Mirar: Full Conjugation | Spanish (Latin America) Grammar

Mirar means "to look at" or "to watch" and is a regular -ar verb. It's not quite the same as ver ("to see"): mirar implies deliberate, focused attention, while ver often just means perceiving with your eyes.

A key grammatical point: unlike its English counterpart, mirar is followed directly by the object. You say miro la luna, not miro a la luna — the preposition a only appears when the object is a specific person (personal a).

Present Indicative

Subject	Form
yo	miro
tú	miras
él / ella / usted	mira
nosotros / nosotras	miramos
ellos / ellas / ustedes	miran

Miro las estrellas desde mi ventana.

I look at the stars from my window.

¿Qué miras?

What are you looking at?

Preterite

Subject	Form
yo	miré
tú	miraste
él / ella / usted	miró
nosotros / nosotras	miramos
ellos / ellas / ustedes	miraron

Me miró con cara de sorpresa.

She looked at me with a surprised face.

Imperfect

Subject	Form
yo	miraba
tú	mirabas
él / ella / usted	miraba
nosotros / nosotras	mirábamos
ellos / ellas / ustedes	miraban

De niño, miraba dibujos animados los sábados.

As a child, I used to watch cartoons on Saturdays.

Future

Subject	Form
yo	miraré
tú	mirarás
él / ella / usted	mirará
nosotros / nosotras	miraremos
ellos / ellas / ustedes	mirarán

Conditional

Subject	Form
yo	miraría
tú	mirarías
él / ella / usted	miraría
nosotros / nosotras	miraríamos
ellos / ellas / ustedes	mirarían

Present Subjunctive

Subject	Form
yo	mire
tú	mires
él / ella / usted	mire
nosotros / nosotras	miremos
ellos / ellas / ustedes	miren

No creo que mires suficientes películas.

I don't think you watch enough movies.

Imperfect Subjunctive (-ra forms)

Subject	Form
yo	mirara
tú	miraras
él / ella / usted	mirara
nosotros / nosotras	miráramos
ellos / ellas / ustedes	miraran

Imperative

Person	Form
tú (affirmative)	mira
tú (negative)	no mires
usted	mire
nosotros	miremos
ustedes	miren

¡Mira lo que encontré!

Look what I found!

The bare imperative ¡mira! / ¡miren! is one of the most common attention-getters in Spanish, roughly equivalent to English "look!" or "hey!"

Non-Finite Forms

Infinitive: mirar
Gerund: mirando
Past participle: mirado

Common Uses

In Latin America, mirar is the usual verb for watching TV or movies (mirar televisión), though ver is also acceptable. Use mirar when you want to emphasize attentive looking, and ver when you just mean perceiving with your eyes.

Estaba mirando por la ventana.

She was looking out the window.

Mira a ese niño, qué lindo.

Look at that little boy, how cute.

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Note the difference: mirar la televisión = "to watch TV"; ver la televisión = "to see/watch TV" (more general). Both are acceptable, but mirar stresses active viewing, while ver can describe even having the TV on in the background.

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When the object of mirar is a person, you must include the personal a: miro a mi hermana, not miro mi hermana. For things, no preposition is needed: miro la pantalla.