Caminar is the textbook example of a regular -ar verb: it has no stem changes, no spelling shifts, no irregular forms anywhere in its paradigm. If you can conjugate caminar, you can conjugate the roughly 90% of Spanish -ar verbs that behave like it. The lexical wrinkle worth knowing in Spain is that caminar is not the default verb for "to walk" in everyday peninsular speech — that role belongs to andar. Caminar is the right verb when the walking is deliberate, sustained, or framed as activity rather than locomotion: a hike, a long walk along the beach, a doctor's recommendation, a metaphor for life's journey.
Non-finite forms
| Form | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Infinitivo | caminar | to walk |
| Infinitivo compuesto | haber caminado | to have walked |
| Gerundio | caminando | walking |
| Gerundio compuesto | habiendo caminado | having walked |
| Participio | caminado (regular) | walked |
Indicative — simple tenses
Presente
| yo | tú | él/ella/usted | nosotros | vosotros | ellos/ellas/ustedes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| camino | caminas | camina | caminamos | camináis | caminan |
Mi abuela camina una hora todos los días, llueva o haga sol.
My grandmother walks for an hour every day, rain or shine.
Pretérito perfecto simple
| yo | tú | él | nosotros | vosotros | ellos |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| caminé | caminaste | caminó | caminamos | caminasteis | caminaron |
The first-person singular caminé takes a written accent on the é — without it, the form would be misread as a non-existent stem. Note that caminamos is identical in the present and the preterite; context disambiguates.
Ayer caminamos hasta el faro y volvimos justo antes de que se hiciera de noche.
Yesterday we walked all the way to the lighthouse and got back just before dark.
Pretérito imperfecto
| yo | tú | él | nosotros | vosotros | ellos |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| caminaba | caminabas | caminaba | caminábamos | caminabais | caminaban |
De joven caminaba al instituto cada mañana, hiciera el tiempo que hiciera.
When I was young, I used to walk to school every morning, no matter the weather.
Futuro simple
| yo | tú | él | nosotros | vosotros | ellos |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| caminaré | caminarás | caminará | caminaremos | caminaréis | caminarán |
Mañana caminaremos por la sierra si el tiempo lo permite.
Tomorrow we'll walk in the mountains if the weather allows.
Condicional
| yo | tú | él | nosotros | vosotros | ellos |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| caminaría | caminarías | caminaría | caminaríamos | caminaríais | caminarían |
Yo caminaría hasta allí, pero con este calor mejor cogemos el metro.
I'd walk there, but in this heat we're better off taking the metro.
Indicative — compound tenses
All compound tenses combine the auxiliary haber with the regular past participle caminado.
Pretérito perfecto compuesto
| yo | tú | él | nosotros | vosotros | ellos |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| he caminado | has caminado | ha caminado | hemos caminado | habéis caminado | han caminado |
Esta mañana he caminado más de diez kilómetros y todavía tengo cuerda para rato.
This morning I've walked more than ten kilometers and I've still got plenty of energy left.
Pretérito pluscuamperfecto
| yo | tú | él | nosotros | vosotros | ellos |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| había caminado | habías caminado | había caminado | habíamos caminado | habíais caminado | habían caminado |
Cuando llegó la ambulancia, ya habían caminado un buen rato bajo el sol.
By the time the ambulance arrived, they'd already been walking in the sun for a good while.
Futuro compuesto
| yo | tú | él | nosotros | vosotros | ellos |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| habré caminado | habrás caminado | habrá caminado | habremos caminado | habréis caminado | habrán caminado |
Cuando termine el Camino, habré caminado unos ochocientos kilómetros.
By the time I finish the Camino, I'll have walked around eight hundred kilometers.
Condicional compuesto
| yo | tú | él | nosotros | vosotros | ellos |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| habría caminado | habrías caminado | habría caminado | habríamos caminado | habríais caminado | habrían caminado |
Habríamos caminado hasta la playa, pero empezó a diluviar.
We would have walked all the way to the beach, but it started pouring.
Subjunctive — simple tenses
Presente de subjuntivo
| yo | tú | él | nosotros | vosotros | ellos |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| camine | camines | camine | caminemos | caminéis | caminen |
El médico le ha recomendado que camine al menos media hora al día.
The doctor has recommended that he walk at least half an hour a day.
Imperfecto de subjuntivo (-ra / -se)
| yo | tú | él | nosotros | vosotros | ellos | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| -ra | caminara | caminaras | caminara | camináramos | caminarais | caminaran |
| -se | caminase | caminases | caminase | caminásemos | caminaseis | caminasen |
Both endings are interchangeable. In Spain, the -ra set is overwhelmingly preferred in conversation; the -se set survives mainly in formal writing and literary registers.
Si caminara cada día como tú, ya no me dolerían las rodillas.
If I walked every day like you, my knees wouldn't hurt anymore.
Subjunctive — compound tenses
Pretérito perfecto de subjuntivo
| yo | tú | él | nosotros | vosotros | ellos |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| haya caminado | hayas caminado | haya caminado | hayamos caminado | hayáis caminado | hayan caminado |
Me alegro de que hayáis caminado tanto sin cansaros.
I'm glad you (all) have walked so far without getting tired.
Pluscuamperfecto de subjuntivo
| yo | tú | él | nosotros | vosotros | ellos | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| -ra | hubiera caminado | hubieras caminado | hubiera caminado | hubiéramos caminado | hubierais caminado | hubieran caminado |
| -se | hubiese caminado | hubieses caminado | hubiese caminado | hubiésemos caminado | hubieseis caminado | hubiesen caminado |
Si hubiéramos caminado un poco más despacio, no nos habríamos perdido el desvío.
If we'd walked a bit slower, we wouldn't have missed the turn-off.
Imperative
The peninsular vosotros affirmative imperative — caminad — is mandatory in Spain. You will hear caminar (with the infinitive ending) in casual speech, but in writing and in any careful register caminad is the only correct form. The negative imperative across all persons borrows from the present subjunctive.
| Form | Affirmative | Negative |
|---|---|---|
| tú | camina | no camines |
| usted | camine | no camine |
| nosotros | caminemos | no caminemos |
| vosotros | caminad | no caminéis |
| ustedes | caminen | no caminen |
Camina recto y gira a la izquierda en el segundo semáforo.
Walk straight and turn left at the second traffic light.
No caminéis por el carril bici, que os van a multar.
Don't (you all) walk in the bike lane — you'll get fined.
When a pronoun attaches to an affirmative imperative, write it as one word and add a written accent where the stress requires it: camínalo, caminadlo, caminémoslo. With nosotros + -nos, the final -s drops: caminémonos (rare).
Caminar vs. andar in Spain
This is the single most useful distinction for an English-speaking learner. Both verbs translate as to walk, but they are not interchangeable in peninsular usage.
| andar | caminar | |
|---|---|---|
| Default for "go on foot" | Voy andando. | (less common in speech) |
| "Walk" as exercise or activity | (possible but flatter) | Camino una hora al día. |
| "Walk" as a journey or pilgrimage | — | Hicimos el Camino caminando. |
| Figurative — function, work | Mi coche no anda. | — |
| Set phrase, "around / about" | Anda por aquí. | — |
Voy andando al trabajo, no merece la pena coger el coche.
I walk to work — it's not worth taking the car.
El médico le ha dicho que tiene que caminar todos los días.
The doctor told him he has to walk every day.
Caminamos un buen rato sin decir nada, solo escuchando el mar.
We walked for a good while without saying anything, just listening to the sea.
High-frequency collocations from peninsular Spanish
| Phrase | Translation |
|---|---|
| caminar despacio / a paso ligero | to walk slowly / at a brisk pace |
| caminar de la mano | to walk hand in hand |
| caminar sin rumbo | to walk aimlessly |
| caminar hacia el éxito / hacia el desastre | (figurative) to be heading for success / disaster |
| caminar junto a alguien | to walk alongside someone (often figurative — to support) |
| caminar por la vida | to make one's way through life (literary) |
| el caminar (noun) | one's gait / the way one walks |
| caminante (noun) | walker, wayfarer — the caminante is the pilgrim of the Camino de Santiago |
Vimos a los dos viejos caminando de la mano por el paseo marítimo.
We saw the two old folks walking hand in hand along the seafront.
Después de la ruptura, estuvo semanas caminando sin rumbo por la ciudad.
After the breakup, he spent weeks walking aimlessly around the city.
Caminante, no hay camino, se hace camino al andar.
Wayfarer, there is no path — the path is made by walking. (Machado, the most quoted line in Spanish poetry)
Reflexive use: caminarse
Caminarse is rare and largely literary. The closest everyday equivalent is the colloquial patearse — to walk a long, exhausting distance on foot.
Nos pateamos todo el casco antiguo en una tarde.
We walked our way around the entire old town in one afternoon. (colloquial, Spain)
The classic English-speaker error
English-speaking learners often reach for caminar every time they want to say "walk," because it is the verb every textbook lists first. In Spain this produces sentences that sound stiff or oddly formal. Compare:
❌ Camino al trabajo todos los días.
Grammatically fine, but in Spain sounds like 'I do my daily walk to work for exercise.'
✅ Voy andando al trabajo todos los días.
I walk to work every day.
The fix is simple: when "walk" means "go on foot," reach for ir andando. Reserve caminar for when the walking itself is the activity being described.
Common Mistakes
❌ Vosotros caminar más rápido.
*Caminar* is the infinitive, not the *vosotros* imperative. The peninsular imperative is *caminad*.
✅ Caminad más rápido. / Andad más rápido.
(You all) walk faster.
❌ Camino a la oficina cada día.
Grammatical but unidiomatic in Spain — for everyday commuting use *ir andando*.
✅ Voy andando a la oficina cada día.
I walk to the office every day.
❌ Mi abuela camino mucho ayer.
Third-person singular preterite is *caminó*, with the accent. *Camino* (no accent) is the first-person present.
✅ Mi abuela caminó mucho ayer.
My grandmother walked a lot yesterday.
❌ Es importante que tú caminas más.
*Es importante que* triggers the subjunctive — *camines*, not *caminas*.
✅ Es importante que camines más.
It's important that you walk more.
Key Takeaways
- Caminar is a 100% regular -ar verb — no stem changes, no irregular forms anywhere.
- The vosotros affirmative imperative is caminad; the negative is no caminéis.
- In Spain, andar is the everyday verb for "to walk" as commuting or locomotion. Use caminar when the walking is the activity itself — exercise, a hike, a long stroll, a metaphor.
- Don't drop the accent on first-person preterite caminé or third-person caminó — both rely on the accent to be recognizable.
- The line Caminante, no hay camino, se hace camino al andar (Machado) is so famous in Spain that quoting it is a cultural marker.
Now practice Spanish
Reading grammar gets you part of the way. The exercises are where it sticks — free, no signup needed.
Start learning Spanish→Related Topics
- Presente de indicativo: verbos regulares en -arA1 — The six present-indicative endings for regular -ar verbs in peninsular Spanish, including the all-important vosotros form habláis.
- Formación del participio pasadoA2 — How to form the past participle in Spanish: -ar verbs take -ado, -er/-ir verbs take -ido, with 15 high-frequency irregulars (hecho, dicho, visto, escrito…) that you have to memorise. Includes the rules for invariability with haber and agreement with nouns.
- Tiempos compuestos: referencia completaB1 — A complete reference for every Spanish compound tense — present perfect, pluperfect, preterite anterior, future perfect, conditional perfect, perfect subjunctive, pluperfect subjunctive — with full vosotros paradigms and notes on how peninsular Spanish leans heavily on the present perfect.
- Todos los tiempos de un vistazoA2 — A single-page master reference of every Spanish tense and mood, with a sample regular verb fully conjugated, the name in English and Spanish, the CEFR level it appears at, and what each tense is for.
- andarA2 — Full conjugation reference for andar — a regular -ar verb in the present and most tenses, but with a strikingly irregular u-stem preterite (anduve, anduviste, anduvo). Includes every simple and compound tense, the full peninsular imperative, the everyday colloquial use (¿Cómo andas?), and Spain-specific collocations.