Spanish Repetir Conjugation

The first time I heard ¿Puedes repetir? in a noisy café, I smiled and nodded like I totally had this. I did not have this. That tiny verb, repetir, turns up everywhere: when someone says something too fast, when you do something again, when a student repeats a class, and even when somebody goes back for seconds. Overachiever behavior, honestly.

The good news: repetir looks scarier than it is. Once you learn where the e changes to i and where it does not, the whole verb starts behaving much better.

What Repetir Means In Real Spanish

The 6 Forms That Pay Rent

Present Tense: Repito, Repites, Repite…

Use the present tense for habits, facts, and what is happening now in a general sense. This is where the e → i change shows up in most forms.

Mexico note: in everyday Mexican Spanish, you will usually hear ustedes instead of vosotros. In Spain, the extra present form is vosotros repetís.

Preterite: The Sneaky Third-Person Change

Use the preterite for a finished action in the past. Here is the part learners forget and then pretend they never saw: with stem-changing -ir verbs like repetir, the change appears only in the third-person singular and plural.

Important: repetimos can mean we repeat or we repeated. Context does the heavy lifting. Elegant? Maybe. Annoying? Also yes.

Imperfect, Future, And Conditional

These three are much calmer. The imperfect is regular, and the future and conditional keep the full infinitive repetir-.

Useful full forms you will hear a lot: repetíamos (we used to repeat), repetirás (you will repeat), repetirían (they would repeat).

Present Subjunctive And Commands

The present subjunctive comes from the yo form: repito → repita, repitas, repita, repitamos, repitan. You will use it after expressions of desire, doubt, emotion, and polite requests.

Commands are where repetir becomes very practical very fast.

Gerund, Past Participle, And Compound Tenses

Compound tenses are easy because the past participle is regular: he repetido (I have repeated), había repetido (I had repeated), habrán repetido (they will have repeated). Progressive forms use estar + repitiendo: estoy repitiendo, estaban repitiendo.

Common Phrases With Repetir

Common Mistakes And Fast Fixes

• Wrong: yo repeto → Right: yo repito
  The stem changes from e to i in the stressed present forms.
• Wrong: nosotros repitimos in the present → Right: nosotros repetimos
  The present nosotros form does not change.
• Wrong: él repetió → Right: él repitió
  In the preterite third person, the stem changes.
• Wrong: estoy repetiendo → Right: estoy repitiendo
  The gerund changes to repitiendo.
• Wrong: he repitido → Right: he repetido
  The past participle is regular: repetido.
• Wrong: using vosotros in Mexico all the time → Better: use ustedes for real-life Mexican Spanish.

Quick Practice

1. I repeat the sentence every day.
   Repito la frase todos los días.
2. She repeated the number yesterday.
   Ella repitió el número ayer.
3. We used to repeat the chorus.
   Repetíamos el coro.
4. I want you to repeat the answer.
   Quiero que repitas la respuesta.
5. Don’t repeat that mistake.
   No repitas ese error.
6. We have repeated this process.
   Hemos repetido este proceso.

Read those out loud once, then again, then one more time. Very on-brand for this verb.

Full Repetir Conjugation Chart

Non-personal forms: repetir (infinitive), repitiendo (gerund), repetido (past participle).

Keep this page handy the next time you need to say “say that again,” “I did it again,” or “yes, I am absolutely having seconds.” Spanish is practical like that.