Conducir means to drive — and in Spain it is the only natural choice. The Latin American manejar is heard in Spain only as a clear Americanism. Conjugation-wise, conducir belongs to the -ducir family (along with traducir, producir, reducir, introducir, deducir), all of which share two irregularities: the yo form takes a -zc- (conduzco) in the present indicative and the whole present subjunctive, and the preterite is built on a -j- stem (conduje, condujiste…) with the unusual third-person plural ending -eron — not -ieron. Get those two patterns right and every other -ducir verb falls into place.
Non-finite forms
| Form | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Infinitivo | conducir | to drive |
| Infinitivo compuesto | haber conducido | to have driven |
| Gerundio | conduciendo | driving |
| Gerundio compuesto | habiendo conducido | having driven |
| Participio | conducido | driven |
The participle and the gerund are fully regular (conducido, conduciendo) — only the present yo form and the preterite stem misbehave. That regular participle is what makes all the compound tenses easy.
Indicative — simple tenses
Presente
| yo | tú | él/ella/usted | nosotros | vosotros | ellos/ellas/ustedes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| conduzco | conduces | conduce | conducimos | conducís | conducen |
The yo form conduzco is the only irregular form in the present indicative. Every other person follows the standard -ir pattern. The -zc- spelling exists for a phonetic reason: Latin c before a, o, u was a hard /k/ sound, but Spanish needed to preserve the soft /θ/ (or /s/ in Latin America) of the rest of the paradigm. The z before the c keeps the soft pronunciation alive: conduzco is pronounced kon-DÚTH-ko in Spain.
No conduzco desde hace años, prefiero el metro.
I haven't driven for years, I prefer the underground.
¿Tú conduces hasta el aeropuerto o cogemos un taxi?
Are you driving to the airport or are we taking a taxi?
Pretérito perfecto simple
| yo | tú | él | nosotros | vosotros | ellos |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| conduje | condujiste | condujo | condujimos | condujisteis | condujeron |
This is the most important irregularity to memorize. The preterite stem is conduj- (with a j), and crucially the third-person plural ending is -eron, NOT -ieron: condujeron is correct, and the form condujieron simply does not exist. The same rule applies to every other -ducir verb (tradujeron, produjeron, redujeron) and to other j-*stem preterites like *dijeron and trajeron. None of the forms in this table carries a written accent — the stress is irregular for a preterite (penultimate syllable in conduje, condujo) and the spelling reflects that.
Conduje toda la noche para llegar a tiempo al hospital.
I drove all night to get to the hospital in time.
Mis primos condujeron desde Barcelona hasta Galicia en un solo día.
My cousins drove from Barcelona all the way to Galicia in a single day.
Pretérito imperfecto
| yo | tú | él | nosotros | vosotros | ellos |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| conducía | conducías | conducía | conducíamos | conducíais | conducían |
The imperfect is perfectly regular — built on -ía- like any other -ir verb. Every form takes an accent on the í.
Cuando vivía en el pueblo conducía a todas partes, ahora ya no.
When I lived in the village I used to drive everywhere; now, not anymore.
Futuro simple
| yo | tú | él | nosotros | vosotros | ellos |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| conduciré | conducirás | conducirá | conduciremos | conduciréis | conducirán |
Yo conduciré a la ida y tú a la vuelta, ¿te parece?
I'll drive on the way there and you on the way back — does that work?
Condicional
| yo | tú | él | nosotros | vosotros | ellos |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| conduciría | conducirías | conduciría | conduciríamos | conduciríais | conducirían |
Yo no conduciría con esa lluvia, espérate a que pare.
I wouldn't drive in that rain, wait for it to stop.
Indicative — compound tenses
All compound tenses pair haber with the regular participle conducido.
Pretérito perfecto compuesto
| yo | tú | él | nosotros | vosotros | ellos |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| he conducido | has conducido | ha conducido | hemos conducido | habéis conducido | han conducido |
Hoy he conducido más de cuatrocientos kilómetros, estoy reventado.
I've driven more than four hundred kilometers today, I'm wiped out.
Pretérito pluscuamperfecto
| yo | tú | él | nosotros | vosotros | ellos |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| había conducido | habías conducido | había conducido | habíamos conducido | habíais conducido | habían conducido |
Antes del accidente nunca había conducido un coche tan grande.
Before the accident I'd never driven such a big car.
Futuro compuesto
| yo | tú | él | nosotros | vosotros | ellos |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| habré conducido | habrás conducido | habrá conducido | habremos conducido | habréis conducido | habrán conducido |
Para final de año habremos conducido el coche más de cincuenta mil kilómetros.
By the end of the year we'll have driven the car more than fifty thousand kilometers.
Condicional compuesto
| yo | tú | él | nosotros | vosotros | ellos |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| habría conducido | habrías conducido | habría conducido | habríamos conducido | habríais conducido | habrían conducido |
Si hubiera sabido que el coche estaba averiado, no habría conducido hasta allí.
If I'd known the car was broken, I wouldn't have driven all the way there.
Subjunctive — simple tenses
Presente de subjuntivo
| yo | tú | él | nosotros | vosotros | ellos |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| conduzca | conduzcas | conduzca | conduzcamos | conduzcáis | conduzcan |
The -zc- of the yo form spreads to every person of the present subjunctive — this is the rule of thumb for verbs with an irregular yo: whatever is in yo, that is the subjunctive stem.
Te pido por favor que no conduzcas si has bebido.
I'm begging you not to drive if you've been drinking.
Imperfecto de subjuntivo (-ra / -se)
| yo | tú | él | nosotros | vosotros | ellos | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| -ra | condujera | condujeras | condujera | condujéramos | condujerais | condujeran |
| -se | condujese | condujeses | condujese | condujésemos | condujeseis | condujesen |
The imperfect subjunctive is built directly from the third-person plural of the preterite — so the -j- stem reappears here: condujera, condujese. Both endings are interchangeable, with -ra dominating in spoken Spain.
Le rogué que no condujera tan rápido, pero ni caso.
I begged him not to drive so fast, but he didn't listen.
Subjunctive — compound tenses
Pretérito perfecto de subjuntivo
| yo | tú | él | nosotros | vosotros | ellos |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| haya conducido | hayas conducido | haya conducido | hayamos conducido | hayáis conducido | hayan conducido |
No me creo que haya conducido tantas horas seguidas sin parar.
I can't believe he's driven so many hours straight without stopping.
Pluscuamperfecto de subjuntivo
| yo | tú | él | nosotros | vosotros | ellos | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| -ra | hubiera conducido | hubieras conducido | hubiera conducido | hubiéramos conducido | hubierais conducido | hubieran conducido |
| -se | hubiese conducido | hubieses conducido | hubiese conducido | hubiésemos conducido | hubieseis conducido | hubiesen conducido |
Si hubiera conducido yo, no habríamos llegado tan tarde.
If I'd been the one driving, we wouldn't have arrived so late.
Imperative
The peninsular affirmative vosotros form conducid is mandatory in Spain. The negative imperative borrows from the present subjunctive — and therefore inherits the -zc- throughout.
| Form | Affirmative | Negative |
|---|---|---|
| tú | conduce | no conduzcas |
| usted | conduzca | no conduzca |
| nosotros | conduzcamos | no conduzcamos |
| vosotros | conducid | no conduzcáis |
| ustedes | conduzcan | no conduzcan |
Conducid con cuidado, está la carretera fatal.
Drive carefully, the road's in awful condition.
No conduzcas con esa migraña, déjame el coche a mí.
Don't drive with that migraine, let me take the car.
Conducir in Spain: the lexical default
In peninsular Spanish, conducir covers everything English does with to drive in the road-transport sense — cars, lorries, motorbikes, buses. The Latin American manejar is heard, but it sounds clearly American and is almost never used by native speakers in Spain. The driving licence is el carnet de conducir (sometimes el permiso de conducir). Driving schools are autoescuelas. Conducir borracho is the standard phrase for drink-driving, and conducción temeraria (reckless driving) is the legal term used in news headlines.
Conducir also has a metaphorical reading meaning to lead (to) — esto no conduce a nada (this is going nowhere) — and a transitive to lead, conduct (conducir un programa de radio, to host a radio show). These are productive and worth knowing.
Aún no tengo el carnet de conducir, voy a la autoescuela los martes.
I still don't have my driving licence, I go to driving school on Tuesdays.
Esa carretera conduce directamente al pueblo.
That road leads directly to the village.
High-frequency collocations from peninsular Spain
| Phrase | Translation |
|---|---|
| conducir borracho | to drink-drive |
| conducir con cuidado | to drive carefully |
| conducir bajo los efectos del alcohol | (formal/legal) to drive under the influence |
| carnet de conducir / permiso de conducir | driving licence |
| autoescuela | driving school |
| conducción temeraria | (formal/legal) reckless driving |
| conducir a alguien al hospital | to drive someone to the hospital |
| esto no conduce a nada | this is going nowhere |
Si te paran conduciendo borracho, te quitan el carnet en el acto.
If they stop you drink-driving, they take your licence on the spot.
Esta discusión no conduce a nada, dejémoslo.
This argument isn't leading anywhere, let's drop it.
The classic English-speaker error
English speakers — especially those who have studied Spanish via Latin American materials — reflexively reach for manejar when they want to say drive in Spain. In a Madrid café, ¿manejas tú? (are you driving?) immediately marks you as a foreigner or as a Latin American. The fix is simple: default to conducir in every road-transport context in Spain. Manejar in Spain mostly means to handle, to operate, to manage (manejar una máquina, manejar bien una situación) — it does not refer to driving a car.
A second, subtler error: English speakers often produce condujieron by analogy with regular -ir preterites (vivieron, escribieron). The -ducir family blocks the i — the form is condujeron, full stop. Same for tradujeron, produjeron, redujeron. If you hear yourself say a form with -jieron, stop and correct.
Common Mistakes
❌ Yo conduco un Seat León.
The yo form is conduzco, with -zc-, not conduco.
✅ Yo conduzco un Seat León.
I drive a Seat León.
❌ Ayer condujieron hasta Sevilla.
The third-person plural preterite is condujeron — never condujieron.
✅ Ayer condujeron hasta Sevilla.
Yesterday they drove all the way to Seville.
❌ ¿Tú manejas? (in Madrid)
Grammatical but immediately marks you as non-Spanish — Spaniards say conducir for road driving.
✅ ¿Tú conduces?
Are you driving? / Do you drive?
❌ Quiero que conduces tú.
Querer que triggers the subjunctive — conduzcas, not conduces.
✅ Quiero que conduzcas tú.
I want you to drive.
❌ No conducéis tan rápido, por favor.
The negative vosotros imperative uses the subjunctive: no conduzcáis.
✅ No conduzcáis tan rápido, por favor.
Don't drive so fast, please.
Key Takeaways
- Conducir is the only natural verb for to drive in Spain — manejar in Spain means to handle, to operate.
- The yo form is conduzco (with -zc-), and the same -zc- runs through the whole present subjunctive.
- The preterite stem is conduj- and the third-person plural is condujeron — never condujieron. The imperfect subjunctive inherits the -j- stem (condujera, condujese).
- The vosotros affirmative imperative is conducid; the negative is no conduzcáis.
- The same irregular pattern applies to every -ducir verb: traducir, producir, reducir, introducir, deducir.
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