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Estar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to be (temporary qualities)”.
Below are all of the conjugations for estar in Spanish, in all three moods (indicative/indicativo, subjunctive/subjunctivo and imperative/imperativo) and all of the tenses, for each pronoun.
The vosotros pronoun is mainly used in mainland Spain, and is the informal second-person plural – it could be considered the Spanish version of “y’all”. It is rarely found in Latin America, where ustedes is used instead.
The vos form is used instead of tú in some Spanish speaking countries of South America, especially the Southern Cone (e.g. Argentina and Uruguay) and has a different conjugation.
| English Infinitive | to be (temporary qualities) |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | estar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está estando) and past continuous (estaba estando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. being).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he estado and hubiera estado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have been).
| Gerundio / Gerund | estando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | estado |
The basic form of speech, el indicativo is used for making statements, talking about facts, events and things that are certain and objective.
The present tense is as it sounds – it’s for talking about things that are currently going on, which are habitual, or which generally exist. In English, this would be “I am” or “they am”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estoy |
| Tú | estás |
| Él / Ella / Usted | está |
| Nosotros / as | estamos |
| Vosotros / as | estáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | están |
| Vos | estuve |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I was” or “she was” in English.
In Spanish, there are two past tenses where just one is used in English; the pretérite infefinido is typically used to refer to a concrete, specific moment in time.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | estuve | I was |
| Tú | estuviste | You was |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuvo | He / she / you was |
| Nosotros / as | estuvimos | We was |
| Vosotros / as | estuvisteis | You was |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuvieron | They / you was |
| Vos | estuviste | You was |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was being” or “she was being” in English, and is typically used to describe things and set a scene, talk about events without a specific timeframe, or talk about habitual events or states in the past.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | estaba | I was being |
| Tú | estabas | You were being |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estaba | He was / she was / you were being |
| Nosotros / as | estábamos | We were being |
| Vosotros / as | estabais | You were being |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estaban | They / you were being |
| Vos | estabas | You were being |
The perfect tense is for talking about things which happened in the past but are still related to the present or continue into the present.
In English, these use the auxiliary verbs ‘have’ and ‘has’ – i.e. “I have been” and “she has been”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he estado | I have been |
| Tú | has estado | You have been |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha estado | He has / she has / you have been |
| Nosotros / as | hemos estado | We have been |
| Vosotros / as | habéis estado | You have been |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han estado | They / you have been |
| Vos | has estado | You have been |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would be” or “she would be”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | estaría | I would am |
| Tú | estarías | You would am |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estaría | He / she / you would am |
| Nosotros / as | estaríamos | We would am |
| Vosotros / as | estaríais | You would am |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estarían | They / you would am |
| Vos | estarías | You would am |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will be” or “they will be”.
It is more commonly used for making a hypothesis about the present. To talk about the future, Spanish speakers frequently use “ir + a + infinivo”, e.g. “van a estar” means “They are going to be”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | estaré | I will am |
| Tú | estarás | You will am |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estará | He / she / you will am |
| Nosotros / as | estaremos | We will am |
| Vosotros / as | estaréis | You will am |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estarán | They / you will am |
| Vos | estarás | You will am |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté |
| Tú | estés |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté |
| Nosotros / as | estemos |
| Vosotros / as | estéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén |
| Vos | estés |
There are two ways to form the imperfect subjunctive.
The first option sees verbs ending in -era (for -er and -ir verbs) and -ara (for -ar verbs), while the second sees verbs ending in -ese (for -er and -ir verbs) and -ase (for -ar verbs).
There is no difference between these two forms, and Spanish speakers use them interchangeably.
| Pronoun | Spanish era/ara | Spanish ese/ase |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera | estuviese |
| Tú | estuvieras | estuviese |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera | estuviese |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos | estuviésemos |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais | estuvieseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuvieran | estuviesen |
| Vos | estuvieras | estuviese |
The future subjunctive is no longer used in modern-day Spanish, apart from in literary and legal contexts, and there is no need to learn it.
It is formed the same as the past/imperfect subjunctive, but with -e endings instead of -a endings.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere |
| Tú | estuvieres |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuvieren |
| Vos | estuvieres |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “be!” and “don’t be!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | está | no estés |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté | no esté |
| Nosotros / as | estemos | no estemos |
| Vosotros / as | estad | no estéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén | no estén |
| Vos | no estés |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya estado |
| Tú | hayas estado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya estado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos estado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis estado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan estado |
| Vos | hayas estado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera estado / hubiese estado |
| Tú | hubieras estado / hubieses estado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera estado / hubiese estado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos estado / hubiésemos estado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais estado / hubieseis estado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran estado / hubiesen estado |
| Vos | hubieras estado / hubieses estado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere estado |
| Tú | hubieres estado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere estado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos estado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis estado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren estado |
| Vos | hubieres estado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté estando |
| Tú | estés estando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté estando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos estando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis estando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén estando |
| Vos | estés estando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera estando / estuviese estando |
| Tú | estuvieras estando / estuvieses estando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera estando / estuviese estando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos estando / estuviésamos estando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais estando / estuvieseis estando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera estando / estuviese estando |
| Vos | estuvieras estando / estuvieses estando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere estando |
| Tú | estuvieres estando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere estando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos estando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis estando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere estando |
| Vos | estuvieres estando |
Voseo is the practice of using ‘vos’ instead of ‘tú’ as the second-person singular pronoun, and is common throughout much of South America.
There are various versions of ‘voseo’ used throughout the Spanish-speaking world. The conjugations for the most common type – used throughout Argentina, parts of Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguya and Uruguay are below.
The present indicative (presente de indicativo) and affirmative imperative (imperativo) have different conjugations from the tú form, while all other tenses generally use the tú form.
| Tense | Vos Conjugation |
|---|---|
| Present Indicative Presente de Indicativo | Vos estuve |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos estuviste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos estabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos estarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos estarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos estés |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos estuvieras / Vos estuviese |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no estés |
