Oír conjugation: Every tense, every mood, and a bunch of examples

If you’re learning Spanish, you’re likely to encounter the verb oír quite frequently. As one of the most common verbs in the language, oír is usually interpreted in English as to hear. It’s just as common in both written and spoken contexts.

To effectively communicate in Spanish, it’s important to master oír conjugation in all the tenses. Although oír is an irregular verb that belongs to the GO verbs in Spanish, it doesn’t have to be difficult to learn.

In this post we’ll guide you through the conjugation of oír in every tense, providing examples and explanations to help you use it confidently in your Spanish conversations.

Let’s hear this! – ¡Oigamos esto!

Oír meanings

Before we get into our oír conjugation, let’s take a brief look at the main meanings of oír.

To hear

As we mentioned above, the verb oír in Spanish is generally translated as to hear, referring to the act of perceiving sound through the ears.

• Oigo a los pájaros cantar en mi ventana cada mañana. – I hear the birds sing at my window every morning.

To listen

In some cases, oír can also be translated as to listen.

• Ella estaba oyendo música cuando llegaste. – She was listening to music when you arrived.

Note that a better translation for to listen in Spanish is usually the verb escuchar. Still, escuchar and oír can both be translated as to hear and to listen, so exploring their usage in context is helpful to keep the two straight. Check out our post on escuchar vs oír for a detailed explanation on their key differences and when to use each one.

To listen up, To give attention to, To pay attention to

Oír can have these nuances of not only audibly hearing a message, but also responding with some deference to what is heard.

• Oye a la profesora cuando te habla, Marcela. – Give your attention to the teacher when she talks to you, Marcela.

• No oigas esas críticas; tu dibujo quedó genial. – Don’t pay any attention to those critics; your design was great.

To obey

Similar to the previous use where we use oír in Spanish to listen to what someone tells us, it can have an even stronger meaning in contexts where there’s some authority figure involved. While the translation may still be to listen, the subtext is that there’s an obligation to follow whatever directive has been heard.

• No quería entregar el documento sin las firmas, pero tuve que oír a mi supervisor y seguir sus órdenes. – I didn’t want to deliver the document without the signatures, but I had to listen to my supervisor and follow his orders.

Oír conjugation

Okay, now let’s get down to the main content of this post: Spanish oír conjugation. We’ll divide these sections by moods and tenses, with a complete conjugation chart of each and every one. We’ll also provide plenty of examples to make sure everything’s all clear.

Let’s get started!

Oír: Indicative mood

The Spanish indicative mood is used to talk about factual or definite information or states.

In this section we’ll cover the conjugation of oír in all the tenses used in the indicative mood, including present, preterite, imperfect, conditional, and future, as well as all the perfect forms.

Oír present tense conjugation

As we mentioned in the introduction, oír is what’s recognized as a Spanish GO verb. This means that we need to add a -g before the -o ending in the first-person singular yo conjugation.

However, beyond this first-person singular change, note that several of the other present tense oír conjugations have additional stem changes. These changes are all due to a phonological principle of the language, meaning that we modify the spelling to aid in pronunciation.

In Spanish, the unstressed -i- between vowels always becomes -y-. For that reason, for subjects where the regular conjugation pattern would result in ‑oie, the -i- is replaced by a -y-. This phenomenon is not exclusive to the present indicative; indeed, we’ll see it again in our oír conjugation in several other tenses.

Subject	Oír conjugation present tense
Yo	oigo
Tú	oyes
Él, Ella, Usted	oye
Nosotros, Nosotras	oímos
Vosotros, Vosotras	oís
Ellos, Ellas, Ustedes	oyen

• Ella no oye nada cuando usa esos audífonos. – She can’t hear anything when she wears those headphones.

• Vosotros oís las noticias en la radio antes de ir a trabajar. – You listen to the news on the radio before going to work.

• ¿Oyes ese ruido que viene de la cocina? – Do you hear that noise coming from the kitchen?

To better understand this tense and its uses, we recommend our simple present tense post. We also have a very cool post on GO verbs in Spanish that provides more explanations on this rule, and introduces many other verbs similar to oír.

Oír preterite conjugation

The past tense conjugation of oír is relatively simple. The only thing you have to watch out for is the phonological principle we discussed above of the -i- between vowels: in the preterite conjugation of oír, for all subjects where the regular conjugation pattern would result in -oie or -oio, the -i- is replaced by a -y-.

Check our post on how to master the Spanish preterite in minutes to learn more about this tense.

Subject	Oír preterite tense conjugation
Yo	oí
Tú	oíste
Él, Ella, Usted	oyó
Nosotros, Nosotras	oímos
Vosotros, Vosotras	oísteis
Ellos, Ellas, Ustedes	oyeron

• Jorge oyó a Luis decir que iba a renunciar a su trabajo – Jorge heard Luis saying that he was going to quit his job.

• ¿Oyeron lo que dijo esa actriz sobre su primera película? – Did you hear what that actress said about her first film?

• ¡Ya llegaste! No te oí entrar. – You’re home! I didn’t hear you come in.

Oír imperfect conjugation

For the imperfect past conjugation of oír, the stem remains oí- for all the subjects: we don’t have any -i- to -y- changes, even though there is an -í- between two vowels. This happens because the -í- is stressed, as demonstrated by the accent mark.

Subject	Oír imperfect conjugation
Yo	oía
Tú	oías
Él, Ella, Usted	oías
Nosotros, Nosotras	oíamos
Vosotros, Vosotras	oíais
Ellos, Ellas, Ustedes	oían

• Cuando iba a la escuela, siempre oía a la maestra y hacía todo lo que me pedía. – When I attended school, I always listened to the teacher and did everything she asked me to do.

• Mi perro no oía nada antes de su operación. Ahora tiene muy buen oído. – My dog could not hear anything before his operation. Now he has very good hearing.

• ¿Usted oía al Sr. Mario salir en su auto todas las mañanas? – Did you hear Mr. Mario leaving in his car every morning?

We have a good beginner’s guide to the Spanish imperfect tense if you want a refresher on when to use this one, since we know that sometimes Spanish learners have some difficulty choosing the right past tense. If you’re unsure on which oír past tense conjugation to use, we can also refer you to our easy anti-confusion guide to preterite vs imperfect tenses.

Oír conditional tense

The conditional conjugation of oír is very straightforward. Just take the infinitive, add the proper ending for each subject, and that’s it!

The important detail to notice is that the accent is moved from its original placement in the infinitive, since only one Spanish accent mark can be present in a given word.

Subject	Oír conjugation conditional
Yo	oiría
Tú	oirías
Él, Ella, Usted	oiría
Nosotros, Nosotras	oiríamos
Vosotros, Vosotras	oiríais
Ellos, Ellas, Ustedes	oirían

• Tu hermanito te oiría si fueras más amable con él. – Your little brother would listen to you if you were nicer to him.

• ¿Oirías el poema que escribí para mi clase de literatura? – Would you listen to the poem I wrote for my literature class?

• Oiríamos mejor si no hubiese tanto ruido. – We would hear better if there weren’t so much noise.

Check out our beginner’s guide to conditional Spanish for a full introduction to this tense, and all the rules on the formation of the Spanish conditional.

Oír future tense

The indicative future tense is also very hassle-free. The oír conjugation is regular and follows the same pattern as other regular -ir verbs in Spanish.

Subject	Oír future conjugation
Yo	oiré
Tú	oirás
Él, Ella, Usted	oirá
Nosotros, Nosotras	oiremos
Vosotros, Vosotras	oiréis
Ellos, Ellas, Ustedes	oirán

• Oirán las noticias cuando estén preparados para hacerlo. – They’ll hear the news when they’re ready to do so.

• No oiré una palabra más hasta que te hayas disculpado. – I won’t hear another word until you’ve apologized.

• ¿Oirás cómo suena tu voz en el micrófono antes de salir a cantar? – Will you hear how your voice sounds on the microphone before you go out to sing?

For further info and details about this tense, take a look at our post on future tense Spanish.

Compound tenses

Below is the Spanish oír conjugation chart for perfect tenses in Spanish. The compound indicative tenses of oír are formed by conjugating the auxiliary verb haber and adding the past participle of oír.

The past participle of oír is oído. You can check out our post on the Spanish past participle for more information about this verb form in Spanish.

When used in progressive tenses, the gerund of oír is oyendo. Again, the formation of the gerund obeys the phonological rule of the unstressed ‑i- between vowels becoming -y-.

Subject	Present perfect	Past perfect	Perfect future	Perfect conditional
Yo	he oído	había oído	habrá oído	habría oído
Tú	has oído	habías oído	habrás oído	habrías oído
Él, Ella, Usted	ha oído	había oído	habrá oído	habría oído
Nosotros, Nosotras	hemos oído	habíamos oído	habremos oído	habríamos oído
Vosotros, Vosotras	habéis oído	habíais oído	habréis oído	habríais oído
Ellos, Ellas, Ustedes	han oído	habían oído	habrán oído	habrían oído

• Los trabajadores han oído que llegará un nuevo coordinador a la empresa. – The employees have heard that a new coordinator is coming to the company.

• Ya habíamos oído esa canción antes, canta otra. – We had heard that song before, sing another one.

• Para cuando se estrene la película oficialmente, todos habrán oído de ella. – By the time the film is officially released, everyone will have heard of it.

• Si hubieseis venido, habríais oído el emotivo discurso que dio el sacerdote. – If you had come, you would have heard the moving speech given by the priest.

For detailed explanations about each of these perfect tenses in the indicative mood, you can refer to our specific articles on present perfect Spanish, past perfect Spanish, future perfect Spanish, and the Spanish conditional. Additionally, we have another post where we introduce the auxiliary verb haber.

Subjunctive mood

The Spanish subjunctive mood is commonly used to express uncertainty, possibility, desire, need, and doubt. It is essential for conversational fluency in Spanish as it is used all the time. Its use is not very common in English, so it can be tricky for learners. We won’t go into too much detail about this verb tense in this section, but we recommend you take a look at our post on the Spanish subjunctive simplified for beginners for a more comprehensive understanding of the subjunctive.

Now, let’s take a look at oír subjunctive conjugation.

Oír present subjunctive

To conjugate oír in the present subjunctive tense, all we have to do is take the stem from the first person singular yo conjugation, and then add the proper ending according to the subject. Remember that oír is a go verb whose first-person singular conjugation is yo oigo, so its present subjunctive stem is oig-.

For more on how and when to use this tense, check our post on present subjunctive Spanish.

Subject	Oír conjugation subjunctive
Yo	oiga
Tú	oigas
Él, Ella, Usted	oiga
Nosotros, Nosotras	oigamos
Vosotros, Vosotras	oigáis
Ellos, Ellas, Ustedes	oigan

• Están muy lejos, ¿crees que nos oigan? – They are very far, do you think they can hear us?

• No creo que de verdad oigas a tus padres si son tan estrictos contigo y no con tu hermano. – I don’t think you really listen to your parents if they are so strict with you and not with your brother.

• Ojalá nunca oigamos esas palabras de nuevo. – I hope we never hear those words again.

The subjunctive is often triggered by specific words and phrases, and ojalá is a very common one. We go into more detail on this expression and on this phenomenon in our post on the subjunctive trigger word ojalá.

Oír imperfect subjunctive

Because of the phonological principle we mentioned previously, the stem for the oír in the imperfect subjunctive is oy-. Additionally, oír has two different forms in the imperfect subjunctive tense that are equally used, so we provide both of them in our imperfect subjunctive oír conjugation chart.

Check out our dedicated post for a comprehensive explanation of the Spanish imperfect subjunctive.

Subject	Oír imperfect subjunctive
Yo	oyera / oyese
Tú	oyeras / oyeses
Él, Ella, Usted	oyera / oyese
Nosotros, Nosotras	oyéramos / oyésemos
Vosotros, Vosotras	oyerais / oyeseis
Ellos, Ellas, Ustedes	oyeran / oyesen

• Si oyeras con atención, no tendría que repetir las instrucciones de nuevo. – If you listened carefully, I wouldn’t have to repeat the instructions again.

• Si oyeran a sus padres, no se meterían en problemas todo el tiempo. – If you listened to your parents, you wouldn’t get in trouble all the time.

• Si oyerais música más alegre, estaríais de mejor humor. – If you listened to happier music, you would be in a better mood.

Oír future subjunctive

Again, the stem for oír in the future subjunctive is oy-. It’s important to note that nowadays this tense is not commonly used in Spanish, and other tenses are preferred depending on the context. However, it can still be found in historic works of literature and religious books.

Subject	Oír future subjunctive
Yo	oyere
Tú	oyeres
Él, Ella, Usted	oyere
Nosotros, Nosotras	oyéremos
Vosotros, Vosotras	oyereis
Ellos, Ellas, Ustedes	oyeren

• Cualquier miembro que oyere noticias sobre aquel hombre y no lo comunicare al Consejo, recibirá un castigo. – Any member who hears news about that man and does not report it to the Council shall be punished.

• Si los héroes no oyeren la campana repicar al tercer día, deberán volver a su tierra despojados de su riqueza. – If the heroes do not hear the bell ring on the third day, they must return to their land stripped of their wealth.

• Aunque ustedes hablaren y no los oyeren, no deberán sentir angustia. – Even if you speak, and they do not hear you, you shall not be distressed.

Compound oír subjunctive conjugation

Similar to what we observed in the indicative mood’s compound conjugations, the perfect forms in the subjunctive mood also require the conjugated form of the auxiliary verb haber and the past participle of oír, which is oído. As with all pluperfect subjunctive conjugations, we include both possible forms of haber.

Subject	Perfect subjunctive	Pluperfect subjunctive
Yo	haya oído	hubiera / hubiese oído
Tú	hayas oído	hubieras / hubieses oído
Él, Ella, Usted	haya oído	hubiera / hubiese oído
Nosotros, Nosotras	hayamos oído	hubiéramos / hubiésemos oído
Vosotros, Vosotras	hayáis oído	hubierais / hubieseis oído
Ellos, Ellas, Ustedes	hayan oído	hubieran / hubiesen oído

• Que triste que no hayamos oído el concierto por las fallas de sonido. – How sad that we didn’t hear the concert because of the sound failures.

• Ojalá no hayan oído lo que dijo mamá de ellos durante la cena. – Hopefully they didn’t hear what Mom said about them at dinner.

• Si me hubieras oído cuando te lo advertí, no te habrías quedado sin cupo para hacer el curso de verano. – If you had listened to me when I warned you, you wouldn’t have been left without a chance to take the summer course.

• ¿Qué habríais hecho si hubieseis oído a Claudia decir esas cosas? – What would you have done if you had heard Claudia say those things?

Imperative mood

The imperative mood is a verb form that is used to express commands, requests, or instructions. It’s important to keep in mind that the subject is always omitted in the sentence and that it’s not conjugated with all the subjects. For more in-depth info, take a look at our post on Spanish commands: The imperative mood made simple.

Spanish speakers use this form of oír as an interjection, similar to how you might use hey in English.

Now, let’s take a look at the oír imperative conjugation. Note that tú and vosotros have two distinct imperative conjugations: one for the affirmative imperative and another for the negative. We include these negative imperative conjugations in parentheses below.

Personal pronoun	Oír imperative
[Tú]	oye (no oigas)
[Usted]	oiga
[Nosotros, Nosotras]	oigan
[Vosotros, Vosotras]	oíd (no oigáis)
[Ustedes]	oigan

• Oye a tus abuelos cuando te hablan, hijo. – Listen to your grandparents when they talk to you, son.

• No oigas esa música tan ruidosa, por favor. – Don’t listen to that noisy music, please.

• Oye, ¿has visto mi reloj? No recuerdo dónde lo dejé. – Hey, have you seen my watch? I can’t remember where I left it.

Conclusion

We’ve worked hard today to cover every Spanish oír conjugation, and hard work always pays off. Now, it’s time to wrap it all up.

First, we took a brief look at the main meanings of oír. In most contexts, it translates into English as to hear or to listen, but depending on the context, it may have more nuanced meanings such as to obey or to pay attention to.

We saw that oír is a GO verb in Spanish, resulting in the addition of a -g- before the -o ending of the first-person singular yo conjugation in the present indicative. We also saw that it takes an additional stem change from oi- to oy- wherever the regular conjugation pattern would result in an unstressed -i- between two vowels.

Then, we went through every tense from every Spanish mood, and provided a complete oír conjugation chart for each one. Although we provided lots of example sentences, we didn’t go too deep on how to use the individual tenses, though we provided plenty of links to our posts on each one. We can also recommend our comprehensive post on all the Spanish verb tenses for a broad overview!

Hope that you found this post helpful. Bookmark it so you can easily come back and brush up on any given oír conjugation in the future. See you in our next post!

Oír conjugation exercises

Before we go, how about putting into practice what you’ve learned today about the conjugation of oír?

Give the appropriate oír conjugation based on the mood and tense in parenthesis. The solutions and translations are provided below.

1. ¿Ustedes _____ lo que dijo el profesor Juan ayer? (indicative: preterite)

2. Esos niños gritan tanto que no _____ cuando su mamá los llama. (indicative: present)

3. Creo que yo _____ algo sobre ese libro antes, pero no estoy seguro. (indicative: present perfect)

4. Si Enrique no estuviera parado tan lejos, seguro que me _____. (indicative: conditional)

5. ¿Le contaste a Luis Miguel que nosotros siempre _____ sus canciones cuando éramos niños? (indicative: imperfect)

6. Supongo que vosotros _____ el programa de radio apenas se emita. (inidicative: future)

7. ¿Tú ya _____ las instrucciones antes de tomar el examen? (indicative: past perfect)

8. Quizá nosotros nunca _____ una voz tan bonita como la de Martina. (subjunctive: present)

9. Si tú _____ las ocurrencias de mi sobrina, no dejarías de reír. (subjunctive: imperfect)

10. Si yo _____ antes que hay descuentos en electrodomésticos en esa tienda, habría comprado el televisor allí. (subjunctive: pluperfect)

Answers

1. ¿Ustedes oyeron lo que dijo el profesor Juan ayer? – Did you hear what Professor Juan said yesterday?

2. Esos niños gritan tanto que no oyen cuando su mamá los llama. – Those kids scream so loudly that they don’t hear when their mom calls them.

3. Creo que yo he oído algo sobre ese libro antes, pero no estoy seguro. – I think I’ve heard something about that book before, but I’m not sure.

4. Si Enrique no estuviera parado tan lejos, seguro que me oiría. – If Enrique weren’t standing so far away, surely he would hear me.

5. ¿Le contaste a Luis Miguel que nosotros siempre oíamos sus canciones cuando éramos niños? – Did you tell Luis Miguel that we always listened to his songs when we were kids?

6. Supongo que vosotros oiréis el programa de radio apenas se emita. – I guess you will hear the radio program as soon as it is broadcasted.

7. ¿Tú ya habías oído las instrucciones antes de tomar el examen? – Had you already heard the instructions before taking the test?

8. Quizá nosotros nunca oigamos una voz tan bonita como la de Martina. – Perhaps we will never hear a voice as beautiful as Martina’s.

9. Si tú oyeras las ocurrencias de mi sobrina, no dejarías de reír. – If you heard my niece’s jokes, you wouldn’t stop laughing.

10. Si yo hubiera oído antes que hay descuentos en electrodomésticos en esa tienda, habría comprado el televisor allí. – If I had heard earlier that there are discounts on appliances at that store, I would have bought the TV there.