Bailar Conjugation 101: Conjugate Bailar In Spanish

Bailar is a regular -AR verb in Spanish. Since it’s a simple verb which can help you practice this conjugation type, in this guide, we’ll review all of the bailar conjugation patterns you need to learn and become fluent in modern Spanish. Here is a summary of what we’ll cover: 

• Bailar Overview
• Indicative Tenses of Bailar Conjugations
  • Present tense
  • Preterite tense
  • Imperfect tense
  • Near Future tense
  • Future tense
  • Conditional tense
  • Present Perfect tense
  • Past Perfect tense
  • Future Perfect tense
  • Conditional Perfect tense
  • Progressive tenses
• Subjunctive Tenses of Bailar Conjugations
  • Present Subjunctive tense
  • Present Perfect Subjunctive tense
  • Imperfect Subjunctive tense
  • Past Perfect Subjunctive tense
• Imperative (Commands) of Bailar Conjugations
  • Affirmative Commands
  • Negative Commands
• Uses & Examples
• Download Bailar Conjugation Tables & Uses Cheat sheets
• Bailar Conjugation Practice Quiz

Overview of Bailar

Indicative Conjugations of Bailar

Present tense

The present forms of bailar are used to say that a person dances or describes how someone performs this activity. For example: Mis amigas bailan muy bien. 

Preterite tense

Use bailar preterite conjugations to mention that someone danced. You can add adverbs of time to your sentence to pinpoint exactly when someone did this activity. For example: Theo bailó conmigo en la fiesta. 

Imperfect tense

When conjugated to the past imperfect tense in Spanish, this verb is used to say that a person used to dance for an extended period of time. These forms also allow you to describe how well someone used to do this activity. For instance: Mi papá nunca bailaba en las fiestas. 

Near future

The Spanish immediate or near future of this verb is built with the formula ir (present tense) + bailar. These conjugations express that someone will dance soon in the future. ¡Ándale! ¡Vamos a bailar!

Future simple tense

Conjugate bailar to the future simple tense to say that someone will dance at some moment in the future. For instance: ¿Con quién bailarán esta noche?

Conditional tense

Bailar’s conditional conjugations allow you to express that a person would dance. You can use these forms to ask someone politely to dance with you. ¿Bailarías conmigo?

Present perfect tense

The Spanish present perfect of bailar is formed with haber (present tense) + bailado (past participle). Use these conjugations to talk about whether a person has danced or not. For example: ¿Con quién has bailado?

Past perfect

Bailar past perfect tense conjugations are used to communicate that someone had or hadn’t danced before another past action or reference point. For instance: Cuando llegué, Sabina ya había bailado con Humberto. 

To conjugate to the past perfect tense, use the structure haber (imperfect form) + bailado (bailar in the past participle form).

Future perfect

Conjugate this verb to future perfect tense to communicate that someone will have danced by or before a point in the future. These conjugations also express that someone might have danced. For instance: Cuando llegamos, ya habrán bailado su canción de bodas. 

Conditional perfect

Use bailar in the conditional perfect tense to explain that someone would have danced if a past circumstance occurred. Si me lo hubieras pedido, habría bailado contigo toda la noche. 

Progressive tenses

Use estar’s conjugations + bailando (present participle form) to form the progressive tenses in Spanish. These conjugations of bailar emphasize that someone is dancing at the moment of speaking. For example: ¿Con quién está bailando Samantha? 

Bailar Subjunctive Conjugations

The subjunctive mood in Spanish allows you to talk about someone’s hopes, demands, recommendations, expectations, and doubts or to refer to hypothetical situations. In the sections below, you’ll find the bailar conjugation charts for the key subjunctive tenses. 

Present subjunctive

The present subjunctive conjugations of bailar are used to wish, suggest, or ask a person to dance with someone. For example: Espero que Sharon baile conmigo. 

Present perfect subjunctive

Haber (present subjunctive) + bailado is used to conjugate the present perfect subjunctive in Spanish. In this tense, this verb expresses uncertainty or refers to wishes about whether a person has danced with someone.

For example: No sé con quien haya bailado, pero conmigo no fue.

Imperfect subjunctive

The imperfect subjunctive forms of bailar refers to past demands, suggestions, or expectations you had about someone dancing. For instance: Te dije que no bailaras con ese chico. 

Depending on the Spanish dialect you learn, the imperfect subjunctive has two conjugation models: 

Latin American Spanish version

Note: Since vosotros is not used in Latin American Spanish, the bailar conjugation chart above doesn’t include this conjugation. 

Castilian Spanish version

Past perfect subjunctive

Bailar conjugated to the past perfect subjunctive tense expresses that someone would have danced if a past condition took place. This tense also allows you to show regret for dancing or not dancing with someone. For example: Ojalá hubiéramos bailado. 

Bailar Imperative Conjugations

To give commands in Spanish, use a verb’s imperative forms. Affirmative commands allow you to order people to do something, whereas the negative imperative is used to tell people not to do something. 

Affirmative commands

Use the affirmative imperative forms of bailar to order someone to dance. For instance: Baila con tu primo, no seas grosera. 

Negative commands

To order someone not to dance, conjugate bailar to the negative imperative. For example: ¡No bailes con esa chica!

Meanings of Bailar & Examples

In the sections above, we just learned how to conjugate bailar in Spanish. Now, let’s review how to use this verb correctly. 

[Bailar conjugated] + [complement]

¿Vas a bailar con mi hermana?
Are you going to dance with my sister?

Tanya y su novio bailaron toda la noche. 
Tanya and her boyfriend danced all night. 

Take Note: Use the preposition con and prepositional pronouns to mention with whom someone is dancing. 

Download Bailar Conjugation Charts & Uses Cheat sheets

I’ve created a Bailar cheat sheets PDF you can download for free which includes all of the bailar conjugation charts as well as its definition and uses so you can study this verb and related resources at your own pace.

Download Conjugations PDF

Practice Quiz: Bailar Conjugation

Now that you can conjugate bailar, you can practice your skills with regular -AR verbs by taking the bailar conjugation practice quiz.

Take Quiz