venir

Venir is a Spanish verb that primarily means “to come” or “to arrive.” It is used for movement toward the speaker or a specified location, and it also appears in many idiomatic expressions and periphrastic constructions. Beyond physical movement, venir can indicate events, progress, or sequence, as in phrases like “¿Qué viene a ser eso?” or “Lo que viene después.”

Etymology and cognates: Venir derives from Latin venire, to come. It is cognate with verbs in other Romance languages, such as French venir, Italian venire, and Portuguese vir. The core idea of approaching or arriving is shared across these languages.

Conjugation and irregularities: Venir is irregular and involves a shift in its stem across tenses. In the present indicative: vengo, vienes, viene, venimos, venís, vienen. The preterite forms are vine, viniste, vino, vinimos, vinisteis, vinieron. Imperfect forms: venía, venías, venía, veníamos, veníais, venían. The future uses the stem vendr-: vendré, vendrás, vendrá, vendremos, vendréis, venderán. The conditional forms are vendría, vendrías, vendría, venderíamos, vendríais, venderían. Present subjunctive: venga, vengas, venga, vengamos, vengáis, vengan. Imperfect subjunctive is commonly viniera (or viniese), with corresponding forms vinieras, viniera, viniéramos/viniésemos, vinierais, vinieran/viniesen. Imperative forms are: ven, venga, vengamos, venid, vengan (affirmative); no vengas, no venga, no vengamos, no vengáis, no vengan (negative).

Usage notes: Venir expresses movement toward the speaker or a destination, and it features in expressions of time, intention, or sequence. It can be combined with de to indicate a recent action in some dialects (e.g., venir de hacer algo), though acabar de is standard for “have just done.” It also appears in phrases like venir bien/mal (to suit or to be advantageous/disadvantageous) and venir a with purposes or outcomes, as in “voy a venir a ayudarte” or “esto viene a significar…”