cerrar

Cerrar is a Spanish verb meaning to close or shut, in physical senses (a door, a window) and in figurative ones (to conclude, to end). Its etymology traces to the Latin verb serrare, passing through Old Spanish, and it has cognates in other Romance languages such as Portuguese cerrar. The verb is highly common and appears across many fixed expressions and constructions.

In the present tense, cerrar is a stem-changing verb: the stem vowel changes from e to ie in all forms except nosotros and vosotros. For example: cierro, cierras, cierra, cerramos, cerráis, cierran. Other tenses follow regular -ar conjugation patterns with standard irregularities for common forms: pretérito indefinido cerré, cerraste, cerró, cerramos, cerrasteis, cerraron; imperfect cerraba, cerrabas, cerraba, cerrábamos, cerrabais, cerraban; subjunctive present cierre, cierres, cierre, cerremos, cerréis, cierren. The imperative forms are: cierra (tú), cierre (usted), cerremos (nosotros), cerrad (vosotros), cierren (ustedes).

Cerrar is transitive and intransitive, used to indicate closing a physical object or a process, as well as ending an activity or phase. Examples include cerrar una puerta, cerrar una tienda, cerrar un trato, o cerrar los ojos. It also appears in many idioms such as cerrar con llave (to lock with a key), cerrar el paso (to block passage), or cerrar filas (to close ranks). The participle is cerrado, and the noun forms include el cierre (the act of closing, a closing or shut).

Related forms include cerradura (lock), cierre (closing), and cierre de lote or cierre de sesión in computing contexts.