Vender Conjugation: Preterite & Subjunctive

Instructor: Elena Sacramento Lechado

Elena teaches Spanish as a foreign language and has a PhD in linguistics.

In this lesson we explain how to use the verb ''vender'' ('to sell') in the preterite and the subjunctive. Learn how to talk about things you or someone else sold or how to express wishes and possibilities.

Introducing the Verb Vender

Have you ever sold a car or an old bike? Have you or your family ever sold anything at the street market? Or maybe at any second-hand stores? When was the last time someone sold you a handcrafted souvenir or a lottery ticket?

You will need the verb vender (pronounced: behn-DEHR), 'to sell', to talk about this in Spanish. Follow Sara and her friends in this story to learn how to use this verb properly in the preterite and subjunctive.

Vender en el mercadillo (To sell at the street market)

Preterite of Vender

The preterite is a tense we use to talk about past actions that are finished or over. Use it to say that you sold something or someone else sold something to you yesterday, last month or at any time in the past.

The good news is that vender is a regular verb, so to form its preterite just take its stem (vend-) and add the following endings:

VERB: vender (behn-DEHR) - to sell

Subject Pronouns Vender Conjugation:
Pronunciation Translation
yo vendí (behn-DEE) I sold
vendiste (behn-DEES-teh) you sold
él/ella/usted vend (behn-DYOH) he/she/you (formal) sold
nosotros/nosotras vendimos (behn-DEE-mohs) we sold
vosotros/vosotras vendisteis (behn-DEES-tays) you all sold
ellos/ellas/ustedes vendieron (behn-DYEH-rohn) they/you all (formal) sold

Example Conversation

Sara and her classmates are saving for the end-of-year school trip, but their pocket money is not enough! So they are looking for ideas to earn some money.

Her cousin, Pablo, tells her: Mi amigos y yo vendimos cosas en el mercadillo el año pasado. ('My friends and I sold stuff at the street market last year.')

Sara: ¡Genial! ('Awesome!') ¿Qué vendisteis? ('What did you (all) sell?')

Pablo: Algunos de mis amigos vendieron pasteles caseros y velas, y yo vendí mis dibujos. ('Some of my friends sold homemade cakes and candles, and I sold my drawings.')

Sara: ¿Vendiste muchos? ('Did you sell many of them?')

Pablo: Sí, los vendí todos. ('Yes, I sold all of them.')

Translation: I sold all my pictures.

Subjunctive of Vender

The subjunctive is a mood or mode of expressing ideas and statements. Through the subjunctive we can express wishes or talk about possibilities or suppositions.

To conjugate it, we use the same stem we use for first person singular (yo) of the present indicative. So, we are going to use vend- again, but now all the endings are a bit different:

VERB: vender (behn-DEHR) - to sell

Subject Pronouns Vender:
Present Subjunctive
Pronunciation Translation
yo venda (BEHN-dah) I sell
vendas (BEHN-dahs) you sell
él/ella/usted venda (BEHN-dah) he/she sells - you (formal) sell
nosotros/nosotras vendamos (behn-DAH-mohs) we sell
vosotros/vosotras vendáis (behn-DIYS) you all sell
ellos/ellas/ustedes vendan (BEHN-dahn) they/you all (formal) sell

Subjunctive Uses & Examples

Sara and her friends have decided to go ahead with the market idea and sell their own stuff next Sunday. So it's time to get on with it!

Let's see how to express their ideas by using the subjunctive.

Expressing Wishes:

Use these introductory expressions:

  • Espero que… ('I hope…')
  • Quiero que… ('I want…')
  • Ojalá... ('Hopefully...')

Sara and her friends are quite handy and creative, so they are making their own decoration items. She tells her mom all about it:

  • Mis amigas y yo tenemos muchísimas ideas para manualidades. ('My friends and I have plenty of ideas for handicrafts.') ¡Ojalá las vendamos! ('Hopefully we will sell them!')

Sara's mom is looking forward to seeing the result:

  • Espero que vendáis mucho. ('I hope you (all) will sell a lot.')

Negative Suppositions

Use the structure No + pensar/creer/imaginar ('Not to think/to imagine') + que.

Unfortunately, the weather is not helping much, and Sara is afraid of not selling anything if it rains on Sunday:

  • No creo que vendamos mucho si llueve. ('I don't think we will sell a lot if it rains.')

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