Andar looks deceptively simple. It is a perfectly regular -ar verb in the present, the imperfect, the future, the conditional, and every compound tense. Then you hit the preterite and the bottom falls out: anduve, anduviste, anduvo, anduvimos, anduvisteis, anduvieron. The verb suddenly has a u-stem that comes out of nowhere — the same family of irregular preterites as tener (tuve), estar (estuve), poder (pude) and poner (puse). This is the single most-tested fact about andar on every Spanish exam, and the single most-common mistake learners make with it.
Non-finite forms
| Form | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Infinitivo | andar | to walk / to be doing |
| Infinitivo compuesto | haber andado | to have walked |
| Gerundio | andando | walking |
| Gerundio compuesto | habiendo andado | having walked |
| Participio | andado | walked |
The gerundio andando is extremely common in peninsular speech, both literally (sigue andando, "keep walking") and as the gerund stand-in for despite/while contexts.
Indicative — simple tenses
Presente
Completely regular -ar in the present. No stem change, no surprises.
| yo | tú | él/ella/usted | nosotros | vosotros | ellos/ellas/ustedes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ando | andas | anda | andamos | andáis | andan |
¿Qué tal andas? Hace siglos que no nos vemos.
How are you doing? It's been ages since we saw each other.
Mis padres andan unos cinco kilómetros cada mañana por el parque.
My parents walk about five kilometres every morning in the park.
Pretérito perfecto simple (the irregular one)
This is the form that makes andar famous. The stem becomes anduv- and takes the unstressed irregular-preterite endings shared with tener, estar, poder, poner, saber. Note especially the third-person singular anduvo (not anduvió) and the first and third plurals with no accent marks (compare regular andamos / andaron, which do not match this irregular set).
| yo | tú | él | nosotros | vosotros | ellos |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| anduve | anduviste | anduvo | anduvimos | anduvisteis | anduvieron |
Ayer anduvimos por todo el casco antiguo durante horas.
Yesterday we walked all over the old town for hours.
¿Por dónde anduvisteis ayer? Os llamé y no contestabais.
Where did you guys go yesterday? I called and got no answer.
The forms andé, andaste, andó… (treating andar as regular) are not standard Spanish and will be marked wrong. Some informal Latin American speech tolerates them but in Spain they sound clearly uneducated.
Pretérito imperfecto
Back to fully regular -ar.
| yo | tú | él | nosotros | vosotros | ellos |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| andaba | andabas | andaba | andábamos | andabais | andaban |
De niños andábamos al colegio solos, eran otros tiempos.
As kids we used to walk to school by ourselves — those were different times.
Futuro simple
| yo | tú | él | nosotros | vosotros | ellos |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| andaré | andarás | andará | andaremos | andaréis | andarán |
Andaremos un rato por la playa después de comer.
We'll walk along the beach for a bit after lunch.
Condicional
| yo | tú | él | nosotros | vosotros | ellos |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| andaría | andarías | andaría | andaríamos | andaríais | andarían |
Andaría más a menudo si no me dolieran tanto las rodillas.
I'd walk more often if my knees didn't hurt so much.
Indicative — compound tenses
The participle andado is regular. Compound tenses are unremarkable.
Pretérito perfecto compuesto
| yo | tú | él | nosotros | vosotros | ellos |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| he andado | has andado | ha andado | hemos andado | habéis andado | han andado |
Hoy he andado más de diez mil pasos, mira el móvil.
Today I've walked over ten thousand steps — look at my phone.
Pretérito pluscuamperfecto
| yo | tú | él | nosotros | vosotros | ellos |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| había andado | habías andado | había andado | habíamos andado | habíais andado | habían andado |
Para cuando lo encontramos, había andado toda la mañana perdido por el monte.
By the time we found him, he'd been wandering lost in the hills all morning.
Futuro compuesto
| yo | tú | él | nosotros | vosotros | ellos |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| habré andado | habrás andado | habrá andado | habremos andado | habréis andado | habrán andado |
Al final del Camino habremos andado casi ochocientos kilómetros.
By the end of the Camino we'll have walked nearly eight hundred kilometres.
Condicional compuesto
| yo | tú | él | nosotros | vosotros | ellos |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| habría andado | habrías andado | habría andado | habríamos andado | habríais andado | habrían andado |
Sin GPS habríamos andado en círculos toda la tarde.
Without GPS we'd have walked in circles all afternoon.
Subjunctive — simple tenses
Presente de subjuntivo
Regular -ar: take yo ando, drop the -o, add -e endings.
| yo | tú | él | nosotros | vosotros | ellos |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ande | andes | ande | andemos | andéis | anden |
El médico quiere que ande al menos media hora al día.
The doctor wants me to walk at least half an hour a day.
Imperfecto de subjuntivo (-ra / -se)
This is where the anduv- stem reappears: the imperfect subjunctive is built off the ellos preterite, so anduvieron → anduvie- + endings. Both the -ra and -se sets exist.
| yo | tú | él | nosotros | vosotros | ellos | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| -ra | anduviera | anduvieras | anduviera | anduviéramos | anduvierais | anduvieran |
| -se | anduviese | anduvieses | anduviese | anduviésemos | anduvieseis | anduviesen |
The -ra set dominates everyday peninsular speech; -se is more frequent in formal writing. Both are perfectly correct.
Si anduviera menos, no estaría tan en forma.
If I walked less, I wouldn't be in this kind of shape.
Subjunctive — compound tenses
Pretérito perfecto de subjuntivo
| yo | tú | él | nosotros | vosotros | ellos |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| haya andado | hayas andado | haya andado | hayamos andado | hayáis andado | hayan andado |
Es probable que haya andado mucho hoy; está agotado.
He's probably walked a lot today — he's exhausted.
Pluscuamperfecto de subjuntivo
| yo | tú | él | nosotros | vosotros | ellos | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| -ra | hubiera andado | hubieras andado | hubiera andado | hubiéramos andado | hubierais andado | hubieran andado |
| -se | hubiese andado | hubieses andado | hubiese andado | hubiésemos andado | hubieseis andado | hubiesen andado |
Si hubiéramos andado por el otro camino, no nos habríamos perdido.
If we'd walked the other way, we wouldn't have got lost.
Imperative
The imperative is fully regular -ar.
| Form | Affirmative | Negative |
|---|---|---|
| tú | anda | no andes |
| usted | ande | no ande |
| nosotros | andemos | no andemos |
| vosotros | andad | no andéis |
| ustedes | anden | no anden |
Andad con cuidado, que la acera está helada.
(to multiple people) Watch your step — the pavement is icy.
No andéis tan deprisa, que no os puedo seguir.
Don't walk so fast — I can't keep up.
The bare anda / anda ya deserves a separate mention: it's one of the most-heard interjections in Spain, with a meaning closer to English "come on" / "no way" / "get out of here":
¿Que se han comprado un yate? ¡Anda ya!
They've bought a yacht? Come off it!
Meanings beyond "to walk"
Andar is wider than English "walk." Its core senses, in rough order of frequency in Spain:
| Meaning | Example |
|---|---|
| to walk (on foot) | Vamos andando hasta el centro. |
| (of a machine/device) to work, run | Este reloj ya no anda bien. |
| (¿Cómo andas?) to be (doing), to fare | ¿Cómo andas de tiempo esta semana? |
| (andar + gerundio) to be busy doing | Anda buscando piso por Lavapiés. |
| (andar con) to hang around with | Últimamente anda con gente rara. |
| (andar por + place) to be around / hanging around | Tu hermano anda por la cocina. |
| (andar + adjective) to be (a temporary state) | Ando un poco liado estos días. |
The pattern andar + gerundio is one of the most useful constructions in conversational Spain — it conveys "being busy with / dealing with / faffing about with" something:
Lleva semanas andando buscando un nuevo trabajo.
He's been busy looking for a new job for weeks.
No me lo tomes a mal, ando un poco liada con el curro.
Don't take it the wrong way — I'm a bit swamped with work right now.
High-frequency phrases in peninsular Spanish
| Phrase | Translation |
|---|---|
| ir andando | to go on foot |
| ¿Cómo andas? / ¿Qué tal andas? | How are you (doing)? |
| andar liado / liada | to be busy / swamped |
| andar con cuidado | to be careful / watch one's step |
| andarse por las ramas | to beat around the bush |
| andar de capa caída | to be down in the dumps / in a slump |
| todo anda bien | everything's going fine |
| anda ya | (informal) come off it / get out of here |
| quien mal anda, mal acaba | he who walks crooked ends up crooked (proverb) |
No te andes por las ramas y dime qué pasó de verdad.
Don't beat around the bush — tell me what really happened.
Mi padre anda de capa caída desde que se jubiló.
My dad has been down in the dumps since he retired.
The classic English-speaker error
The famous trap is producing andé, andaste, andó in the preterite by analogy with regular -ar verbs (hablé, hablaste, habló). It is a near-universal mistake among learners and a clear marker of inexperience in Spain. The correct forms are anduve, anduviste, anduvo, anduvimos, anduvisteis, anduvieron — sharing the same -uv- root and unstressed endings as tener (tuve, tuviste, tuvo) and estar (estuve, estuviste, estuvo).
A second mistake is to over-translate English "walk." Where English uses "walk" for both manner ("I walked to school") and the activity itself ("we went for a walk"), Spain prefers ir andando for the former and dar un paseo / salir a andar for the latter. Caminar also exists, but in Spain it tends to mean a more deliberate, longer or hiking-flavored walk than the everyday andar.
Common Mistakes
❌ Ayer andé hasta el centro.
Andar has an irregular preterite — *anduve*, not *andé*. This is the most-tested fact about this verb.
✅ Ayer anduve hasta el centro.
Yesterday I walked to the centre.
❌ Cuando éramos pequeños, anduvíamos al cole.
In the imperfect, *andar* is fully regular — *andábamos*, not *anduvíamos*. The u-stem only appears in the preterite and what derives from it.
✅ Cuando éramos pequeños, andábamos al cole.
When we were little, we used to walk to school.
❌ Mi coche no anda andando bien.
Don't stack *andar* on itself when the meaning is 'work / function' — drop the gerund: *no anda bien* is already the idiom.
✅ Mi coche no anda bien últimamente.
My car hasn't been running well lately.
❌ Si yo andara más, estaría en mejor forma.
The imperfect subjunctive of *andar* uses the *anduv-* stem too — *anduviera*, not *andara*.
✅ Si yo anduviera más, estaría en mejor forma.
If I walked more, I'd be in better shape.
Key Takeaways
- Andar is regular in every tense except the preterite and the imperfect subjunctive, both built off the irregular stem anduv-.
- Preterite forms: anduve, anduviste, anduvo, anduvimos, anduvisteis, anduvieron. No accent marks, unstressed endings — same pattern as tener (tuve) and estar (estuve).
- Imperfect subjunctive: anduviera / anduviese and parallel forms — the anduv- stem carries through.
- Beyond "to walk," andar covers being busy (andar liado), how machines work (el coche anda bien), and casual "how are you doing?" (¿cómo andas?).
- Anda ya is one of the most-heard interjections in Spain — learn to hear and use it.
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