Elegir Conjugation in Spanish, Translation, and Examples

The verb elegir means to choose or to select. It can also mean to elect, as in electing a president. Other verbs with a similar meaning are escoger and seleccionar. A simple way to remember which of these verbs to use is the following: escoger is more closely used like "to choose" in English, seleccionar is used like "to select", and only elegir can be used with both meanings "to choose" or "to elect."

Elegir Conjugation

The verb elegir has an irregular conjugation, since it is a stem-changing verb. In stem-changing verbs, there is often a change in a vowel of the stem of the verb. This change occurs when that vowel is found in a stressed syllable. In the case of elegir, the vowel e changes to i.

Another reason why elegir is irregular is because it sometimes has a spelling change from g to j. In Spanish, the letter g makes a hard sound (like in the English word get) when it is followed by the vowels a, o, and u. When g is followed by e or i in Spanish, it makes a soft sound (like the sound the letter h makes in English). In the verb elegir, the g makes a soft sound, but in some conjugations it is followed by the vowels o or a. Therefore, in order to maintain the soft g sound, the g changes to j, as in elijo (I elect). If this change from g to j did not occur, the g would have a hard sound and it would sound like a different verb.

In this article, you can learn how to conjugate elegir in several moods and tenses: the indicative mood (present, past, conditional, future), the subjunctive mood (present and past), the imperative mood, and other verb forms.

Present Indicative

In the present indicative tense, the stem change e to i is used in all of the conjugations except nosotros and vosotros, and the spelling change g to j occurs only in the first person singular conjugation (yo).

Preterite Indicative

In the preterite tense, the stem changes from e to i only in the third person conjugations (él/ella/usted, ellos/ellas/ustedes), and the spelling change g to j does not occur at all.

Imperfect Indicative

In the imperfect tense there are no stem changes or spelling changes. The imperfect can be translated to English as "used to choose" or "was choosing."

Future Indicative

The future tense is conjugated by starting with the infinitive form and adding the future tense endings. Therefore, there are no stem changes or spelling changes in this tense.

Periphrastic Future Indicative 

To conjugate the periphrastic future tense, you need the present indicative conjugation of the verb ir (to go), followed by the preposition a, and then the infinitive elegir.

Present Progressive/Gerund Form

To form progressive tenses you need the auxiliary verb estar along with the present participle or gerund. For elegir, the gerund is eligiendo, which has the stem change e to i.

Past Participle

The past participle for -ir verbs is formed with the ending -ido, so the past participle of elegir is elegido. This verb form can be used to conjugate perfect tenses like the present perfect, using the auxiliary verb haber.

Conditional Indicative

To conjugate the conditional tense you also start with the infinitive form and add the conditional endings. Therefore, this verb tense does not have spelling or stem changes either.

Present Subjunctive

In the present subjunctive, both the stem change e to i and the spelling change g to j are found in all of the conjugations.

Imperfect Subjunctive

The imperfect subjunctive can be conjugated in two different ways. Both of them include the stem change e to i, but not the spelling change g to j.

Option 1

Option 2

Imperative

The imperative mood is used to give orders or commands. When conjugating the imperative mood, be careful with both the stem change e to i and the spelling change g to j.

Positive Commands

Negative Commands