romper

Romper means to break — to shatter, snap, tear, or fracture something. Across every simple tense it behaves exactly like a textbook regular -er verb (think comer with a different stem): rompo, rompes, rompe; rompí, rompiste, rompió; rompía, rompías…. The only irregularity hides in the compound tenses: instead of the expected rompido, the past participle is roto. That single irregular form propagates through every compound tense (he roto, había roto, habré roto, habría roto, haya roto, hubiera roto) and also serves as an adjective meaning broken (el cristal está roto, una promesa rota, los vaqueros rotos).

There is a second layer that English speakers usually miss: in Spain, when something breaks accidentally — and the speaker doesn't want to claim agency — the verb almost always appears with se in what grammarians call the accidental se or se de involuntariedad. Se me ha roto el móvil is far more natural than he roto el móvil if the breakage was an accident. The reflexive structure shifts the blame onto the object itself, while you, the speaker, become the dative-indirect-object victim. This is a feature of Spanish that English has no equivalent for, and romper is one of the most common verbs that takes it.

Non-finite forms

The gerund rompiendo is regular — romp- + -iendo, no stem change. The participle roto is the headline irregularity, and it doubles as an adjective in everyday Spanish (el plato roto, los pantalones rotos) and as a noun (tienes un roto en la rodilla = you've got a tear in your knee of your trousers). It also appears in fixed phrases: vaqueros rotos (ripped jeans, a fashion staple in Spain), un corazón roto (a broken heart), promesas rotas (broken promises).

Indicative — simple tenses

Presente — fully regular

Standard -er endings throughout. The vosotros form rompéis carries a written accent on the é because Spanish stress rules would otherwise place the stress on the first syllable (rómpeis).

Pretérito perfecto simple — fully regular

Like all regular -er verbs, the preterite endings are -í, -iste, -ió, -imos, -isteis, -ieron — identical to comer → comí, comiste, comió, comimos, comisteis, comieron. Note that rompimos is identical in present and preterite — only context disambiguates.

Pretérito imperfecto — fully regular

The imperfect is the natural tense for habitual breakages — "she was always breaking things" — and for narrative backdrop.

Futuro simple — fully regular

Condicional — fully regular

Indicative — compound tenses

This is where the irregular participle takes over. Every compound tense pairs haber with roto.

Pretérito perfecto compuesto

In Spain the pretérito perfecto compuesto is the natural choice for breakages connected to "today, this week, recently": acabo de romper el vaso / he roto el vaso. This is one of the most common contexts in which the irregular participle shows up — and one of the most common places where learners default to ❌ rompido.

Pretérito pluscuamperfecto

Futuro compuesto

Condicional compuesto

Subjunctive — simple tenses

Presente de subjuntivo — fully regular

Standard -er subjunctive endings (-a / -as / -a / -amos / -áis / -an), built off the yo-form stem romp-.

Imperfecto de subjuntivo (-ra / -se)

Built off the 3pl preterite stem rompie-. The -ra set dominates in Spain; -se is reserved for formal writing.

Subjunctive — compound tenses

Pretérito perfecto de subjuntivo

Pluscuamperfecto de subjuntivo

Imperative

The peninsular vosotros affirmative imperative is romped (infinitive minus the -r, plus -d).

When pronouns attach to the affirmative imperative, write them as one word with a written accent that preserves the original stress: rómpelo, rómpeselo, rómpaselo. The vosotros form romped drops its final -d before reflexive -os: rompeos (in the rare case you'd say "break yourselves" or "break up among yourselves").

The accidental se — se me ha roto

This is the most important construction to internalize for romper. When something breaks accidentally and the speaker doesn't want to take agency for it, Spanish almost always reaches for se me ha roto X (literally: it has broken on me).

The structure has three parts:

1. Se — marks the verb as middle / non-volitional. The thing broke, but no one "did" it actively.
2. An indirect-object pronoun (me, te, le, nos, os, les) — marks the person it happened to, the "affected party." Optional but extremely common.
3. The verb agrees with the actual subject — the thing that broke.

The key point: in English you say I broke my phone. In Spanish — unless you actually smashed it deliberately — you say se me ha roto el móvil. Using he roto el móvil implies you broke it on purpose, which is dramatic and rare. The accidental se is one of the highest-impact features of Spanish for English speakers to learn, and romper is the verb where it shows up most often.

Roto — the participle with three lives

The irregular participle roto leads three productive lives in everyday Spanish.

1. With haber — compound tense participle

2. As an adjective — modifies a noun

3. As a noun — a hole or tear (especially in clothing)

In Spain, un roto means a tear, a hole in fabric. The fashion item vaqueros rotos (literally broken jeans) means ripped jeans. You'll also hear un roto used metaphorically: hacer un roto = to cause damage / harm.

Romper — beyond breaking things

Romper has several productive idiomatic uses in Spain.

The construction romper a + infinitivo is worth a special note. It means to suddenly burst into doing something — typically crying, laughing, or singing. It is a slightly elevated register but is used in everyday speech, especially with llorar and reír.

The classic English-speaker error

English speakers reliably write ❌ he rompido. This is the single most predictable mistake with romper: because the verb is regular in every simple tense, learners assume the participle must also follow the pattern and write rompido. This form does not exist in standard Spanish. The participle is always roto, in every compound tense, every passive construction, and every adjectival use.

A second error: forgetting the accidental se. English speakers say I broke my phone without thinking, and translate it word-for-word as ❌ he roto mi móvil — which in Spanish sounds like I deliberately broke my phone (and also has a slightly stilted possessive mi where Spanish would use the definite article). The natural translation is se me ha roto el móvil. The accidental se is grammatically required, not optional, whenever the breakage was unintentional.

Common Mistakes

Key Takeaways

• Romper is a fully regular -er verb in every simple tense — present, preterite, imperfect, future, conditional, both subjunctive sets, all imperatives.
• The only irregularity is the past participle: roto (not the expected rompido, which does not exist).
• Roto propagates through every compound tense (he roto, había roto, habré roto, habría roto, haya roto, hubiera roto) and also serves as an adjective and a noun.
• The peninsular vosotros affirmative imperative is romped; the negative is no rompáis.
• For accidental breakages, Spanish strongly prefers the accidental se construction: se me ha roto X. Using a transitive he roto X implies deliberate action.
• Roto as an adjective means broken (in any sense — physical, emotional, contractual); as a noun it means a hole or tear in fabric.
• Romper a + infinitivo = to burst into (crying / laughing / singing). Romper con alguien = to break up with someone. Romper el hielo = to break the ice.
• The whole -bierto/-uesto/-oto/-uelto family of irregular participles (abierto, cubierto, escrito, dicho, hecho, puesto, roto, vuelto, resuelto, visto) is worth learning as a closed list — outside this list, almost every Spanish participle is regular.