crecer means: to grow, to grow up, to increase
Click to see all conjugation charts of crecer in every tense

In this Spanish conjugation lesson we will see how to inflect the verb crecer in the Presente tense of the Indicativo mood. It means we will see step by step how to create and translate forms of each grammatical person.

This lesson is specifically about the crecer conjugation. For an overview of Simple Tenses conjugation see the Simple Tenses Conjugation Chart.

You may also see this Video Presentation on how to conjugate verbs in Presente. It’s embedded below, but using the above link you will find additional information on conjugation in this tense as well as explanation of exceptions and special cases.

How to translate Presente to English

Note that the English phrases provided below next to each conjugation are not direct translations from Spanish to English. They are usually the closest general equivalents. The example differences are:

• In Spanish conjugation, there is the form usted in the third person singular. But this person does not translate to the English third person singular. It translates to the so called formal you and uses the inflected form which is most often represented as he/she/it in English conjugation charts.
• Similar situation happens in the third person plural, where ustedes translates to the English plural formal you but uses the form which corresponds to the they form in English.
• Tenses are used differently in Spanish and English, so the actual translation should always take into account the context and focus on translating the meaning, not just words.
• In both languages each verb may have multiple meanings and not every meaning translates directly to the other language. Here also, the context and focusing on the particular meaning helps to create the most accurate translation.

The Spanish Presente de Indicativo tense translates to one of the following:

• The English Present tense, for instance:
  ustedes crecen

  (formal, plural) you grow
• The English Present Progressive (also called Present Continuous) tense, for instance:
  ahora vosotros crecéis

  (plural) you are growwing now
  
  Notice that the Spanish equivalent of the Present Progressive also exists and is in common use – that’s Presente Progresivo (a.k.a. Presente Continuo).

Note the timeline

The ability to properly locate the desired position on the timeline is a crucial skill for proper choice of tenses. So pay attention to the timeline in our lessons and visualize it while speaking, listening, writing and reading. After a bit practice you will be capable of selecting the right tense to use much easier.

Step by step instructions

Presente belongs to the simple tenses group, which means that all of the conjugated forms are one word long. There are also compound (compuesto) tenses in Spanish language, where each conjugated form consists of two words.The verb crecer has an almost entirely regular conjugation in the Presente tense of the Indicativo mood. An exception is the first person singular, which has an irregular form. It means that the other persons simply follow the general rules for this group (-er) without further exceptions or spelling corrections. The basis for the conjugation in this tense is the stem of the verb, so we have to begin by splitting the infinitive into a stem and an ending. It’s easy to do. Simply remove two letters from the end of the infinitive to get the ending — one of -ar, -er or -ir. What’s left is the stem. So in case of our verb:

• the stem is: crec-
• and the ending is: -er

Use the stem crec- in each person as the basis for the conjugation, the common prefix that each of the forms begins with. Next, add to this regular stem the endings specific to each person. Check out the image showing all the endings. Notice both the shapes and colors of the letters. It will help you find patterns and make it easier to remember these endings.Each grammatical person has a specific ending in each of the three conjugation groups -ar, -er, -ir. The first person singular is irregular in this tense and needs to be memorized. It is crezco:

• yo crezco – I grow

An irregular ending is necessary here.

The first person singular (yo) uses the -zco ending. It influences other tenses as well. Imperativo Afirmativo & Negativo and Presente Subjuntivo are created based on this person, except for:

• Imperativo Afirmativo tú form, which is regular
• vosotros/vosotras which is always regular in that tense

All verbs ending in -cer/-cir belong to this group and get the -zco ending.So use -zco ending to get crezco:

• yo crezco – I grow

Add the regular ending -es for the second person singular to create creces:

• tú creces – you grow

And add the regular ending -e for the third person singular to create crece:

• él crece – he grows
• ella crece – she grows
• usted crece – (formal) you grow

Like previously add the regular ending -emos for the first person plural to create crecemos:

• nosotros crecemos – we grow
• nosotras crecemos – (feminine) we grow

Similarly add the regular ending -éis for the second person plural to create crecéis:

• vosotros crecéis – (plural) you grow
• vosotras crecéis – (feminine, plural) you grow

And one more time add the regular ending -en for the third person plural to create crecen:

• ellos crecen – they grow
• ellas crecen – (feminine) they grow
• ustedes crecen – (formal, plural) you grow

¡Ya está! The conjugation is now complete. Put together, the conjugation chart looks like this:

yo	crezco	I grow
tú	creces	you grow
él/ella/usted	crece	he/she/it grows
nosotros/nosotras	crecemos	we grow
vosotros/vosotras	crecéis	you grow
ellos/ellas/ustedes	crecen	they grow

Click to see all conjugation charts of crecer in every tense
But do not end your session yet – it is very important to repeat and practice the material in order to retain it. Check below for suggestions.

Next Steps to Perfection To practice this conjugation and test yourself check this Conjugation Exercise or the Memory Game To see other conjugation lessons for this verb choose another tense: PretéritoImperfectoCondicionalFuturoPretérito Perfecto CompuestoPretérito PluscuamperfectoFuturo PerfectoCondicional PerfectoPretérito Perfecto Compuesto (subjuntivo)Pretérito Pluscuamperfecto A (subjuntivo)Pretérito Pluscuamperfecto B (subjuntivo)Futuro Perfecto (subjuntivo)  For exercises and examples related to crecer visit our Exercise section To see conjugation charts in all tenses for crecer visit the Conjugator To explore other learning materials visit the Study section

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