seguir means: to follow, to continue
Click to see all conjugation charts of seguir in every tense

In this conjugation lesson we are going to learn how to conjugate the verb seguir 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 seguir conjugation. For a general 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 get more detailed information on conjugation in this tense and 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 instance:
  vosotros seguís

  (plural) you follow
• The English Present Progressive (a.k.a. Present Continuous) tense, for instance:
  ahora nosotros seguimos

  we are following now
  
  Note though, 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 accurately locate the desired position on the timeline is an important skill for the right choice of tenses. So pay attention to the timeline in our lessons and visualize it while listening, speaking, reading or writing. After a bit practice you will be able to select 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 the Spanish language, where each conjugated form consists of two words. The verb seguir 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 Because the pronunciation is different when the letter g is followed by a/o/u and different when it’s followed by e/i, we need to change the spelling of the stem to preserve the pronunciation of the infinitive. This verb ends in -guir and the u is there to have a [g] sound before e/i. When in effect of conjugation we end up with a g not followed by e/i we need to remove the u which would be pronounced as a separate letter in such case.

So in the regular stem segu change e to i and change gu to g to get sig. But at least the ending is regular for this person. It is -o as normally in the -ir verb group. Add it to the stem to get:

• yo sigo – I follow

The second person singular has an irregular stem in this tense.

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.

So in the regular stem segu change e to i to get sigu. Again the ending is regular for this person. It is -es as normally in the -ir verb group. Add it to the stem to get:

• tú sigues – you follow

The third person singular also has an irregular stem in this tense.

So as explained before we need to change e to i in the regular stem segu to get sigu. And once more the ending is regular for this person. It is -e as normally in the -ir verb group. Add it to the stem to get:

• él sigue – he follows
• ella sigue – she follows
• usted sigue – (formal) you follow

The first person plural has a regular stem. So we need to use segu- as the basis for this person’s form. Add the regular ending -imos for this person to get seguimos:

• nosotros seguimos – we follow
• nosotras seguimos – (feminine) we follow

Once more the second person plural has a regular stem. So you need to use segu- at the beginning of this form. And once more add the regular ending -ís for this person to get seguís:

• vosotros seguís – (plural) you follow
• vosotras seguís – (feminine, plural) you follow

The third person plural also has an irregular stem in this tense.

So as explained earlier we need to change e to i in the regular stem segu to get sigu. And one more time the ending is regular for this person. It is -en as normally in the -ir verb group. Add it to the stem to get:

• ellos siguen – they follow
• ellas siguen – (feminine) they follow
• ustedes siguen – (formal, plural) you follow

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

yo	sigo	I follow
tú	sigues	you follow
él/ella/usted	sigue	he/she/it follows
nosotros/nosotras	seguimos	we follow
vosotros/vosotras	seguís	you follow
ellos/ellas/ustedes	siguen	they follow

Click to see all conjugation charts of seguir 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 examples and some links.

Example sentences

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 seguir visit our Exercise section To see conjugation charts in all tenses for seguir visit the Conjugator To explore other learning materials visit the Study section

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