Vestirse Conjugation 101: Conjugate Vestirse In Spanish

Vestirse is one of the most common reflexive verbs in Spanish. This verb is used in daily conversations and can help you practice a reflexive conjugation with an E to I stem change. So, in this guide, we’ll review the most important vestirse conjugation charts. Here is what you’ll learn: 

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

Overview of Vestirse

Indicative Conjugations of Vestirse

Present tense

Vestirse conjugation in the present tense has an E to I stem change that doesn’t affect the subject pronouns ‘nosotros’ and ‘vosotros’. Notice that this reflexive conjugation uses reflexive pronouns. 

Use this tense to express that someone gets dressed. For example: Yo me visto muy temprano. 

Preterite tense

Vestirse preterite conjugations change the E for an I only for the third-person singular and plural. Conjugate this verb to the preterite tense to say that a person got dressed at some point in the past. For instance: Mi hermanita se vistió sola. 

Imperfect tense

In the past imperfect tense, this verb has no stem changes. However, to form vestirse’s reflexive conjugations, you must place the corresponding reflexive pronoun before the verb. Use the imperfect conjugations to explain how a person used to get dressed. 

Here is an example: Siempre nos vestíamos después de desayunar. 

Near future

In Spanish, the immediate future conveys that someone is going to get dressed soon in the future. A reflexive pronoun + ir in the present tense + a + vestir is the formula to build these tenses. For instance: Espérame, me voy a vestir. 

Take Note: When a conjugated verb precedes a Spanish infinitive verb, pronouns can be placed before the first verb or attached to the infinitive. Me voy a vestir or voy a vestirme are equally correct. 

Future simple tense

When conjugated to the future simple tense, this verb communicates that someone will get dressed at some time in the future. For example: Las modelos se vestirán en una hora. 

Conditional tense

Use the conditional conjugations of vestirse to convey that someone would get dressed. For example: ¿Cómo te vestirías para ir a una boda?

Present perfect tense

To create the present perfect in Spanish, you must use a reflexive pronoun +  haber present forms + the past participle of ‘vestir’ (vestido). Use these vestirse reflexive conjugations to express that someone has gotten dressed. For example: Espéranos, todavía no nos hemos vestido. 

Take Note: With perfect tenses (tenses formed with the verb haber), the reflexive pronoun must always be placed before the conjugated verb (haber). 

Past perfect

The past perfect tense of vestirse expresses that someone had or hadn’t gotten dressed before a past event or reference point. This tense is formed with haber imperfect conjugations + vestido. For example: Cuando llegué a su casa, mi novia ya se había vestido.

Future perfect

Vestirse conjugated to the future perfect is used to say that a person will have gotten dressed by or before a future action or time. Here is an example: Me pregunto si los niños ya se habrán vestido. 

Conditional perfect

If you conjugate it to the conditional perfect tense, this verb allows you to convey that someone would have gotten dressed if a past condition had taken place. Check this sentence: Si hubiera sabido que ibas a llegar temprano, me habría vestido antes. 

Progressive tenses

The formula to build the progressive tenses is estar conjugations + vistiendo (present participle of vestir). In this case, vestirse reflexive conjugations require placing the pronoun before ‘estar’ or attaching it to the present participle. 

Use the progressive tenses to say that someone is getting dressed at the moment of speaking. For example: Mis primas se están vistiendo. 

Take Note: Present participles can also have stem changes. In the case of vestirse, this would be an E to I change. To learn more about this, check my guide on irregularities and stem changes in present participles in Spanish. 

Vestirse Subjunctive Conjugations

The subjunctive mood expresses someone’s demands, requests, recommendations, doubts, wishes, expectations, or hypothetical scenarios. Below you’ll find a vestirse conjugation chart for each of the key subjunctive tenses in Spanish. 

Present subjunctive

The present subjunctive conjugations of vestirse have an E to I stem change for all subject pronouns. Use this tense to request, advise, or wish someone gets dressed. Mi mamá quiere que me vista más formalmente. 

Present perfect subjunctive

In Spanish, the present perfect subjunctive is formed with a reflexive pronoun + subjunctive conjugations of haber + vestido. This tense allows you to say that you wish or are unsure whether someone has gotten dressed. ¿Crees que Carolina ya se haya vestido?

Imperfect subjunctive

This verb’s imperfect subjunctive forms also have an E to I change. Check the vestirse conjugation charts below to see how this change is applied. Use this tense to refer to past suggestions, demands, or expectations related to something getting dressed. 

Here is an example: La maestra nos pidió que nos vistiéramos de negro. 

Depending on whether you’re learning Latin American or Castilian Spanish, the imperfect subjunctive has two conjugation models:

Latin American Spanish version

Note: In Latin American Spanish, the pronoun vosotros is not used. As a result, it has not been included in the vestirse conjugation chart above.  

Castilian Spanish version

Past perfect subjunctive

In Spanish, the past perfect subjunctive of ‘vestirse’ is used to convey that someone would have gotten dressed if a past condition had occurred. You can also show regret for dressing in a certain way. For example: Si te hubieras vestido antes, hubiéramos llegado a tiempo. 

Vestirse Imperative Conjugations

In Spanish, we conjugate a verb to the imperative form to order people to do or not do something. 

Affirmative commands

In the affirmative imperative form, this verb has an E to I change which doesn’t apply to ‘vosotros’. These commands are used to order people to get dressed. In this mood, vestirse reflexive conjugation requires you to attach the reflexive pronoun to the conjugated verb. 

For instance: Vístete, tenemos que irnos. 

Negative commands

On the other hand, if you wish to order someone not to get dressed, you must use vestirse negative imperatives. These conjugations have an E to I stem change for all subject pronouns, and you must also place the pronoun before the conjugated verb. No se vistan de negro.

Meanings of Vestirse & Examples

In the previous sections, we learned how to conjugate vestirse in Spanish. Depending on context, vestirse can be translated as ‘dress‘, ‘get dressed‘, ‘wear‘ or ‘dress up‘. Here are some examples of how to use this verb. 

[Vestirse conjugated] + [complemente]

Tus hermanas se visten muy bien. 
Your sisters dress very well. 

Nos pidieron que nos vistiéramos de blanco. 
They asked us to wear white. 

Yo me visto antes de desayunar. 
I get dressed before having breakfast. 

Take Note: Vestirse reflexive conjugation implies that people are putting clothes on themselves. If you remove the Spanish reflexive pronoun, you’re expressing that a person is dressing someone else (yo visto a la bebé – I dress the baby). In this case, you can use direct object pronouns to replace the person you’re dressing. 

Download Vestirse Conjugation Charts & Uses Cheat sheet

Vestirse is a common -IR verb that you need to get familiar with in order to become fluent in Spanish. Since it’s a reflexive verb, it can be tricky for beginners to learn its conjugation patterns and placing reflexive pronouns. I’ve assembled a PDF cheat sheet you can download which has all the vestirse conjugation charts as well as real-world example sentences so you can see how to use it in your conversations.

Download Conjugations PDF

Practice Quiz: Vestirse Conjugation

You’ve now seen how to conjugate vestirse. Next, consider taking the vestirse conjugation quiz to practice this reflexive verb and commit it to memory.

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