SPANISH-ENGLISH  ENGLISH-SPANISH  ESPANOL-INGLES HOME  BASIC SPANISH VOCAB

Spanish verb morir: conjugation

 Spanish verbs index

The verbs dormir and morir are unusual in that they have two vowel changes. In addition, the verb morir has an irregular past participle:

• in the present tense (both indicative and subjunctive), the stem vowel changes to ue when stressed: this is a common pattern of vowel change in Spanish;
• in the present indicative, the stem vowel remains o when not streseed, giving the forms morimos and morís—
• like dormir, this verb changes the stem vowel to u whenever the stem is not stressed and whenever the ending does not have a monophthong i; in practice, this means:
  • in the nosotrs and vosotros forms of the present subjunctive (where the a vowel of the ending is stressed), giving muramos, muráis;
  • in the third-person preterite forms: murió, murieron;
  • in the gerund: muriendo;
• the past participle is irregular: muerto (similar to the French past participle mort, but with the vowel change in Spanish because the vowel is stressed).

morir vs morirse

In informal speech, morir is commonly used in the pronominal form morirse: cuando se murió = when he died. In Mexico, this pronominal use is by far the more common form. Butt & Benjamin (2000:369) suggest that the pronominal form indicates a more "natural" death, while morir on its own implies death in an accident etc. But in Mexico at least, the pronominal form is commonly used for either case, so that, for example, it is normal to say se murió en un accidente (a form which Butt & Benjamin claim is not used in this case). The difference between morir and morirse here appears to be one of register.

 Home  Spanish Dictionary  Spanish Phrases  TRADUCCION ESPAÑOL-INGLES