“Escribir” Conjugation in Spanish: Let’s Get Writing!

When did you learn to write? Was the first word you wrote your name? Ours too! Writing is something we put into practice every day. Whether we write a book, an email or just a Whatsapp message. So how about learning to conjugate “write” in Spanish too?

In this article, we’ll go over the escribir conjugation. As usual, we’ll start with the basics and make our way to conjugations for advanced learners. We’ll also include some extra information at the end of the article. Are you ready to get writing? We better start before the inspiration runs dry!

What kind of verb is escribir?

Escribir is a regular verb. This means that it follows the standard conjugation for verbs ending in “-ir”. Well, almost.

As you probably know by now, in Spanish, verbs always end either in “-ar”, “-er” or “-ir”. The other part of the verb is called a stem. In the case of escribir, this would be “escrib-”. What makes this verb regular is that this stem doesn’t change throughout conjugations. So you only have to worry about changing the last part of the verb.

But, as you know, we like our challenges. And escribir actually has one irregular form. We promise it’s really easy, and there’s only one!

The logical participle for escribir if we follow the standard conjugation rules would be escribido. Sounds strange, right? Well, the actual participle for the verb escribir is escrito. Much better, don’t you think?

Verbals of escribir: infinitive, gerund and participle

Now that we’ve settled that escribir is extremely regular, let’s dig into its conjugation. We’ll start by looking at its verbals: the infinitive, the gerund and the participle. Verbals function as nouns, adjectives and adverbs instead of as actual verbs. This may sound a bit complicated, but we promise it’s not that hard. Once you go over the examples below, you’ll see that you’re up to an easy start with the escribir conjugation.

Infinitive

Escribir (to write)

• Vamos a escribir un poema. (We’re going to write a poem.)

Gerund

Escribiendo (writing)

• Estaba escribiendo la lista de la compra. (I was writing down the shopping list.)

Participle

Escrito (wrote)

• Si Sergio me hubiese escrito antes, hubiese traído lo que quería. (Had Sergio written to me beforehand, I would’ve brought what he wanted.)

Escribir conjugation for all levels

Learning your ABCs: escribir conjugation for beginners

It’s time to start writing! As we’ve seen in previous articles, there are 10 tenses in the indicative mood in the Spanish language. In this section, we’ll go over the most common and simplest forms for the escribir conjugation: presente (present), pretérito imperfecto (imperfect preterite, a form of the past tense), pretérito perfecto (perfect preterite, another form of the past tense) and futuro (future).

Subject	Present	Imperfect Preterite	Perfect Preterite	Future
Yo (I)	escribo	escribía	escribí	escribiré
Tu (You) Vos (Latin America)	escribes escribís	escribías	escribiste	escribirás
Usted (You, formal) El/Ella (He/She/It)	escribe	escribía	escribió	escribirá
Nosotros (We)	escribimos	escribíamos	escribimos	escribiremos
Vosotros (You, plural) Ustedes (Latin America)	escribís escriben	escribíais escribían	escribisteis escribieron	escribiréis escribirán
Ellos (Them)	escriben	escribían	escribieron	escribirán

Escribir conjugation examples for beginners

• Present: Hoy escribí diez páginas. (I wrote ten pages today.)
• Imperfect preterite: ¡Mis abuelos escribían cartas con tinta y papel a sus amigos! (My grandparents used to write letters with paper and ink to their friends!)
• Perfect preterite: ¿Escribieron tus primos? (Did your cousins write?)
• Future: Cuando sea grande, escribiré una novela. (When I grow up, I’ll write a novel.)

Your first paragraph: escribir conjugation for intermediate students

You have your ABCs, you can now move on to intermediate-level sentences. Let’s take it to the next level and focus on the compound tenses of the escribir conjugation in the indicative mood.

The trick to learning compound tenses in Spanish is mastering the haber conjugation. The only form of escribir that is used here is the participle “escrito”. Compound tenses in Spanish are formed with the correct form of the verb haber + the past participle of the verb in question (i.e., escrito), which is the one that carries the meaning.

Below you’ll find the pretérito perfecto (preterite perfect), pluscuamperfecto (pluperfect) and futuro compuesto (future perfect) tenses for escribir. You can also take a look at our article on the haber conjugation for some extra help.

Subject	Preterite Perfect	Pluperfect	Future Perfect
Yo (I)	he escrito	había escrito	habré escrito
Tu/Vos (You)	has escrito	habías escrito	habrás escrito
Usted (You, formal) El/Ella (He/She/It)	ha escrito	había escrito	habrá escrito
Nosotros (We)	hemos escrito	habíamos escrito	habremos escrito
Vosotros (You, plural) Ustedes (Latin America)	habéis escrito han escrito	habíais escrito habían escrito	habréis escrito habrán escrito
Ellos (Them)	han escrito	habían escrito	habrán escrito

Escribir conjugation examples for intermediate level

• Preterite perfect: ¡Han escrito en la pared!. (They’ve written on the wall!)
• Pluperfect: Había escrito una carta, pero nunca la envíe. (I had written a letter, but I never sent it.)
• Future perfect: ¿Ya habrá escrito el libro? (Will she/he have written the book already?)

Onto the essay: escribir conjugation for advanced learners

It’s time for some academic-level writing. In this section, we’ll cover the subjunctive mood. This Spanish mood is rather abstract; it is used to express doubts, emotions, desires, and the unknown. Below, we’ll look at its presente (present), imperfecto (imperfect) and futuro (future) tenses for the escribir conjugation.

Subject	Present	Imperfect	Future
Yo (I)	escriba	escribiera o escribiese	escribiere
Tu (You) Vos (Latin America)	escribas	escribieras o escribieses	escribieres
Usted (You, formal) El/Ella (He/She/It)	escriba	escribiera o escribiese	escribiere
Nosotros (We)	escribamos	escribiéramos o escribiésemos	escribiéremos
Vosotros (You, plural) Ustedes (Latin America)	escribáis escriban	escribierais o escribieseis escribieran o escribiesen	escribiereis escribieren
Ellos (Them)	escriban	escribieran o escribiesen	escribieren

Escribir conjugation examples for advanced learners

• Present: ¡Qué escriban lo que quieran! (Let them write whatever they want!)
• Imperfect: Si Manuela escribiese más a menudo, nos enteraríamos. (If Manuela wrote more often, we’d find out.)

The subjunctive future is rarely used in speech nowadays, and you are more likely to find it in literature or legal contexts. That is why we haven’t added a conjugation example for the escribir subjunctive future here. However, we still think it’s good for you to know it exists and what it looks like.

Extra escribir conjugation: conditional tenses and imperative

If you want to take your writing to an even higher level, we have some more tenses for you. In this section, we’ll look into the condicional simple (simple conditional) and the condicional compuesto (conditional perfect), as well as the imperative.

Subject	Simple Conditional	Conditional Perfect	Imperative
Yo (I)	escribiría	habría escrito
Tu (You) Vos (Latin America)	escribirías	habrías escrito	¡escribe! ¡escribí!
Usted (You, formal) El/Ella (He/She/It)	escribiría	habría escrito	¡escriba!
Nosotros (We)	escribiríamos	habríamos escrito	¡escribamos!
Vosotros (You, plural) Ustedes (Latin America)	escribiríais escribirían	habríais escrito habrían escrito	¡escribid! ¡escriban!
Ellos (Them)	escribirían	habrían escrito	¡escriban!

Escribir conjugation examples in the conditional tenses

• Simple conditional: Si tuviese su número, le escribiría un mensaje. (If I had his/her number, I’d text him/her.)
• Conditional perfect: Si hubiese sabido, te habría escrito. (Had I known, I would’ve written to you.)
• Imperative: ¡Escribe bien! (Write properly!)

If you want more information on conditional tenses, you can take a look at this article.

Other writing verbs: redactar, deletrear and anotar

There are other Spanish verbs related to writing, so we thought it’d be nice to include them in this article.

Redactar (to write/draft/compose)

This verb has several possible equivalents in English. Redactar means to write the information you have in an orderly, comprehensible and agreeable way.

Let’s look at a couple of examples:

• María redactó el informe esta mañana. (María drafted the report this morning).
• Le redactaré un mail a Carlos. (I’ll compose an email for Carlos.)

Deletrear (to spell)

Deletrear is not used as often as “to spell” in English. People usually use the verb escribir to convey the same meaning. However, this doesn’t mean deletrear is not important enough to learn.

Here are a couple of examples:

• ¿Me lo deletreas? (Can you spell that for me?).
• No sé cómo deletrear esta palabra. ¿Es con “b” o con “v”? (I don’t know how to spell this word. Is it with “b” or “v”?)

Anotar (to note/jot down/write down)

This verb also has several possible equivalents in English. It means to make a note of something or write down notes on paper or your computer so you don’t forget about something.

Let’s look at a couple of examples:

• No sé dónde anoté su número de teléfono. (I don’t know where I jotted down his/her phone number).
• Anota esto, por favor. (Please write this down.)

Escribir conjugation – Conclusion

We hope this guide of the escribir conjugation has proven useful and answered your question regarding this verb. If you are looking for more information about Spanish conjugations in general, we suggest our overview of Spanish tenses. If you want to learn more vocabulary to improve your writing skills, then this article is for you.