Traer Conjugation 101: Conjugate Traer In Spanish

Traer is an irregular -ER verb in Spanish. Because it’s also common for your conversations, in this article, we’ll review the most common traer conjugation patterns. Here’s a summary of what you’ll learn:

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

Overview of Traer

This verb means ‘to bring’, ‘to carry’, ‘to fetch’, ‘to have’, among other meanings. The traer conjugation charts only use one translation for organization purposes. You can learn more about the different applications of this verb in the Uses & Meanings section.

Indicative Conjugations of Traer

Present tense

Traer’s conjugation in the present tense is irregular for the subject pronoun ‘yo’. For this pronoun, we must use the stem traig. These traer conjugations are used to talk about what someone brings or carries. For example: No traigo cambio. 

Preterite tense

Traer preterite conjugations are irregular. To form this tense, we must use the stem traj for all subject pronouns and the preterite irregular endings. With these past tense conjugations, traer expresses that someone brought something. For example: ¿Trajeron leche? 

Imperfect tense

In this tense, this verb is regular. Use traer imperfect conjugations to explain what someone used to bring or carry for a long period of time in the past. For instance: Mi papá siempre nos traía dulces. 

Near future

Use ir’s present indicative conjugations + a + traer to create the immediate future in Spanish. As its name suggests, this tense conveys that a person is going to bring something in the immediate future. For example: Vamos a traer más comida. 

Future simple tense

The following traer conjugation chart shows that this verb is regular when conjugated to the future simple tense in Spanish. Use this tense to say that someone will bring or carry something. You can also use these forms to ask politely if people are carrying something. 

For example: ¿Traerás otra pluma?

Conditional tense

When conjugated to the conditional tense, traer expresses that someone would bring something. For example: Mi papá dijo que él traería la cena. 

Present perfect tense

In the Spanish present perfect tense, traer communicates whether someone has brought something or not. To build this perfect tense, use haber in present form + traído (past participle). For example: ¿Quién no ha traído su aplicación?

Take Note: Past participles are accented in Spanish when the root of the verb ends in a vowel.  

Past perfect

Traer past perfect conjugations convey that someone had or hadn’t brought something before a past moment or action. The elements you must use to conjugate this tense are haber’s imperfect conjugations + past participle verb (traído).  

For example: ¿Ya habías traído a tu novio?

Future perfect

Conjugate traer to the future perfect tense to say that someone will have brought something by or before a future point in time. For example: Para el lunes, todos habrán traído su proyecto. 

Conditional perfect

In Spanish, we conjugate traer to the conditional perfect tense to say that a person would have brought something or someone else. For example: Habríamos traído más comida si hubiéramos sabido que estaban aquí. 

Progressive tenses

The estar conjugations + trayendo (present participle) allow you to form progressive tenses in Spanish. These traer conjugations emphasize that someone is bringing something at the moment of speaking. Apenas estamos trayendo nuestras cosas. 

Take Note: In Spanish, we use the present participle ending yendo only when the verb’s root ends in a vowel. Leer and oír are examples of verbs that also follow this rule. 

Traer Subjunctive Conjugations

In Spanish, you can use the subjunctive mood to communicate requests, suggestions, doubts, expectations, hypothetical situations, or desires someone has. In the coming sections, we’ll go over traer conjugation charts for the key subjunctive tenses. 

Present subjunctive

The traer subjunctive conjugations are irregular. To form this tense, we must use the stem traig. Use these traer conjugations to request, hope, or advise someone to bring something. For example: No quiero que traigan a sus amigos a mi casa. 

Present perfect subjunctive

The present perfect subjunctive in Spanish is formed with haber subjunctive conjugations + traído. This tense allows you to wish that someone has brought something. For instance: Ojalá que Cecilia no haya traído a su novio. 

Imperfect subjunctive

To form the imperfect subjunctive in Spanish, use the irregular stem traje. These traer subjunctive conjugations refer to past desires, demands, or requests you had about someone bringing something. For example: Les dije que no trajeran nada. 

Latin American and Castilian Spanish use different conjugation models for the imperfect subjunctive tense: 

Latin American Spanish version

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

Castilian Spanish version

Past perfect subjunctive

If you want to express that someone would have brought something as long as a past condition had occurred, you must conjugate this verb to the past perfect subjunctive. These traer conjugations also show regret for having brought something or not. ¡Hubieran traído más leche! 

Traer Imperative Conjugations

A verb conjugated to imperative mood in Spanish is used to command people to perform or not perform an action.  

Affirmative commands

Traer conjugated to the affirmative imperative allows you to order someone to bring something. Notice that these conjugations use the irregular stem traig for the subject pronouns ‘usted’ and ‘ustedes’. Traigan esas cajas, por favor. 

Negative commands

The negative imperative conjugations of traer use the stem traig for all subject pronouns. When using these forms, you’re ordering people not to bring something or someone to a place. No traigas más galletas, tenemos muchas. 

Meanings of Traer & Examples

So far, we’ve learned how to conjugate traer in Spanish. In this section, we’ll review some examples of how to use this verb. Depending on the type or words used and context, traer can mean to: 

• Bring or fetch
• Have or carry 
• Be up to (with pronominal pronouns)

[Traer conjugated] + [complement]

Tráela, Ruffus. 
Fetch it, Ruffus. 

¿Qué se traen ustedes dos?
What are you two up to?

Yo siempre traigo dinero extra. 
I always carry extra money. 

Les traje estos chocolates suizos. 
I brought you these Swiss chocolates. 

Take Note: Traer uses direct objects when saying that you’re fetching or bringing something. However, if you’re bringing something to someone, u must use indirect object pronouns. 

Download Traer Conjugation Charts & Uses Cheat sheet

Traer is an important and very common -ER verb in Spanish. It’s also an irregular verb, since it has its own unique patterns. Feel free to download the traer PDF cheat sheet containing all the conjugation charts as well as its meanings and example sentences. It could help you as a quick reference when applying it to your Spanish conversations.

Download Conjugations PDF

Practice Quiz: Traer Conjugation

You’ve now seen how to conjugate traer in all of the essential Spanish tenses. The key to mastering irregular verbs like this one is by putting it to use. You can start achieving that and become more confident using it by taking the traer conjugation practice quiz.

Take Quiz