – She apologized to her sister for eating her cake.
3. Si hubiésemos ____ un taxi en vez de irnos caminando, habríamos llegado a tiempo – If we had called for a cab instead of walking, we would have arrived on time.
4. Fred, Dustin y Will siempre ____ comida por delivery. – Fred, Dustin and Will always order food for delivery.
5. Sandra ____ un viaje a Australia por su cumpleaños. – Sandra will ask for a trip to Australia for her birthday.
The answers
Let’s see, how did you do? It’s time to compare answers!
1. pidamos
2. pidió
3. pedido
4. piden
5. pedirá
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