freír means: to fry
Click to see all conjugation charts of freír in every tense

In this Spanish conjugation lesson we will see how to conjugate the verb freír 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 freír conjugation. For a general overview of all the Simple Tenses conjugation have a look at our Simple Tenses Conjugation Chart.

We also have a Video Presentation on how to conjugate verbs in Presente. It’s embedded below, but using the above link you will get more detailed information on conjugation in this tense as well as explanation of special cases and exceptions.

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 example:
  tú fríes

  you fry
• The English Present Progressive (or Present Continuous) tense, for example:
  en este momento tú fríes

  you are frying at the moment
  
  Note that the Spanish equivalent of the Present Progressive also exists and is in common use – that’s Presente Progresivo (also called Presente Continuo).

Note the timeline

The ability to accurately locate the desired position on the timeline is an important skill for proper choice of tenses. So note the timeline in our lessons and visualize it while listening, speaking, reading or writing. After some practice you’ll be capable of selecting the right tense to use much easier.

Step by step instructions

This verb conjugates exactly as reír with f- added in front of every form Presente belongs to the simple tenses group, which means that all of the inflected forms are one word long. There are also compound (compuesto) tenses in Spanish language, where each conjugated verb form consists of two words. The verb freír has an irregular conjugation in the Presente tense of the Indicativo mood. Multiple changes are necessary in the first person singular

1^st This verb belongs to the group which gets a change of the last e in the stem into an i.

It’s convenient to think about this change as happening only in:

• persons 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd singular and 3^rd plural of Presente Indicativo
  
• 3^rd person singular & plural of Pretérito Perfecto Simple
  
• Gerundio

but influencing all the grammatical persons of all the Imperative and simple Subjunctive tenses. That’s because their forms are created based on either the 3^rd person singular of Presente de Indicativo or the 3^rd person plural of Pretérito Perfecto Simple de Indicativo.

The 1^st person singular may also be entirely irregular here, and in such case it doesn’t follow this model. And when the first person of the Present tense is irregular, all the above mentioned tenses, which normally use the 3^rd person’s form as the basis of their conjugation, use the 1^st person’s form instead.

2^nd We need to add an accent when the weak i/u in the stem is followed by strong a/e/o in the ending, and the accent should be on the stem. Otherwise the a/e/o would be stressed, as it is strong, and we’d have a diphthong.

A diphthong is a combination of a weak vowel i/u and a strong vowel a/e/o in a single syllable giving a sound which begins as one vowel and moves towards another. English also has it in words like: feith, scout.

So in the regular stem fre change e to i and add the accent to get frí. But at least the ending is regular for this person. It is -o as normally in the -ír verb group. Add it to the stem to get:

• yo frío – I fry

Multiple changes are necessary in the second person singular also

So in the regular stem fre change e to i and add the accent to get frí. And one more time the ending is regular for this person. It is -es as normally in the -ír verb group. Add it to the stem to get:

• tú fríes – you fry

Multiple changes are necessary in the third person singular like in the previous case

So in the regular stem fre change e to i and add the accent to get frí. And the ending is regular for this person. It is -e as normally in the -ír verb group. Add it to the stem to get:

• él fríe – he fries
• ella fríe – she fries
• usted fríe – (formal) you fry

The first person plural has a regular stem. So you need to use fre- at the beginning of this form. Add the regular ending -imos for this person to get freimos. A spelling correction is necessary here.

We need to add an accent over the i here, because without it we would lose the stress on i while it is present in pronunciation.

It would happen because any combination of weak vowels i/u with strong vowels a/e/o in a single syllable gives a sound which begins as one vowel and moves towards another, a diphthong. English has it as well in words like: stain, out.So add the accent over i to get freímos:

• nosotros freímos – we fry
• nosotras freímos – (feminine) we fry

Similarly the second person plural has a regular stem. So we need to use fre- as the basis for this person’s form. And again add the regular ending -ís for this person to get freís:

• vosotros freís – (plural) you fry
• vosotras freís – (feminine, plural) you fry

Multiple changes are necessary in the third person plural similarly

So in the regular stem fre change e to i and add the accent to get frí. And exactly as previously the ending is regular for this person. It is -en as normally in the -ír verb group. Add it to the stem to get:

• ellos fríen – they fry
• ellas fríen – (feminine) they fry
• ustedes fríen – (formal, plural) you fry

That’s it! The conjugation is now finished. That’s the final result:

yo	frío	I fry
tú	fríes	you fry
él/ella/usted	fríe	he/she/it fries
nosotros/nosotras	freímos	we fry
vosotros/vosotras	freís	you fry
ellos/ellas/ustedes	fríen	they fry

Click to see all conjugation charts of freír in every tense
But do not end your session yet – it’s important to repeat and practice the material in order to retain it. Check below for next steps.

Next Steps to Perfection To practice this conjugation and test your knowledge 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 freír visit our Exercise section To see conjugation charts in all tenses for freír visit the Conjugator To explore other learning materials visit the Study section

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