Trabajar Conjugation 101: Conjugate Trabajar In Spanish

Trabajar conjugation patterns are great for practicing and reinforcing the conjugation of -AR verbs in Spanish. As a result, in this guide, you’ll learn how to conjugate this verb. Here is a quick summary of what we’ll cover:

• Trabajar Overview
• Indicative Tenses of Trabajar 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 Trabajar Conjugations 
  • Present Subjunctive tense
  • Present Perfect Subjunctive tense
  • Imperfect Subjunctive tense
  • Past Perfect Subjunctive tense
• Imperative (Commands) of Trabajar Conjugations
  • Affirmative Commands
  • Negative Commands
• Uses & Examples
• Download Trabajar Conjugation Tables & Uses Cheat sheets
• Trabajar Conjugation Practice Quiz

Overview of Trabajar

Indicative Conjugations of Trabajar

Present tense

The present tense conjugations of trabajar are used to talk about a person’s current job or work they perform. They can describe where people work or what their profession is. For instance: ¿En qué trabaja tu esposa?

Preterite tense

Trabajar preterite conjugations are regular. Conjugate this verb to the past preterite tense to talk about a person’s work at a specific moment in the past. For example: En 1995, Tom trabajó conmigo.

Imperfect tense

Use trabajar in the imperfect indicative form to describe someone’s work in the past. These descriptions can refer to their job position, the quality of their job, or where they used to work. For example: Mi hermana trabajaba con mi abuela. 

Near future

Use the structure ir (present tense) + a + infinitive (in this case, ‘trabajar’) to conjugate the Spanish near or immediate future. These forms of ‘trabajar’ convey that someone is about to go to work. Mañana no vamos a trabajar. 

Future simple tense

Trabajar future tense conjugations express that people will work on something or a certain way at some point in the future. Here is an example: Mañana trabajaremos todo el día. 

Conditional tense

In the Spanish conditional tense, trabajar is used to express that people would work. If needed, you can add circumstances that need to be met for people to work on something or in a certain place. For instance: Yo nunca trabajaría aquí. 

Present perfect tense

The Spanish present perfect indicative is formed with the structure haber in the present tense + trabajado (past participle). Use these conjugations to talk about where or how people have or haven’t worked. For instance: Nunca hemos trabajado tan tarde. 

Past perfect

Conjugate trabajar to the Spanish past perfect to express that people had worked somewhere or with another person before another prior action or point in the past. For example: ¿Ya habías trabajado aquí?

Future perfect

In the future perfect tense, trabajar communicates that someone will have worked by or before a certain point in the future. For example: Este mes, habré trabajado todos los fines de semana. 

Conditional perfect

When conjugated to the Spanish conditional perfect tense, trabajar is used to express that someone would have worked somewhere if a past condition had been met. You can also use this tense to make hypotheses that are difficult to accomplish about a person’s work. 

For example: Si te hubieran ofrecido más dinero, ¿habrías trabajado aquí? 

Progressive tenses

The progressive tenses of trabajar allow you to express that someone is working at the moment of speaking. Or, in the case of past forms (preterite and imperfect), to communicate that a past action was in progress when someone was working. 

The progressive tenses are formed with estar + trabajando (present participle). Here is a sentence: ¿Estabas trabajando?

Trabajar Subjunctive Conjugations

The Spanish subjunctive allows you to express wishes, doubt or hypothetical situations. Below are the trabajar conjugation charts for the subjunctive tenses.

Present subjunctive

Trabajar present subjunctive conjugations express hopes, wishes, or requests related to a person working. For example: Quiero que trabajen todo el día. 

Present perfect subjunctive

Haber in the present subjunctive + trabajado is the formula we use to conjugate ‘trabajar’ to the present perfect subjunctive. These conjugations are used to wonder or wish that a person has worked in a certain way or somewhere. For example: Dudo que Luis haya trabajado todo el día. 

Imperfect subjunctive

Use the imperfect subjunctive conjugations of ‘trabajar’ to refer to past suggestions, requests, wishes, or expectations you had about a person working. Esperaba que no trabajaras hoy.

Depending on the type of Spanish you use, there are two conjugation models for the imperfect subjunctive:

Latin American Spanish version

Note: In Latin American Spanish, the pronoun vosotros is not used. As a result, we’ve omitted this pronoun from the previous conjugation table. 

Castilian Spanish version

Past perfect subjunctive

The past perfect subjunctive of trabajar communicates that someone would have worked if a past condition was met. We also use this tense to talk about regrets related to working. For example: Si hubieras trabajado aquí, habrías ganado más dinero. 

Trabajar Imperative Conjugations

To give orders to people, we must use the imperative tense in Spanish. 

Affirmative commands

Use trabajar’s affirmative commands to order someone to work. For instance: Trabaja más duro. 

Negative commands

To order people not to work, you must conjugate trabajar to the negative imperative. For example: Papá, no trabajes más, descansa. 

Meanings of Trabajar & Examples

Now that you’ve learned how to conjugate trabajar in Spanish, you should check these examples to see how to use this verb in real-world contexts.

[Trabajar conjugated] + [complement]

Mañana trabajamos hasta las 10. 
Tomorrow, we work until 10. 

¿Tú trabajarías de maestra? 
Would you work as a teacher? 

Sally siempre ha trabajado en este hospital. 
Sally has always worked at this hospital. 

Take Note: You can combine trabajar with Spanish prepositions to deliver different meanings, such as schedules, work positions, and workplaces. 

Download Trabajar Conjugation Charts & Uses Cheat sheets

I’ve created a PDF with the trabajar conjugation tables for future reference if you need a refresher on all of this verb’s tenses. It also includes its uses and real-world examples.

Download Conjugations PDF

Practice Quiz: Trabajar Conjugation

Now that you know how to conjugate trabajar in Spanish, you can master this verb by taking the trabajar conjugation practice quiz. This can help you commit all of this verb’s forms to memory.

Take Quiz