criar Present Conjugation
criar — to raise
The present tense of criar features a hiatus, meaning the 'i' takes a mandatory accent in most forms: crío, crías, cría, crían.
criar Present Forms
When to Use the Present
Use the present to describe how someone is currently raising a child, a pet, or even plants as a habit or general truth.
Notes on criar in the Present
The 'i' in the stem carries an accent (crío) to break the diphthong and keep the stress on the 'i'. The nosotros and vosotros forms do not have this accent.
Example Sentences
Yo crío gallinas en mi granja.
I raise chickens on my farm.
yo
Tú crías a tus hijos con mucha paciencia.
You raise your children with a lot of patience.
tú
Nosotros criamos perros de rescate.
We raise rescue dogs.
nosotros
Common Mistakes
Mistake: Writing 'crio' instead of 'crío'.
Correct: crío
Why: Without the accent, the 'i' and 'o' blend into one syllable. The accent is needed to make the 'i' its own stressed syllable.
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Related Tenses
Preterite
yo: crié
The preterite of criar is regular but requires accents on the 'i' and 'o' for the yo and él forms: crié, criaste, crió.
Imperfect
yo: criaba
The imperfect of criar is regular: criaba, criabas, criaba, criábamos, criabais, criaban.
Future
yo: criaré
The future tense of criar is completely regular: criaré, criarás, criará, criaremos, criaréis, criarán.
Conditional
yo: criaría
The conditional of criar is regular: criaría, criarías, criaría, criaríamos, criaríais, criarían.
Present Subjunctive
yo: críe
The present subjunctive of criar requires an accent on the 'i' to maintain the hiatus: críe, críes, críe, criemos, criéis, críen.
Imperfect Subjunctive
yo: criara
The imperfect subjunctive of criar is regular based on the preterite stem: criara, criaras, criara, criáramos, criarais, criaran.
Affirmative Imperative
yo: cría
The affirmative imperative uses cría (tú) and críe (usted), maintaining the hiatus accent.
Negative Imperative
yo: no críes
The negative imperative uses the present subjunctive forms: no críes, no críe, no criemos, no criéis, no críen.