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The verb Salir means “to exit”, “to go out”, or “to come out”. Let’s get lots of practice with the various uses of this versatile verb.
Salgamos de fiesta.
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Today we’re going to learn the verb Salir, which literally means “to exit”, although it can idiomatically mean a lot more things than that.
Let’s start with a simple example:
I don’t know how to exit this place.
No sé cómo salir de este lugar.
More broadly, Salir can be used to describe anything that’s “going out” or “coming out” of something or some place. Let’s say, for example, that you’re trying to get money out of an ATM. The machine has told you to collect your money, but you can’t because nothing came out. Here’s something you might say:
But nothing has come out!
¡Pero no ha salido nada!
Here’s another example, this one using the gerund saliendo. Try to predict the Spanish.
The water is coming out fast.
El agua está saliendo rápido.
In general, Salir is conjugated a lot like Vivir. It does have some irregularities, which we’ll cover later in the episode. But for now, let’s practice using this verb, and I’ll only present cases where it’s used in the present tense and preterite tense, exactly the same as you’d expect it to be conjugated. Try to predict the Spanish.
The dollars come out of this part.
Los dólares salen de esta parte.
Do we exit through this door?
¿Salimos por esta puerta?
I came out of the house a bit late.
Salí de la casa un poco tarde.
We went out after they(f) went out.
Salimos después de que ellas salieron.
In that last example, we translated Salir as “to go out”. This is a common translation of Salir — to go out shopping, or partying, or otherwise leaving the house to do something. Try that with this next example, and note that this example will ask “do you” at the end, where the Spanish simply asks ¿verdad? So try to predict the Spanish.
You don’t go out much, do you?
No sales mucho, ¿verdad?
And there’s a related idiom: salir de fiesta means “to go out partying” or “to go party”. So for example:
We went out partying all week.
Salimos de fiesta toda la semana.
Now here’s something you might be wondering about: When would we use Salir instead of just using Irse? For example, check out this English sentence:
They left this morning.
This sentence *could* theoretically be salieron esta mañana, but so far on the podcast, we’ve translated this as se fueron esta mañana. In reality, the verb “to leave” can be translated both ways. However, Irse is quite a bit more common. Salir is used more idiomatically, to mean “go out”, “come out”, or “exit”. In our quizzing, you can expect to translate the English verb “leave” as Irse, just like we’ve always done. You’ll use Salir in these other cases.
Let’s practice that right now. In the following quiz, we’re going to practice all the forms of Salir that we’ve practiced so far in this episode, but I’ll also throw in a few examples of Irse; you’ll know to choose that if you hear the English word “leave” or “left”.
I left my house this morning.
Me fui de mi casa esta mañana.
They go out partying every week.
Salen de fiesta todas las semanas.
The king and the queen are leaving their home.
El rey y la reina se van de su casa.
I exited the place before that.
Salí del lugar antes de eso.
We didn’t go out that night.
No salimos esa noche.
We always come out with our friends.
Siempre salimos con nuestros amigos.
We have to go out soon.
Tenemos que salir pronto.
You never go out with me.
Nunca sales conmigo.
We left because there was nobody there.
Nos fuimos porque no había nadie allí.
We aren’t going out because she is too young.
No estamos saliendo porque ella es demasiado joven.
In this next example we have the idiom for “weekend”, which is fin de semana (literally “end of week”):
They went out partying that weekend with their friends.
Salieron de fiesta ese fin de semana con sus amigos.
All right, now it’s time to talk about where this verb is conjugated a little bit irregularly. Remember that when we learned the verb Parecer yesterday, all of the forms we learned were completely regular, exactly like Deber, for example parece and pareció, with the exception of the subjunctive form, which had a little extra sound in it, parezca. The same thing happens with the verb Salir: All of the subjunctive forms randomly have an extra G in them.
So we would expect the subjunctives to be sala, salas, salan, and salamos, but they’re actually salga, salgas, salgan, and salgamos. For example:
I don’t want them to go out yet.
No quiero que salgan aún.
And the exact same thing happens with the regular first-person singular form, which we would expect to be salo, but it’s salgo. For example:
I never go out partying.
Nunca salgo de fiesta.
Let’s practice all of these.
I don’t go out unless it’s with them.
No salgo a menos que sea con ellos.
I want them to go out with my agent.
Quiero que salgan con mi agente.
When I go out I always go to that place.
Cuando salgo siempre voy a ese lugar.
She doesn’t want me to go out with him.
Ella no quiere que yo salga con él.
I hope you go out tonight.
Espero que salgas esta noche.
I’m old, so I don’t think we’ll go out partying tonight.
Soy viejo, así que no creo que salgamos de fiesta esta noche.
I want her to go out with her friends.
Quiero que ella salga con sus amigos.
Next let’s look at imperatives. Most of them are exactly what you’d expect, because they’re exactly the same as their corresponding subjunctives. For example:
Let’s go partying.
Salgamos de fiesta.
Don’t go out, I’m still waiting for her.
No salgas, todavía la estoy esperando.
However, the informal singular imperative is a little bit irregular. Normally, this is exactly the same as the third-person singular, such as habla or cree. But in Salir, it’s shortened a little bit; instead of sale, it’s simply sal. For example:
Go out, it’s already late.
Sal, ya es tarde.
Let’s practice all of these imperatives.
Don’t go out! It’s not safe!
¡No salgas! ¡No es seguro!
(formal) Go out and I hope you have fun!
¡Salga y espero que lo pase bien!
Go out of here and talk to your professor!
¡Sal de aquí y habla con tu profesor!
Let’s go out partying tonight!
¡Salgamos de fiesta esta noche!
(plural) Exit through that door!
¡Salgan por esa puerta!
You aren’t a master(m) at that yet, so get out of here!
¡No eres un maestro de eso aún, así que sal de aquí!
Let’s wrap up by learning just a couple more common forms that are slightly irregular. We would expect the conditionals to all be based on “saliría”, but that’s a little bit hard to say; it’s easier to shorten it with the letter D, saldría. So for example:
If you did that, it wouldn’t come out.
Si hicieras eso, no saldría.
I would go out more if I could.
Saldría más si pudiera.
And lastly, the future tense does the same thing. So the most common form is saldrá instead of “salirá”. For example:
It’ll come out when you do that.
Saldrá cuando hagas eso.
Let’s practice these slightly irregular forms.
I would go out, but I don’t have time.
Saldría, pero no tengo tiempo.
She would exit, but she doesn’t know where the door is.
Saldría, pero no sabe dónde está la puerta.
He will go out with the president.
Saldrá con el presidente.
I would go out, but I’m only 7 years old.
Saldría, pero solo tengo 7 años.
She would go out tonight, but she can’t, so she will go out tomorrow.
Ella saldría esta noche, pero no puede, así que saldrá mañana.
For more practice with any of this, feel free to dig deeper with the free online flashcards here! Or if you’re ready, let’s go on to today’s final quiz.
I would go out with you, but you have to call me.
Saldría contigo, pero me tienes que llamar.
The teacher said that to all of us.
El maestro nos dijo eso a todos.
(plural) Go out and I’ll see ya!
¡Salgan y nos vemos!
Don’t go out with him because he seems old.
No salgas con él porque parece viejo.
It might seem like you go out every day.
Puede parecer que sales todos los días.
He called me last week and wanted to go out, so that’s great.
Me llamó la semana pasada y quería salir, así que eso es genial.
Let’s go out partying! I’ll call you later.
¡Salgamos de fiesta! Te llamo luego.
The police officer saw the young man, who was leaving the house.
El policía vio al joven, quien estaba saliendo de la casa.
I want them to go out with me.
Quiero que salgan conmigo.
It seemed to her that he had gone out.
Le pareció que él había salido.
I don’t want her to go out partying.
No quiero que salga de fiesta.
It seems to me that she will exit after the party.
Me parece que saldrá después de la fiesta.
She never goes out with them, not even when they call her.
Nunca sale con ellos, ni siquiera cuando la llaman.
Get out or I will call the police!
¡Sal o llamaré a la policía!
If you knock on my door, it might be that I come out.
Si llamas a la puerta, puede que salga.
He is the craziest person that I have called.
Es la persona más loca a la que he llamado.
He went out this morning.
Salió esta mañana.
I guess things look that way, but we didn’t go out together.
Supongo que las cosas parecen así, pero no salimos juntos.
The doctor is calling you because of something important.
El doctor te llama por algo importante.
My name isn’t Pedro, so don’t call me that way.
No me llamo Pedro, así que no me llames así.
I went out yesterday and it was bad.
Salí ayer y fue malo.
Call me or I don’t come out.
Llámame o no salgo.
You seem to be alone; you and she never go out together.
Pareces estar solo; tú y ella nunca salen juntos.
It seemed to me that they went out together.
Me parecía que salieron juntos.
I want us to go out, but the last time that we went out was bad.
Quiero que salgamos, pero la última vez que salimos fue mala.
It has seemed like her boss doesn’t want her to go out.
Ha parecido que su jefe no quiere que ella salga.
I want her to seem happier.
Quiero que parezca más feliz.
To get more practice with these sentences, join the free course here and quiz yourself with them until you’re acing this.
In tomorrow’s episode, we’ll learn to count to ten and to talk about adding and subtracting in Spanish.
This show is brought to you by LearnCraftSpanish.com. Our music was provided by the Seattle Marimba Quartet, and I’m Timothy, encouraging you to do the hard work of learning Spanish. Acquiring a second language is one of the most fulfilling things you can do, so start your fluency journey today using our free course — join here.
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