Spanish verbs crear, creer and criar

There are some verbs in Spanish that have a very similar spelling and it's why they often create confusion when they are conjugated. Take for example the three Spanish verbs: crear, creer and criar.

Crear, creer, criar: similar spelling

By looking at the spelling of these verbs, we can see how Spanish learners can get confused when using them. They do look and sound very similar. Someone could easily get them mixed up. 

If we have a look at some of their conjugations, some forms actually coincide and this adds a layer of complication. 

 

Same yo form in the present indicative: creo

The first person singular of the present indicative of both crear and creer coincide, i.e. they are the same. This makes it difficult to realize which one is being used.We always need to look for clues in the context:

See some examples:

 

More coincidences: crear, creer

Other conjugations of crear and creer coincide in their spelling. Have a look a the following table; for crear it is the present indicative and for creer it is the present subjunctive. 

yo	crea
tú	creas
él / ella / usted	crea
nosotros	creamos
vosotros	creáis
ellos / ustedes	crean

 

This table belongs to both verbs, crear and creer, but it is showing a different tense for each of them. Here are some sentences to illustrate this: 

 

Often confusing: the preterite forms of crear, creer and criar

How to form the Spanish preterite / simple past tense (El Pretérito Indefinido) of these three verbs is often a struggle for Spanish language learners: 

	CREAR	CREER	CRIAR
yo	creé	creí	crie
tú	creaste	creíste	criaste
él / ella / usted	creó	creyó	crio
nosotros	creamos	creímos	criamos
vosotros	creasteis	creísteis	criasteis
ellos / ustedes	crearon	creyeron	criaron

 

Note that the forms of criar do not take an accent on crie, crio.

 

The third person singular (él, ella, usted) is probably the form that gets more confused because of their very similar spelling and pronunciation. Have a listen:

 

Often confusing: the gerund / present participle forms of crear, creer and criar

 

The gerund or present participle form of these verbs are often  mixed up. One of them has as an irregular gerund/present participle form using "y" - but which one is it? 

List of Spanish irregular gerunds/present participles of the form -yendo

It's often harder to remember the correct gerund construction for Spanish verbs that have a vowel right before the infinitive ending (cre-ar, cre-er, cri-ar).

Here are some examples using the gerund / present participle of:

crear 

 

creer

 

criar

See also:

• Conjugate regular -ar verbs in the preterite tense in Spanish (El Pretérito Indefinido)
• Conjugate leer, creer and proveer in the preterite tense in Spanish (El Pretérito Indefinido)
• Some Spanish -iar verbs in the present tense take an accent (liar, enviar, criar)
• Some Spanish -iar verbs in the Spanish present subjunctive take an accent (liar, enviar, criar)
• Conjugate regular -ar verbs in the present subjunctive in Spanish (El Presente de Subjuntivo)
• Conjugate regular -er and -ir verbs in the present subjunctive in Spanish (El Presente de Subjuntivo)