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Dar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to give”.
Below are all of the conjugations for dar 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 give |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | dar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está dando) and past continuous (estaba dando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. giving).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he dado and hubiera dado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have given).
| Gerundio / Gerund | dando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | dado |
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 give” or “they give”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | doy |
| Tú | das |
| Él / Ella / Usted | da |
| Nosotros / as | damos |
| Vosotros / as | dáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | dan |
| Vos | das |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I gave” or “she gave” 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 | di | I gave |
| Tú | diste | You gave |
| Él / Ella / Usted | dio | He / she / you gave |
| Nosotros / as | dimos | We gave |
| Vosotros / as | disteis | You gave |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | dieron | They / you gave |
| Vos | diste | You gave |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was giving” or “she was giving” 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 | daba | I was giving |
| Tú | dabas | You were giving |
| Él / Ella / Usted | daba | He was / she was / you were giving |
| Nosotros / as | dábamos | We were giving |
| Vosotros / as | dabais | You were giving |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | daban | They / you were giving |
| Vos | dabas | You were giving |
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 given” and “she has given”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he dado | I have given |
| Tú | has dado | You have given |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha dado | He has / she has / you have given |
| Nosotros / as | hemos dado | We have given |
| Vosotros / as | habéis dado | You have given |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han dado | They / you have given |
| Vos | has dado | You have given |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would give” or “she would give”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | daría | I would give |
| Tú | darías | You would give |
| Él / Ella / Usted | daría | He / she / you would give |
| Nosotros / as | daríamos | We would give |
| Vosotros / as | daríais | You would give |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | darían | They / you would give |
| Vos | darías | You would give |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will give” or “they will give”.
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 dar” means “They are going to give”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | daré | I will give |
| Tú | darás | You will give |
| Él / Ella / Usted | dará | He / she / you will give |
| Nosotros / as | daremos | We will give |
| Vosotros / as | daréis | You will give |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | darán | They / you will give |
| Vos | darás | You will give |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | dé |
| Tú | des |
| Él / Ella / Usted | dé |
| Nosotros / as | demos |
| Vosotros / as | déis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | den |
| Vos | des |
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 | diera | diese |
| Tú | dieras | diese |
| Él / Ella / Usted | diera | diese |
| Nosotros / as | diéramos | diésemos |
| Vosotros / as | dierais | dieseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | dieran | diesen |
| Vos | dieras | diese |
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 | diere |
| Tú | dieres |
| Él / Ella / Usted | diere |
| Nosotros / as | diéremos |
| Vosotros / as | diereis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | dieren |
| Vos | dieres |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “give!” and “don’t give!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | da | no des |
| Él / Ella / Usted | dé | no dé |
| Nosotros / as | demos | no demos |
| Vosotros / as | dad | no déis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | den | no den |
| Vos | da | no des |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya dado |
| Tú | hayas dado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya dado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos dado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis dado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan dado |
| Vos | hayas dado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera dado / hubiese dado |
| Tú | hubieras dado / hubieses dado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera dado / hubiese dado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos dado / hubiésemos dado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais dado / hubieseis dado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran dado / hubiesen dado |
| Vos | hubieras dado / hubieses dado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere dado |
| Tú | hubieres dado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere dado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos dado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis dado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren dado |
| Vos | hubieres dado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté dando |
| Tú | estés dando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté dando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos dando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis dando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén dando |
| Vos | estés dando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera dando / estuviese dando |
| Tú | estuvieras dando / estuvieses dando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera dando / estuviese dando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos dando / estuviésamos dando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais dando / estuvieseis dando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera dando / estuviese dando |
| Vos | estuvieras dando / estuvieses dando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere dando |
| Tú | estuvieres dando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere dando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos dando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis dando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere dando |
| Vos | estuvieres dando |
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 das |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos diste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos dabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos darías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos darás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos des |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos dieras / Vos diese |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos da |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no des |
