Cerrar Conjugation 101: Conjugate Cerrar In Spanish

Cerrar is a common -AR verb that you’ll use in many different everyday situations. Since it has some stem-changes you must keep in mind, in this guide, we’ll explore how to conjugate cerrar in Spanish. Here is a quick overview of what you’ll learn:

Take Note: There are many tenses in Spanish. However, we don’t use them all. Many are simply old and outdated. As a result, in this guide, you’ll only learn the tenses you need to know to become fluent in Spanish. 

Overview of Cerrar

Verb CharacteristicProperty
Verb Type-AR
IrregularNo
InfinitiveCerrar
Gerund (Present Participle) FormCerrando
Past Participle FormCerrado
SynonymsTapar, obstruir, cicatrizar

Stem Changes: E to IE

  • Present tense: cierr for all subject pronouns except ‘nosotros’ and ‘vosotros’.
  • Present subjunctive: cierr for all subject pronouns except ‘nosotros’ and ‘vosotros’. 
  • Affirmative imperative: cierr for all subject pronouns except ‘vosotros’. 
  • Negative imperative: cierr for all subject pronouns.  

Indicative Conjugations of Cerrar

Present tense

The present tense conjugations of cerrar have an E to IE stem-change for all subjects except ‘nosotros’ and ‘vosotros’. In this tense, cerrar can be used to talk about closing doors/ports, objects, or closing hours. Hoy cerramos a las 7.

PersonConjugationTranslation
YoCierroI close
CierrasYou close
Él / Ella
Usted
CierraHe/She closes
You (formal) close
NosotrosCerramosWe close
VosotrosCerráisYou close
Ellos / Ellas
Ustedes
CierranThey close
You (plural) close

Preterite tense

Cerrar’s preterite conjugations are all regular. The preterite tense of ‘cerrar’ communicates that something was closed at a specific moment in the past. For example: Jill cerró la ventana ayer en la noche.

PersonConjugationTranslation
YoCerréI closed
CerrasteYou closed
Él / Ella
Usted
CerróHe/She closed
You (formal) closed
NosotrosCerramosWe closed
VosotrosCerrasteisYou closed
Ellos / Ellas
Ustedes
CerraronThey closed
You (plural) closed

Imperfect tense

 In Spanish, the imperfect forms of cerrar refer to things people used to close repeatedly or at an unspecified moment in the past. La escuela cerraba a las 8. In this tense, ‘cerrar’ can be translated as ‘used to close’ or ‘closed’.

PersonConjugationTranslation
YoCerrabaI closed
I used to close
CerrabasYou closed
You used to close
Él / Ella
Usted
CerrabaHe/She closed
He/She used to close

You (formal) closed
You (formal) used to close
NosotrosCerrábamosWe closed
We used to close
VosotrosCerrabaisYou closed
You used to close
Ellos / Ellas
Ustedes
CerrabanThey closed
They used to close

You (plural) closed
You (plural) used to close

Near future

 Cerrar in the near future refers to things you plan to close at some point in the immediate future. For instance: voy a cerrar la puerta en unos minutos.  The near future is formed with ir (present) + a + cerrar and can be translated as “going to close”.

PersonConjugationTranslation
YoVoy a cerrarI’m going to close
Vas a cerrarYou’re going to close
Él / Ella
Usted
Va a cerrarHe/She is going to close
You (formal) are going to close
NosotrosVamos a cerrarWe’re going to close
VosotrosVais a cerrarYou’re going to close
Ellos / Ellas
Ustedes
Van a cerrarThey’re going to close
You (plural) are going to close

Future simple tense

The future forms of cerrar communicate that someone will close something at some point in the future. Cerraremos esta cuenta en unos meses.

PersonConjugationTranslation
YoCerraréI will close
CerrarásYou will close
Él / Ella
Usted
CerraráHe/She will close
You (formal) will close
NosotrosCerraremosWe will close
VosotrosCerraréisYou (formal) will close
Ellos / Ellas
Ustedes
CerraránThey will close
You (plural) will close

Conditional tense

 In the conditional tense, cerrar allows you to talk about things people would close if certain circumstances were met. For example: Bill dijo que si no había gente, hoy cerraría temprano.

PersonConjugationTranslation
YoCerraríaI would close
CerraríasYou would close
Él / Ella
Usted
CerraríaHe/She would close
You (formal) would close
NosotrosCerraríamosWe would close
VosotrosCerraríaisYou would close
Ellos / Ellas
Ustedes
CerraríanThey would close
You (plural) would close

Present perfect tense

We use the present perfect of ‘cerrar’ to express that someone has or hasn’t closed something. Todavía no han cerrado la tienda. With this verb, the formula for the present perfect in Spanish is: ‘haber’ in the present tense + cerrado.

PersonConjugationTranslation
YoHe cerradoI have closed
Has cerradoYou have closed
Él / Ella
Usted
Ha cerradoHe/She has closed
You (formal) have closed
NosotrosHemos cerradoWe have closed
VosotrosHabéis cerradoYou have closed
Ellos / Ellas
Ustedes
Han cerradoThey have closed
You (plural) have closed

Past perfect

The past perfect conjugations of cerrar imply that someone closed something before some other reference point in the past. Cuando llegué, el restaurante ya había cerrado. To conjugate the past perfect, we use the formula haber (imperfect form) + cerrado (cerrar’s past participle form).

PersonConjugationTranslation
YoHabía cerradoI had closed
Habías cerradoYou had closed
Él / Ella
Usted
Había cerradoHe/She had closed
You (formal) had closed
NosotrosHabíamos cerradoWe had closed
VosotrosHabíais cerradoYou had closed
Ellos / Ellas
Ustedes
Habían cerradoThey had closed
You (plural) had closed

Future perfect

The future perfect conjugations of cerrar expresses that a place will close by or before a certain time in the future. For instance: cuando lleguemos, ya habrán cerrado. The structure to form this tense is haber to the future tense and cerrado (the past participle of ‘cerrar’).

PersonConjugationTranslation
YoHabré cerradoI will have closed
Habrás cerradoYou will have closed
Él / Ella
Usted
Habrá cerradoHe/She will have closed
You (formal) will have closed
NosotrosHabremos cerradoWe will have closed
VosotrosHabréis cerradoYou will have closed
Ellos / Ellas
Ustedes
Habrán cerradoThey will have closed
You (plural) will have closed

Conditional perfect

In the conditional perfect, cerrar allows you to talk about places that would have closed if a past condition had been fulfilled. For example: habríamos cerrado antes, pero no pudimos.

PersonConjugationTranslation
YoHabría cerradoI would have closed
Habrías cerradoYou would have closed
Él / Ella
Usted
Habría cerradoHe/She would have closed
You (formal) would have closed
NosotrosHabríamos cerradoWe would have closed
VosotrosHabríais cerradoYou would have closed
Ellos / Ellas
Ustedes
Habrían cerradoThey would have closed
You (plural) would have closed

Progressive tenses

The progressive tenses of ‘cerrar’ communicate that someone is closing something at the moment of speaking. For instance: ¿por qué están cerrando las ventanas? The progressive tenses are formed with the structure: estar (conjugated) + gerund form of cerrar (cerrando).

Progressive TenseFormulaTranslation Example
PresentEstar (present) + cerrandoI am closing
PreteriteEstar (preterite) + cerrandoYou were closing
ImperfectEstar (imperfect) + cerrandoHe was closing
FutureEstar (future) + cerrandoWe will be closing
ConditionalEstar (conditional) + cerrandoThey would be closing

Cerrar Subjunctive Conjugations

In Spanish, the subjunctive is used to talk about wishes, hypothetical situations or express uncertainty. The conjugation charts below show the subjunctive forms of cerrar.

Present subjunctive

Cerrar subjunctive conjugations express wishes, suggestions, expectations or uncertainties about closing a place. For instance: ojalá que cierren más tarde. The subjunctive forms of ‘cerrar’ have a stem change from E to IE for all subjects except ‘nosotros’ and ‘vosotros’.

PersonConjugationTranslation
YoCierreI close
CierresYou close
Él / Ella
Usted
CierreHe/She closes
You (formal) close
NosotrosCerremosWe close
VosotrosCerréisYou close
Ellos / Ellas
Ustedes
CierrenThey close
You (plural) close

Present perfect subjunctive

Haber in the present subjunctive + cerrado is the structure you should use to form the present perfect subjunctive of ‘cerrar’. With this tense, ‘cerrar’ is used to communicate uncertainty about closing something. ¿Crees que Juan haya cerrado las ventanas?

PersonConjugationTranslation
YoHaya cerradoI have closed
Hayas cerradoYou have closed
Él / Ella
Usted
Haya cerradoHe/She has closed
You (formal) have closed
NosotrosHayamos cerradoWe have closed
VosotrosHayáis cerradoYou have closed
Ellos / Ellas
Ustedes
Hayan cerradoThey have closed
You (plural) have closed

Imperfect subjunctive

Cerrar in the imperfect subjunctive is used to talk about things we wanted to close or to express past uncertainty about closing a place. For example: no sabía que cerraran tan temprano. 

The imperfect subjunctive has two conjugation models depending on which type of Spanish you’re using:

Latin American Spanish version

PersonConjugationTranslation
YoCerraraI closed
CerrarasYou closed
Él / Ella
Usted
CerraraHe/She closed
You (formal) closed
NosotrosCerráramosWe closed
Ellos / Ellas
Ustedes
CerraranThey closed
You (plural) closed

Note: The table above doesn’t include the conjugation for vosotros because this pronoun is not used in Latin American Spanish.

Castilian Spanish version

PersonConjugationTranslation
YoCerraseI closed
CerrasesYou closed
Él / Ella
Usted
CerraseHe/She closed
You (formal) closed
NosotrosCerrásemosWe closed
VosotrosCerraseisYou closed
Ellos / Ellas
Ustedes
CerrasenThey closed
You (plural) closed

Past perfect subjunctive

The past perfect subjunctive of cerrar expresses that someone would have closed a place if a past circumstance was met. You can also use this tense to communicate regret about not closing something. Si hubieras cerrado las ventanas, no habría entrado agua.

PersonConjugationTranslation
YoHubiera cerradoI had closed
Hubieras cerradoYou had closed
Él / Ella
Usted
Hubiera cerradoHe/She had closed
You (formal) had closed
NosotrosHubiéramos cerradoWe had closed
VosotrosHubierais cerradoYou had closed
Ellos / Ellas
Ustedes
Hubieran cerradoThey had closed
You (plural) had closed

Cerrar Imperative Conjugations

The Spanish imperative mood is used to instruct people on what to do (affirmative imperative) as well as what not to do (negative imperative).

Affirmative commands

The affirmative commands of cerrar allow you to order people to close something. With the exception of ‘vosotros’, the imperative forms of ‘cerrar’ have an E to IE stem change.

PersonConjugationTranslation
CierraClose
UstedCierreClose
VosotrosCerradClose
UstedesCierrenClose

Negative commands

We use the negative imperative to tell people to not close a thing or place. For example: no cierres la puerta. The negative commands of ‘cerrar’ are stem-changing conjugations with the exception of ‘vosotros’.

PersonConjugationTranslation
No cierresDon’t close
UstedNo cierreDon’t close
VosotrosNo cerréisDon’t close
UstedesNo cierrenDon’t close

Meanings of Cerrar & Examples

Cerrar is the direct translation of ‘to close’. So, now that you’ve learned cerrar conjugation charts, below are some examples of how to use this verb in Spanish. 

[Cerrar conjugated] + [complement]

¿Cerraste la llave?
Did you close the tap?

Chicos, no cerréis las ventanas.
Guys, don’t close the windows.

Ojalá Jesús cierre el trato.
Hopefully, Jesus closes the deal.

Si hubieras cerrado tu mochila, no habrías perdido tu cartera.
If you had closed your bag, you wouldn’t have lost your wallet.

Download Cerrar Conjugation Tables & Uses Cheat sheets

I’ve created a PDF that you can download which contains all of the conjugation tables, characteristics, and uses of ‘cerrar’ so you can study it anytime you choose!

Practice Quiz: Cerrar Conjugation

Now that you’ve learned how to conjugate cerrar in Spanish, you can practice your skills by taking the cerrar conjugation practice quiz.

Daniela Sanchez

¡Hola! Soy Daniela Sanchez, I've been studying Spanish professionally as well as teaching it in Mexico and online for over 10 years. I’ve taught Spanish to a wide array of foreigners from many backgrounds. Over the years, I've made it my mission to work hard on refining many challenging to understand grammar topics to make my students' learning experiences easier, faster and more enjoyable. Read More About Me

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