Salir — "to leave, to go out, to come out, to turn out" — is one of the most-used motion verbs in Spanish and one whose semantic range stretches well beyond English leave or go out. The sun sale in the morning, dinner te sale well or badly, a stain sale from a shirt, an article sale in tomorrow's paper, a teenager sale con his first girlfriend, and a worried parent asks ¿con quién sales? The verb is built on a small but dense set of irregularities: a yo-go present (salgo), a dropped-vowel future (saldré, not saliré), and the famous short tú imperative sal — one of only eight in the language.
Pedagogically salir belongs in the first 50 verbs every learner masters. It appears in every conversation about plans, in the weather and dawn vocabulary, in cooking, in dating, in the news. Get the irregularities once and you have access to all of it.
Non-finite forms
| Form | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Infinitivo | salir | to leave, to go out |
| Infinitivo compuesto | haber salido | to have left, to have gone out |
| Gerundio | saliendo | leaving, going out |
| Gerundio compuesto | habiendo salido | having left, having gone out |
| Participio | salido | left, gone out |
The participle and gerund are perfectly regular. Every compound tense — and the passive — uses salido without complication.
Indicative — simple tenses
Presente
| yo | tú | él/ella/usted | nosotros | vosotros | ellos/ellas/ustedes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| salgo | sales | sale | salimos | salís | salen |
The yo form salgo is the classic yo-go pattern shared with tener (tengo), poner (pongo), hacer (hago), decir (digo), oír (oigo), valer (valgo), venir (vengo). The remaining five forms attach regular -ir endings to the stem sal-. There is no vowel change of any kind in the rest of the present.
Salgo a correr todas las mañanas antes de que aprieten los coches.
I go out running every morning before the traffic gets bad.
¿A qué hora salís del trabajo los viernes?
What time do you all leave work on Fridays?
Pretérito perfecto simple
| yo | tú | él | nosotros | vosotros | ellos |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| salí | saliste | salió | salimos | salisteis | salieron |
The preterite is fully regular — built on the stem sal- with the standard -ir preterite endings. Note that the nosotros form salimos is identical to the present indicative salimos; context disambiguates.
Anoche salimos a tomar unas cañas y se nos hizo la una de la madrugada.
Last night we went out for a few beers and ended up staying until one in the morning.
La carta salió en la edición digital justo esta mañana.
The letter came out in the digital edition this very morning.
Pretérito imperfecto
| yo | tú | él | nosotros | vosotros | ellos |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| salía | salías | salía | salíamos | salíais | salían |
Fully regular -ir imperfect. The accent on the í is obligatory in every form.
De jóvenes salíamos casi todos los sábados y aguantábamos hasta el primer metro.
When we were young we used to go out almost every Saturday and would last until the first metro.
Futuro simple
| yo | tú | él | nosotros | vosotros | ellos |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| saldré | saldrás | saldrá | saldremos | saldréis | saldrán |
The future stem is saldr- — the -i- of the infinitive drops and a d slips in to keep the consonant cluster pronounceable. This -dr- pattern is shared with tener/tendré, poner/pondré, venir/vendré, valer/valdré. Without the d, the cluster salré would be hard to pronounce; the d makes it flow.
Mañana saldré a las siete para evitar los atascos.
Tomorrow I'll leave at seven to avoid the traffic jams.
Si seguimos así, no saldremos nunca de la deuda.
If we keep going like this, we'll never get out of debt.
Condicional
| yo | tú | él | nosotros | vosotros | ellos |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| saldría | saldrías | saldría | saldríamos | saldríais | saldrían |
Same saldr- stem as the future, with conditional endings -ía, -ías, -ía, -íamos, -íais, -ían.
Yo no saldría sin paraguas con el cielo como está.
I wouldn't go out without an umbrella with the sky looking like that.
Indicative — compound tenses
All compound tenses pair haber with the regular participle salido.
Pretérito perfecto compuesto
| yo | tú | él | nosotros | vosotros | ellos |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| he salido | has salido | ha salido | hemos salido | habéis salido | han salido |
In peninsular Spanish this is the default tense for going-out events earlier today or within an open period: Esta semana hemos salido tres veces.
Hoy he salido tarde del curro y ya no me da tiempo a nada.
Today I got out of work late and now I haven't got time for anything.
Pretérito pluscuamperfecto
| yo | tú | él | nosotros | vosotros | ellos |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| había salido | habías salido | había salido | habíamos salido | habíais salido | habían salido |
Cuando llamaste, ya habíamos salido para el aeropuerto.
When you called, we'd already left for the airport.
Futuro compuesto
| yo | tú | él | nosotros | vosotros | ellos |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| habré salido | habrás salido | habrá salido | habremos salido | habréis salido | habrán salido |
Condicional compuesto
| yo | tú | él | nosotros | vosotros | ellos |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| habría salido | habrías salido | habría salido | habríamos salido | habríais salido | habrían salido |
Si me hubieras avisado, habría salido contigo de buena gana.
If you'd let me know, I'd have happily gone out with you.
Subjunctive — simple tenses
Presente de subjuntivo
| yo | tú | él | nosotros | vosotros | ellos |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| salga | salgas | salga | salgamos | salgáis | salgan |
The present subjunctive is built on the yo-go stem salg- — the universal rule for yo-go verbs: take the yo form, drop the -o, add the opposite-vowel endings. Salgo → salg- → salga, salgas, salga, salgamos, salgáis, salgan.
No quiero que salgáis tan tarde, mañana hay que madrugar.
I don't want you all to go out so late — tomorrow we have to get up early.
Cuando salga el sol, ya estaremos a medio camino.
By the time the sun comes up, we'll be halfway there.
Imperfecto de subjuntivo (-ra / -se)
| yo | tú | él | nosotros | vosotros | ellos | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| -ra | saliera | salieras | saliera | saliéramos | salierais | salieran |
| -se | saliese | salieses | saliese | saliésemos | salieseis | saliesen |
Both sets are built on the regular preterite stem sal- — no irregularity here. -ra dominates in spoken Spain.
Me dijo que saliéramos por la puerta de atrás para no llamar la atención.
She told us to leave through the back door so as not to attract attention.
Subjunctive — compound tenses
Pretérito perfecto de subjuntivo
| yo | tú | él | nosotros | vosotros | ellos |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| haya salido | hayas salido | haya salido | hayamos salido | hayáis salido | hayan salido |
Es raro que no haya salido todavía la sentencia, llevan meses con esto.
It's odd the verdict hasn't come out yet — they've been on this for months.
Pluscuamperfecto de subjuntivo
| yo | tú | él | nosotros | vosotros | ellos | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| -ra | hubiera salido | hubieras salido | hubiera salido | hubiéramos salido | hubierais salido | hubieran salido |
| -se | hubiese salido | hubieses salido | hubiese salido | hubiésemos salido | hubieseis salido | hubiesen salido |
Si hubiéramos salido diez minutos antes, no habríamos perdido el vuelo.
If we'd left ten minutes earlier, we wouldn't have missed the flight.
Imperative
| Form | Affirmative | Negative |
|---|---|---|
| tú | sal | no salgas |
| usted | salga | no salga |
| nosotros | salgamos | no salgamos |
| vosotros | salid | no salgáis |
| ustedes | salgan | no salgan |
The affirmative tú imperative sal is one of the eight notorious short imperatives in Spanish: di, haz, pon, ten, sal, ven, ve, sé. The infinitive ending is sliced off; nothing replaces it. Without this shortening, the form would be sale, identical to the third-person present indicative — ambiguous and confusing.
The vosotros affirmative is the regular salid (drop the infinitive -r, add -d). Note that with the reflexive salirse, the -d of the vosotros affirmative drops before the clitic os: salíos — a form rarely used in speech but technically correct.
Sal a la calle, te van a sentar bien diez minutos de aire.
Go outside — ten minutes of fresh air will do you good.
No salgáis del aula hasta que toque el timbre.
(to a class) Don't leave the classroom until the bell rings.
Salid del baño que llevamos media hora esperando.
(to a group) Come out of the bathroom — we've been waiting half an hour.
Salir + preposition — the matrix English speakers must memorise
The prepositions that follow salir change the meaning radically. This is where most English-speaker errors with the verb originate.
| Construction | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| salir de + place | to leave (a place), to come out of | Salgo de casa a las ocho. |
| salir a + place / activity | to go out to (a place), to go out for (an activity) | Salimos a la terraza. Salimos a cenar. |
| salir con + person | to date (someone), to be going out with | Sale con un chico francés. |
| salir para + destination | to leave for (a destination) | Salimos para Bilbao mañana temprano. |
| salir en + medium | to appear in / on (TV, the paper, a film) | Sale en la tele esta noche. |
| salir a + person | to take after (a relative) | Ha salido a su padre, es igual de testarudo. |
| salir por + amount | to come out to / to end up costing | Nos sale por unos cincuenta euros. |
The construction salir con to mean date deserves special attention: English speakers learning Spanish reach for citarse con (which means to make an appointment, not to date) or worse, the calque datear. The native verb for to be dating in Spain is salir con: Llevamos seis meses saliendo ("we've been going out for six months").
The construction salir a + person to mean take after is unique to Spanish (and Portuguese) — there is no clean English equivalent. Ha salido a su madre en lo terco — "She takes after her mother in being stubborn."
Salgo con Marta desde la fiesta de Reyes, llevamos ya unos cinco meses.
I've been going out with Marta since the Three Kings party — about five months now.
Mi hijo ha salido a su abuelo en lo cabezota.
My son takes after his grandfather in being pig-headed.
La cena nos salió por veinte euros por cabeza, una ganga.
Dinner came out to twenty euros a head — a bargain.
The semantic family of salir
Beyond the preposition matrix, salir covers an enormous range of senses worth knowing:
- The sun rising: El sol sale a las siete cuarenta (the sun rises at 7:40). Always salir, never subir.
- A stain coming out: La mancha no me sale (the stain won't come out).
- A photo or dish turning out: La paella te ha salido buenísima (the paella has turned out great). With an indirect-object pronoun, salir gives a sense of "it turned out [well/badly] for [someone]."
- Teeth coming through: Al bebé le están saliendo los dientes (the baby is teething).
- A film or book being released: Sale en agosto la nueva temporada (the new season comes out in August).
- Costing in the end: Te sale más barato comprar el bono mensual (it works out cheaper to buy the monthly pass).
- An item being on sale / on the market: Han salido al mercado dos modelos nuevos.
Esta paella te ha salido de diez, en serio.
This paella has turned out brilliantly — honestly.
Al niño le están saliendo los dientes y no nos deja dormir.
The baby is teething and won't let us sleep.
Salir vs salirse — the reflexive shift
Spanish allows you to add the reflexive se to salir, producing salirse. The change of meaning is subtle but real:
- Salir de = to leave (a place), neutrally
- Salirse de = to leave (a place) abruptly, unexpectedly, or off-course
Examples:
- Salí de la reunión a las cinco — I left the meeting at five (the normal end time).
- Me salí de la reunión a los diez minutos — I walked out of the meeting after ten minutes (in protest or out of frustration).
- El coche se salió de la carretera — The car went off the road (lost control, not "left the road normally").
- La olla se sale — The pot is boiling over.
This subtle deviation-from-normal sense is one of the most useful aspectual marks se carries in Spanish. English speakers leave the se out and lose the nuance.
Se salió del cine antes de que acabara la peli, dijo que era insufrible.
He walked out of the cinema before the film ended — said it was unbearable.
High-frequency collocations from peninsular Spanish
| Phrase | Translation |
|---|---|
| salir a tomar algo | to go out for a drink / snack |
| salir de copas / de cañas | to go out drinking (cañas = small draught beers) |
| salir de marcha | to go out partying (informal) |
| salir adelante | to get by, to make it through |
| salir del paso | to muddle through, to get out of a tight spot |
| salir bien / mal (algo) | for something to turn out well / badly |
| salir caro / barato | to end up expensive / cheap |
| salir al paso (de alguien) | to come out to challenge (someone), to confront |
| salir de dudas | to clear something up, to settle one's doubts |
| salir por peteneras | (idiom) to go off on an irrelevant tangent |
Salir de marcha is the standard peninsular expression for going out for a long, alcohol-fuelled evening — emphatically about partying, not a casual drink. Salir de cañas is the lower-key, after-work version.
Este finde salimos de cañas por La Latina, ¿te vienes?
This weekend we're going for some beers around La Latina — are you up for it?
Common Mistakes
❌ Salo de casa a las ocho.
The yo form of salir is the yo-go form salgo, not salo.
✅ Salgo de casa a las ocho.
I leave the house at eight.
❌ Mañana saliré temprano.
The future of salir uses the -dr- stem: saldré, saldrás, saldrá, saldremos, saldréis, saldrán.
✅ Mañana saldré temprano.
Tomorrow I'll leave early.
❌ Sale tú primero, yo voy detrás.
The affirmative tú imperative of salir is the short irregular form sal, not sale (which is the present indicative).
✅ Sal tú primero, yo voy detrás.
You go out first — I'll come behind.
❌ Estoy saliendo a María desde hace tres meses.
To date someone, the construction is salir con, not salir a. Salir a means to go out to (a place) or to take after (a relative).
✅ Estoy saliendo con María desde hace tres meses.
I've been dating María for three months.
❌ Salimos del aeropuerto a Barcelona a las nueve.
To express the destination of a departure, Spanish uses para, not a. Salir a + place is for activities or short trips out; salir para + place is for long-distance destinations.
✅ Salimos para Barcelona a las nueve.
We're leaving for Barcelona at nine.
Key Takeaways
- Salir has three irregular zones: the yo-go present salgo (which builds the entire present subjunctive salga, salgas…), the -dr- future and conditional stem saldr-, and the short tú imperative sal.
- Everywhere else salir is a regular -ir verb — including the preterite (salí, salió), the imperfect (salía), and the participle (salido).
- Salir takes a matrix of prepositions: de (leave a place), a (go out to), con (date), para (leave for), en (appear in/on), a
- person (take after), por (cost in the end).
- Salir con is the standard verb for dating in Spain — not datear, not citarse con.
- The reflexive salirse adds a nuance of abruptness or deviation: me salí de la reunión (I walked out), el coche se salió de la carretera (the car went off the road).
- The verb is also used for things turning out (me ha salido bien), for the sun rising, for stains coming out, and for releases (films, books, products).
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- Verbos con 'yo' en -go: tener, poner, salir, hacer, venir, decirA2 — The yo-go family — a dozen high-frequency verbs whose only present-tense irregularity is an inserted -g- in the first-person singular.
- Futuro: raíces irregularesB1 — The twelve Spanish verbs with irregular future stems — tendr-, pondr-, saldr-, vendr-, valdr-, podr-, sabr-, cabr-, querr-, habr-, har-, dir- — grouped by pattern, with the same endings as regular verbs and the bonus that these stems also power the conditional.
- Imperativo afirmativo de tú: irregularesA2 — The eight famous monosyllabic tú commands — di, haz, ve, pon, sal, sé, ten, ven — that every Spanish learner must memorise.
- Imperativo afirmativo de vosotros: ¡hablad!A2 — The peninsular affirmative vosotros command — replace the -r of the infinitive with -d, drop the -d before reflexives, and never substitute the infinitive.
- irA1 — Full conjugation reference for ir (to go) — one of the most irregular and most frequent verbs in Spanish. Covers the suppletive present (voy, vas, va), the preterite that is identical to ser (fui, fuiste, fue), the imperfect borrowed from Latin (iba), the bare-bones monosyllabic imperative ve, and the cardinal periphrastic future ir a + infinitive that has displaced the morphological future in everyday peninsular speech.
- venirA1 — Full conjugation reference for venir (to come) — one of the most irregular -ir verbs in Spanish. Combines a yo-go (vengo), an e→ie stem change, a u-stem strong preterite (vine, vino with no accents), a dropped-vowel future (vendré), and a short tú imperative (ven). Includes the venir de + infinitive and venir a + infinitive constructions.