reír | Spanish (Spain) Grammar

Reír means to laugh. It is the verb you reach for whenever something is funny, whenever you want to mock or be mocked, whenever children burst into giggles at the dinner table — and it is also one of the most heavily accented verbs in Spanish. Almost every personal form carries a written í (with the accent), because the stem vowel i is stressed and sits in hiatus with another vowel: río, ríes, ríe, ríen, reí, reíste, reímos, reís, reía, reían. Forget the accent and you don't just look untidy on the page — you produce a non-word, because the syllable boundaries collapse.

Underneath the accent forest, reír is an e>i stem-changing -ir verb, like pedir, servir, vestir, repetir, seguir. The stem re- shifts to ri- in the boot of the present indicative and subjunctive, in the third person of the preterite (rio/rió, rieron), in the imperfect subjunctive (riera, riese), and in the gerund (riendo). The same triple difficulty — stem change + obligatory accent + e>i shift — governs freír (to fry) and sonreír (to smile), so once you internalize reír, those two come almost free.

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The accent on í is not decoration. Rio (no accent) is a noun meaning river. Río (with the accent) is the first-person present of reír: I laugh. Forget the accent and you've written a different word. Whenever the stem i of reír is stressed and sits next to another vowel — which is most of the time — it takes a written accent.

Non-finite forms

Form	Spanish	English
Infinitivo	reír	to laugh
Infinitivo compuesto	haber reído	to have laughed
Gerundio	riendo	laughing
Gerundio compuesto	habiendo reído	having laughed
Participio	reído	laughed

The infinitive itself takes an accent: reír, never reir. The vowels e and í are in hiatus (two syllables: re-ír) and the í is stressed, so by Spanish orthographic rules it must carry an accent. The gerund is riendo — the e of the stem becomes i (the same shift as in pidiendo, sirviendo, vistiendo), and no accent is needed because ie is a normal diphthong here. The participle reído keeps the accent on the í because of the hiatus e-í-do (three syllables).

Indicative — simple tenses

Presente — the accented boot

yo	tú	él/ella/usted	nosotros	vosotros	ellos/ellas/ustedes
río	ríes	ríe	reímos	reís	ríen

Two things happen at once. (1) The e>i stem change appears in the boot: río, ríes, ríe, ríen on the inside; reímos, reís on the outside keep the e because the stress shifts to the ending. (2) The í takes a written accent wherever it sits in hiatus with another vowel and is stressed — which is every single form in the present indicative, including nosotros and vosotros. There are no unaccented forms in this tense.

The accent rule is mechanical: in ríes the syllables are rí-es (two syllables, hiatus); in reímos they are re-í-mos (three syllables, hiatus on e-í); in both cases the stressed í sits in hiatus with another vowel and so it must be marked.

Cada vez que veo ese vídeo me río como una loca, no puedo evitarlo.

Every time I see that video I laugh like a maniac, I can't help it.

¿De qué te ríes ahora? ¿He dicho alguna tontería?

What are you laughing at now? Did I say something silly?

Mis hijos se ríen sin parar viendo dibujos, son felices con cualquier cosa.

My kids can't stop laughing when they watch cartoons — they're happy with anything.

Pretérito perfecto simple — the post-2010 accent change

yo	tú	él	nosotros	vosotros	ellos
reí	reíste	rio / rió	reímos	reísteis	rieron

Three things to flag:

The yo, tú, nosotros, and vosotros forms keep an accented í in hiatus with the preceding e: re-í, re-ís-te, re-í-mos, re-ís-teis. The accent is structural — without it the syllabic structure of the word changes.
The él/ella/usted form is officially rio (no accent) under the 2010 Ortografía de la lengua española. The reasoning: under modern syllabification rules rio is treated as a monosyllable (one syllable: rjo), and Spanish monosyllables are not accented. Before 2010 the standard spelling was rió (with the accent, treating it as two syllables); many native speakers in Spain still write it that way out of habit, and the RAE accepts both. Modern style guides and exams prefer rio. This page lists the modern recommended form first.
The ellos form is rieron — the e>i shift of -ir stem-changers always shows up in the 3rd-person plural preterite, exactly like pidieron, sirvieron, durmieron.

Anoche reí más en dos horas que en toda la semana, gracias a aquel monologuista.

Last night I laughed more in two hours than in the whole week, thanks to that stand-up comedian.

Mi padre rio con ganas cuando le contamos el chiste, y eso ya es decir mucho.

My father laughed heartily when we told him the joke, and that's saying something.

Pretérito imperfecto — accent on every form

yo	tú	él	nosotros	vosotros	ellos
reía	reías	reía	reíamos	reíais	reían

The imperfect of -ir verbs takes endings -ía, -ías, -ía, -íamos, -íais, -ían, and the accent on the í of every ending is mandatory (it sits in hiatus with the preceding e). No stem change here — the e stays as e throughout. This is the natural tense for habitual or backgrounded laughter — "we used to laugh, we were laughing when..."

De pequeños mi hermano y yo nos reíamos a carcajadas viendo a Mortadelo.

When we were little, my brother and I would laugh out loud watching Mortadelo.

Futuro simple — no accent on the stem

yo	tú	él	nosotros	vosotros	ellos
reiré	reirás	reirá	reiremos	reiréis	reirán

The future is regular and built on the unaccented infinitive stem reir-, with the standard accented endings (-é, -ás, -á, -emos, -éis, -án). No accent on the stem í here because the stress is on the ending.

Te juro que al final reiré yo, ya verás.

I swear I'll be the one laughing in the end, you'll see.

Condicional — no accent on the stem

yo	tú	él	nosotros	vosotros	ellos
reiría	reirías	reiría	reiríamos	reiríais	reirían

Same logic as the future: regular endings on the unaccented stem.

Yo no me reiría de él, podría oírte.

I wouldn't laugh at him — he might hear you.

Indicative — compound tenses

All compound tenses pair haber with the regular (but accented) participle reído.

Pretérito perfecto compuesto

yo	tú	él	nosotros	vosotros	ellos
he reído	has reído	ha reído	hemos reído	habéis reído	han reído

Hoy me he reído tanto que me duele la barriga.

I've laughed so much today that my belly hurts.

Pretérito pluscuamperfecto

yo	tú	él	nosotros	vosotros	ellos
había reído	habías reído	había reído	habíamos reído	habíais reído	habían reído

Nunca me había reído tanto con una película española.

I'd never laughed so much at a Spanish film.

Futuro compuesto

yo	tú	él	nosotros	vosotros	ellos
habré reído	habrás reído	habrá reído	habremos reído	habréis reído	habrán reído

Para cuando acabe la noche ya habremos reído todos a más no poder.

By the end of the night we'll all have laughed our heads off.

Condicional compuesto

yo	tú	él	nosotros	vosotros	ellos
habría reído	habrías reído	habría reído	habríamos reído	habríais reído	habrían reído

Yo me habría reído más, pero estaba sentado al lado del jefe.

I would have laughed more, but I was sitting next to the boss.

Subjunctive — simple tenses

Presente de subjuntivo — accents in the boot

yo	tú	él	nosotros	vosotros	ellos
ría	rías	ría	riamos	riais	rían

The present subjunctive of reír shows the e>i shift in every form (unlike the present indicative, which spares nosotros/vosotros) — because -ir stem-changers extend the shift throughout the subjunctive. So ría, rías, ría, rían in the boot all take the accented í, where the stress is on the í in hiatus with the -a of the ending. The nosotros/vosotros forms riamos, riais keep the i but lose the accent — the stress falls on the -a- of the ending (ri-A-mos, ri-AIS), so the i is unstressed.

In practice the riamos / riais forms are vanishingly rare in spoken Spain; you would more typically rephrase the sentence to avoid them.

No quiero que te rías de mí cuando lea el poema en voz alta.

I don't want you to laugh at me when I read the poem out loud.

Es normal que se rían, el chiste es buenísimo.

It's only natural that they're laughing — the joke is hilarious.

Imperfecto de subjuntivo (-ra / -se)

	yo	tú	él	nosotros	vosotros	ellos
-ra	riera	rieras	riera	riéramos	rierais	rieran
-se	riese	rieses	riese	riésemos	rieseis	riesen

Built off the 3pl preterite stem rie- (just like every Spanish imperfect subjunctive). The e>i shift carries over from the preterite. The nosotros forms take an accent on the é of the ending (riéramos, riésemos) because of standard penultimate-stress rules. -ra dominates in everyday peninsular Spanish; -se is reserved for formal writing.

Le pedí que no se riera, pero no pudo contenerse.

I asked her not to laugh, but she couldn't help it.

Subjunctive — compound tenses

Pretérito perfecto de subjuntivo

yo	tú	él	nosotros	vosotros	ellos
haya reído	hayas reído	haya reído	hayamos reído	hayáis reído	hayan reído

Me extraña que no os hayáis reído con el monólogo, era buenísimo.

I'm surprised you all didn't laugh at the stand-up — it was hilarious.

Pluscuamperfecto de subjuntivo

	yo	tú	él	nosotros	vosotros	ellos
-ra	hubiera reído	hubieras reído	hubiera reído	hubiéramos reído	hubierais reído	hubieran reído
-se	hubiese reído	hubieses reído	hubiese reído	hubiésemos reído	hubieseis reído	hubiesen reído

Si te hubieras reído un poco menos a mi costa, igual ahora te hablaría.

If you'd laughed a bit less at my expense, maybe I'd be speaking to you now.

Imperative

Form	Affirmative	Negative
tú	ríe	no rías
usted	ría	no ría
nosotros	riamos	no riamos
vosotros	reíd	no riais
ustedes	rían	no rían

The vosotros affirmative imperative is reíd (with the accent on í, because of the e-í hiatus). The negative vosotros form no riais loses the accent — the stress shifts onto the -a- of the ending.

Ríete, hombre, que no es para tanto.

Come on, laugh — it's not that bad.

No os riais de él, que se está esforzando mucho.

(To a group) Don't laugh at him — he's making a big effort.

When pronouns attach to the imperative, write them as one word and keep (or add) the accent that preserves the original stress: ríete, ríase, ríanse. The vosotros form reíd drops its final -d before the reflexive pronoun -os, giving reíos (laugh!, to a group with the reflexive se of reírse).

Reíos todo lo que queráis, pero al final llevaré yo razón.

(To a group) Laugh all you want, but I'll be the one who turns out right.

Reír vs reírse — non-reflexive vs reflexive

Reír exists in two flavours: the bare verb reír and the reflexive reírse. They mean essentially the same thing — to laugh — but Spanish strongly prefers the reflexive form in everyday spoken language, especially when the laughter is at someone or something specific.

	reír	reírse
Form	plain verb	reflexive (me, te, se, nos, os, se)
Frequency in Spain	less common, slightly more literary	dominant in everyday speech
"Laugh at X"	(rare without reflexive)	reírse de algo / de alguien
Example	Reír es sano.	Me río con ella.

The fixed phrase reírse de means to laugh at (in the mocking sense) or to make fun of. The preposition de is obligatory in this construction.

Se rieron de mí porque pronuncié mal el nombre del vino.

They laughed at me because I mispronounced the wine's name.

No te rías de cómo bailo, que tú no lo haces mejor.

Don't laugh at the way I dance — you don't do it any better.

For neutral "I laugh, I'm laughing" with no specific target, both forms are possible, but me río sounds more natural in spoken Spain than río. Yo río without the reflexive is mostly literary or proverbial ("el que ríe el último ríe mejor").

High-frequency collocations from peninsular Spanish

Phrase	Translation
reírse de algo / alguien	to laugh at, make fun of
reírse a carcajadas	to laugh out loud, to belly-laugh
reírse en la cara de alguien	to laugh in someone's face
echarse a reír	to burst out laughing
partirse de risa / morirse de risa	to die laughing (extremely common in Spain)
quien ríe el último, ríe mejor	he who laughs last, laughs best
de risa	laughable, ridiculous (e.g. el sueldo es de risa)
no tener gracia / dar risa	to be funny / to make someone laugh

Me parto de risa contigo, tío, en serio.

I die laughing with you, man, seriously. (very common Spain phrase, informal)

El precio del alquiler es de risa, y no en el buen sentido.

The rent prices are laughable — and not in a good way.

The classic English-speaker error

English speakers do three things wrong with reír. First, they drop the accents: rio, ries, rie, rien, rei, reiste, reimos — all wrong. The accent is mandatory wherever the stem í is stressed and in hiatus with another vowel, which is most of the paradigm. Second, they forget the reflexive: they say río de él instead of me río de él. In Spain, reírse is the everyday form, and the bare reír in conversation sounds unnatural unless followed by a specific clause (reír es sano). Third, they drop the de in "laugh at": they say se rió mí or me río él, neither of which is Spanish. The preposition de is obligatory with reírse when an object follows.

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If a form of reír has í (the i of the stem) sitting next to another vowel and the i is stressed, it takes an accent. That covers almost every personal form in the present, the preterite outside the 3sg, and the entire imperfect. The forms without an accent are the modern 3sg preterite rio (one syllable under the 2010 RAE rule), the gerund riendo, the nosotros/vosotros subjunctive riamos / riais, and the full future and conditional, where the stress is on the ending.

Common Mistakes

❌ Yo rio mucho con mis amigos.

The yo form of reír carries an accent: río (two syllables: rí-o). Rio without the accent is the noun river, and a reader will parse it as a different word.

✅ Yo me río mucho con mis amigos.

I laugh a lot with my friends.

❌ Anoche rei mucho viendo la película.

The yo preterite needs the accent: reí (two syllables, re-í), with the í in hiatus with the preceding e.

✅ Anoche reí mucho viendo la película.

Last night I laughed a lot watching the film.

❌ Se rió de mí en mi cara. (in modern style)

Since the 2010 RAE Ortografía, the 3sg preterite is treated as a monosyllable and written rio without the accent. The old rió is still accepted but discouraged in careful modern writing.

✅ Se rio de mí en mi cara.

She laughed in my face. (modern style)

❌ Me río él porque baila muy mal.

The reflexive reírse requires the preposition de when a target follows. Without it, the sentence is ungrammatical.

✅ Me río de él porque baila muy mal.

I laugh at him because he dances really badly.

❌ Reid todos juntos, que es contagioso. (intended as a command)

The peninsular vosotros affirmative imperative is reíd (with the accent on í), not reid. The accent marks the e-í hiatus.

✅ Reíd todos juntos, que es contagioso.

(To a group) Laugh all together — it's contagious.

Key Takeaways

Reír combines three difficulties: an e>i stem change in the boot, an obligatory written accent on í whenever it sits in hiatus with another vowel and is stressed, and the dominant reflexive form reírse, which requires de before its target.
The present indicative boot is río, ríes, ríe, ríen, all with accents; reímos, reís also carry the accent because the í is stressed and in hiatus with the preceding e.
The 3sg preterite is now standardly rio (no accent, RAE 2010 recommendation), though rió (with accent) is still widely seen and accepted.
The 3pl preterite is rieron (e>i shift); the imperfect subjunctive uses the same stem (riera, riese).
The participle is regular but accented: reído. All compound tenses use haber reído.
The peninsular vosotros affirmative imperative is reíd (with accent); with the reflexive -os it becomes reíos.
Reírse de = to laugh at / make fun of. The preposition is mandatory.
Partirse de risa, morirse de risa, a carcajadas are essential idioms in spoken Spain.

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