Spanish Verb Recibir Conjugation

The Spanish verb recibir means to receive. It is a regular -ir verb like vivir, compartir and escribir. In this article you'll find recibir conjugations in the indicative mood (present, preterite, imperfect, future, periphrastic future, and conditional), subjunctive mood (present and past), and imperative mood, as well as other verb forms such as the present and past participles.

Like in English, the verb recibir can be used to talk about receiving things or people, such as a gift, recibir un regalo, or guests, recibir visitas. However, in Spanish, when used reflexively, recibirse can also mean to graduate, as in Ella se recibió este año de la universidad (She graduated this year from the university).

The preterite tense can be translated as the English simple past. It is used to talk about completed actions in the past.

The imperfect tense can be translated to English as "was receiving" or "used to receive." In Spanish, it is used to talk about ongoing or habitual actions in the past. 

To form the periphrastic future tense you need the present indicative conjugation of the verb ir (to go), the preposition a, and the infinitive of the verb (recibir).

The conditional tense is usually translated to English as would + verb, and it is used to talk about possibilities. 

To form the present progressive tense, you need the present tense conjugation of the verb estar, and the present participle (gerundio in Spanish). The present participle of -ir verbs is formed with the ending -iendo.

Present Progressive of Recibir

está recibiendo She is receiving

Ella está recibiendo buenas noticias. 

To form the past participle of -ir verbs, you need the ending -ido. The past participle can be used as an adjective or to form compound tenses such as the present perfect. 

Present Perfect of Recibir 

ha recibido She has received

Ella ha recibido buenas noticias. 

When a sentence has two different clauses, a main clause and a subordinate clause, and each clause has a different subject, you need to use the subjunctive mood. The subjunctive is used to talk about emotions, doubts, possibilities, recommendations, and other subjective or uncertain situations.

There are two ways to conjugate the imperfect subjunctive. Both forms are equally valid.

Option 1

Option 2

The purpose of the imperative mood is to give direct commands or orders. In the tables below you can see both the positive and negative commands, which have slightly different forms. Notice that there are no imperative forms for yo, él/ella, or ellos/ellas.

Positive Commands

Negative Commands