“Mover,” “Mudarse,” and “Trasladar”

Quick Answer

Mover, mudarse, and trasladarare common ways to say to move in Spanish.

There are important differences between these verbs in terms of context, and they're not always interchangeable. Let's learn how these verbs are used!

Mover

Mover is used to express changing the position of an object.
Mover is commonly used as a reflexive verb by adding the reflexive pronoun se. Moverseconveys physical movement of the body.

For example:

examples
¿Me ayudas a mover el sofá? Will you help me move the couch?
No te muevas. Hay una cascabel detrás de ti. Don’t move. There’s a rattlesnake behind you.

Mudarse

Mudarse is used to talk about moving house.

For example:

examples
La próxima semana me mudo de casa. I'm moving next week.
Elena se mudó a otro apartamento. Elena moved to another apartment.

Trasladar(se)

Trasladar is similar to mover, but can be used to talk about the movement of people as well as objects. It is used to talk about moving someone or something from one place to another.
Trasladarseand mudarse are pretty much interchangeable, but many Spanish speakers tend to use trasladarse to talk about relocating or transferring from one place to another.

Check out these examples!

examples
La trasladaron a un hospital psiquiátrico. They moved her to a psychiatric hospital.
Mi amigo se trasladó a España para vivir con su tía. My friend moved to Spain to live with his aunt.