Salir, irse or dejar? The chart
First ask whether leave has an object. With no object — I'm leaving, she left at six — Spanish uses salir or irse. With an object — I left my keys, he left his wife, she left her job — it is dejar: dejé las llaves, dejó a su mujer, dejó el trabajo.
Then, with no object, ask where you are going: out, or away. Salir is going out — from inside to outside, the dictionary's first sense: salgo de casa, sal de ahí, el tren sale a las seis. Irse is going away from where you are now: me voy, ¿ya te vas?, se fue sin decir nada.
| English | Spanish | Example |
|---|---|---|
| leave (go out) | salir (de) | Salgo de casa a las ocho. — I leave the house at eight. |
| leave (at a time) | salir | El tren sale a las seis. — The train leaves at six. |
| leave (go away) | irse | Ya me voy. — I'm leaving now. |
| leave (something) | dejar | Dejé las llaves en casa. — I left my keys at home. |
| leave (someone) | dejar | Dejó a su novio. — She left her boyfriend. |
| stop doing | dejar de | Dejé de fumar. — I stopped smoking. |
Salir: going out
Salir de takes the place you leave: salgo de casa, salió del cine, salimos de Madrid el lunes. Salir para or a takes where you head: salieron para Barcelona, salió al balcón.
With no place, salir is going out for the evening — salimos los viernes — and salir con alguien is going out with someone, dating: llevan un año saliendo, in the dictionary's own example.
Salir also says how something turned out: el examen salió bien, the exam went well.
The command is sal, not sale: ¡sal de ahí! (with vos, salí). The academies mark sale as an error here; sale is he leaves.
| English | Spanish |
|---|---|
| I leave work at five. | Salgo del trabajo a las cinco. |
| Get out of there! | ¡Sal de ahí! |
| The plane leaves at nine. | El avión sale a las nueve. |
| We go out on Fridays. | Salimos los viernes. |
| She's going out with a boy from her class. | Sale con un chico de su clase. |
| The exam went well. | El examen salió bien. |
Irse: going away
Ir says where you are going: voy a Madrid. Irse puts the weight on leaving where you are — me voy, I'm off — with or without a destination after it: me voy a casa, se fue de la fiesta a las doce.
Marcharse says the same — the dictionary defines it as irse o partir de un lugar, and gives me marché de casa a los veinte años. Partir is setting off, the word of journeys: partiremos del pueblo por la mañana, in the dictionary's example.
The commands are vete (tú) and vámonos (let's go). For vosotros the academies give idos and accept iros, now the usual spoken form.
| English | Spanish |
|---|---|
| I'm leaving. | Me voy. |
| Are you leaving already? | ¿Ya te vas? |
| He left without saying goodbye. | Se fue sin despedirse. |
| Let's go. | Vámonos. |
| Go away! | ¡Vete! |
| I left home at twenty. | Me marché de casa a los veinte años. |
Dejar: leaving something or someone
Dejar needs something to leave: a thing in a place (dejé el teléfono en el coche), a thing as it is (deja la luz encendida), a person (dejó a su marido — with the personal a), an activity (dejó el trabajo, dejó la carrera).
Dejar de + an infinitive is stop doing: dejé de fumar, deja de mirarme, no deja de llover — it won't stop raining.
And dejar is let: no me dejan salir, déjame ver — and lend, for something you will get back: ¿me dejas tu coche?
One copy of English to avoid: déjame saber for let me know. The academies record dejar saber in parts of the Americas, especially the Caribbean, as a probable loan from let know, and prefer hacer saber everywhere: hazme saber — or simply avísame.
| English | Spanish |
|---|---|
| I left my phone in the car. | Dejé el teléfono en el coche. |
| Leave the light on. | Deja la luz encendida. |
| She left her husband. | Dejó a su marido. |
| He quit his job. | Dejó el trabajo. |
| I stopped smoking. | Dejé de fumar. |
| Leave me alone. | Déjame en paz. |
| My parents don't let me go out. | Mis padres no me dejan salir. |
| Can you lend me your car? | ¿Me dejas tu coche? |
With a place: salir de, irse de or dejar?
With a place, the grammar allows all three and the meaning decides. Salir de Madrid is the moment you head out. Irse de Madrid and dejar Madrid say you left it behind, often for good: se fue de Madrid en 2020, dejó Madrid por Lima.
| Spanish | What it says |
|---|---|
| Salimos de Madrid a las diez. | The journey began: we set off from Madrid at ten. |
| Nos fuimos de Madrid en 2020. | We went away from Madrid, often for good. |
| Dejamos Madrid en 2020. | We left Madrid behind. |
Why do English speakers mix them up?
Because English has one verb, leave, with an object and without one. The slips follow: dejé a las ocho for salí a las ocho (dejar needs an object), salí las llaves for dejé las llaves, ¡sale! for ¡sal!, and déjame saber for avísame.
There is no first-party error rate on this page yet: our mistake tagger counts ser vs estar, por vs para, the tenses and the object pronouns, not verbs of movement. When it does, the number will sit here. Until then the quiz is the measure.
What comes after salir?
Llevar vs traer is the other movement English and Spanish split differently — llevar and traer, ir and venir. The personal a is the little word in dejó a su marido. Pedir vs preguntar is another verb English says once and Spanish twice: ask. Tiempo, vez or hora is the word English says once and Spanish three times: time. Jugar, tocar or poner is one more: play. The free Spanish level test places you on the A1–C2 scale in five minutes; A2 vs B1 Spanish says what changes after the first levels.