Trouble with VIVIR? Learn it with CHUNKS, never forget it again (Conjugation)

¿Por dónde vives?
(Whereabouts do you live?)

Por el metro Patriotismo, ¿y tú?
(Near metro Patriotismo, and you?)

Yo vivo bien lejos, por Santa Fe.
(I live very far away, near Santa Fe.)

I'm Paulisima from Spring Spanish. Today, we're going to talk about one of the most important verbs in Spanish: “vivir.” I'll show you how to conjugate it easily using chunks.

1. ¿En dónde vives? (Where do you live?)

Let's explore one of the most commonly asked questions with the verb VIVIR, which is equivalent to the English LIVE.

Mucho gusto en conocerte, Pau.
(Nice to meet you, Pau.)

Igualmente. Escuché que eres de Cancún. Qué bonito debe ser vivir en Cancún.
(Likewise. I heard that you are from Cancun. How nice it ought to be to live in Cancun.)

Sí. Es hermoso, pero ya no vivo en Cancún.
(Yes. It is beautiful, but I no longer live in Cancun.)

¿No? ¿En dónde vives?
(No? Where do you live?)

Vivo en la Ciudad de México desde hace casi cuatro años.
(I have been living in Mexico City for almost 4 years.)

¡En serio! Mi familia vive en la Ciudad de México.
(Really! My family lives in Mexico City.)

Let’s take a closer look.

¿En dónde vives? Here, we are using the verb conjugated for the person “you”, “tu”. More commonly, we use this question, ¿En dónde vives? to ask someone in what city they live.

It can also be used to ask in what part of town, however, to ask that, it’s more common for people to use the chunk: ¿Por dónde vives? (Whereabouts do you live?)

Chunks are “pre-made, ready-to-use” phrases or word combinations that native Spanish speakers use all the time. Get a free copy of our essential Spanish chunking kit in the link in the description.

Ya no vivo en… (I no longer live in…). We are using vivir, for the first person, yo. Vivo. But the sentence is negative, we are using “ya no”. “Ya no vivo”. Learn everything about the use of “ya” in this video.

Vivo en… I live in. You can use this chunk to state which country, city, or neighborhood you live in. It depends on context.

2. ¿Por dónde vives? (Whereabouts do you live?)

Continuemos con la conversación: (Let’s continue the conversation:)

Mi familia vive en la Ciudad de México. ¿Tú por dónde vives?
(My family lives in Mexico City. Whereabouts do you live?)

Por el metro Juanacatlán. ¿Y tu familia por dónde vive?
(By Juanacatlán metro station. And your family whereabouts do they live?)

Mi familia vive en la colonia Clavería.
(My family lives in the Claveria neighborhood.)

¿De verdad? ¡Yo también viví ahí!
(Really? I also used to live there!)

¡Qué coincidences!
(What a coincidence!)

¡Sí! Vivía por el parque de la China.
(Yes! I lived by the China park.)

¡Mi familia vive por ahí también!
(My family also lives around there!)

Echemos un vistazo: (Let’s take a look:) But first, have you subscribed to the channel? Do it now!

• ¿Por dónde vives? (Whereabouts do you live?) It’s a question that implies that the person who is asking is familiar with the city in which the other person lives. However, people who don't know a city would ask this anyway.
• Mi familia vive en… (My family lives in…) Here we are using “vivir” for the third, person he, she or it. Let me know in the comments, where your family lives. Use the chunk Mi familia vive en… (My family lives in…)

More examples of this conjugation:

3. Nosotros vivimos (We live)

Pero tú ya no vives con tu familia en la Ciudad de México, ¿verdad?
(But you don't live with your family in Mexico City anymore, right?)

No, ya no. Estoy casada, así que ahora mi esposo y yo vivimos en Cholula, Puebla.
(No, not anymore. I'm married so, now my husband and I live in Cholula, Puebla.)

¡Ah! ¡Qué lindo! Apenas lo conocí. Fui con mi equipo de trabajo en Día de Muertos. ¡Estuvo increíble! ¡Vivimos momentos inolvidables!
(Oh! How nice! I just got to know it. I went with my work team during the Day of the Dead. It was incredible! We lived unforgettable moments!)

¡Sí! Se pone divino en esa época. Y aparte de Cancún, ¿en qué otros lugares has vivido?
(Yes! It gets so beautiful during that time. And besides Cancun, where else have you lived?)

He vivido en Kuala Lumpur y en Ginebra.
(I've lived in Kuala Lumpur and Geneva.)

¡No lo puedo creer! Otra coincidencia: cuando era pequeña, mi familia y yo vivimos dos años en Suiza, pero en Zurich.
(I can't believe it! Another coincidence: when I was young, my family and I lived in Switzerland for 2 years, but in Zurich.)

• Mi esposo y yo vivimos en Cholula, Puebla. (My husband and I live in Cholula, Puebla.) Here we are using the verb vivir for the pronoun WE, nosotros. Notice how the past conjugation for the person nosotros remains the same: Cuando era pequeña, mi familia y yo vivimos dos años en Suiza. (When I was young, my family and I lived in Switzerland for 2 years.) The verb remains the same! The context allows to know whether you’re speaking in the present or the past. Learn what you need to know about verbs ending in -IR, in this video.
• ¡Vivimos momentos inolvidables! (We lived unforgettable moments!) Here we’re using the verb VIVIR in the sense of “experience”.
• ¿En qué otros lugares has vivido? (In which other places have you lived?) In this case, she asked: In what other places, because she knew some places that the other girl has lived in. If you didn’t have this information and you wanted to ask which places has the person lived in, you should ask: ¿En qué lugares has vivido? (Which places have you lived in?)

4. Ustedes viven, ellos viven (You (plural) live, they live)

¿Y qué dicen tus papás de que vivas en la Ciudad de México?
(And what do your parents say about you living in Mexico City?)

Nada, les parece bien. Al principio estaban un poco preocupados. Es que en Cancún se vive muy tranquilo, y la ciudad, pues, es una locura.
(Nothing, they're fine with it. At first they were a bit worried. It's just that in Cancun life is very peaceful, and the city, well, it's crazy.)

Sí, claro, me imagino. ¿Entiendo que Cancún fue fundado en los 70’s, no? ¿A poco tus papás viven ahí desde ese entonces?
(Yes, of course, I can imagine. I understand Cancun was founded in the 70’s, right? Do your parents really live there since then?)

Casi. Viven en Cancún desde 1988. Ahora viven en una colonia muy bonita, pero cuando llegamos vivíamos literal en la selva.
(Almost. They have been living in Cancun since 1988. Now they live in a very nice neighborhood, but when we arrived we lived literally in the jungle.)

¡Guau! Tiene su encanto vivir en una ciudad que apenas se está construyendo, me imagine.
(Wow! It has its charm to live in a city that is just being built, I imagine.)

Claro, todo lo contrario a Cholula, que es antiquísima. Oye, ¿y ustedes viven cerca de la iglesia amarilla famosa, la que está arriba de una pirámide? ¿O por donde viven?
(Sure, the opposite of Cholula, which is very ancient. Hey, do you live near the famous yellow church, which is on top of a pyramid? Or, whereabouts do you live?)

¡Sí! Somos muy afortunados. Vivimos cerquita de la pirámide.
(Yes! We are very lucky (lit.:fortunate). We live very close to the pyramid.)

• ¿Y qué dicen tus papás de que vivas en la Ciudad de México? (And what do your parents say about you living in Mexico City?) In this phrase we’re using the subjunctive! The nightmare for even my most advanced students. In this video, Mariana explains it all.
• En Cancún se vive muy tranquilo. Este es un chunk impersonal. (In Cancun life is very peaceful. This is an impersonal chunk.) We use the pronoun SE and the conjugation VIVE which is for… Él, ella, ello (He, she, it). Él vive, ella vive, ello vive. (He lives, she lives, it lives.)
• Ahora, observen lo siguiente: (Now, observe the following:) Tus papás viven, that is “they live” and “ustedes viven” that is, you (plural) live. The conjugation is the same. You’ve already told me where your family lives.

5. La tabla (The table)