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Consumir is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to consume, use, up, eat up”.
Below are all of the conjugations for consumir 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 consume, use, up, eat up |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | consumir |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está consumiendo) and past continuous (estaba consumiendo). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. consuming).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he consumido and hubiera consumido. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have consumed).
| Gerundio / Gerund | consumiendo |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | consumido |
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 consume” or “they consume”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | consumo |
| Tú | consumes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | consume |
| Nosotros / as | consumimos |
| Vosotros / as | consumís |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | consumen |
| Vos | consumís |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I consumed” or “she consumed” 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 | consumí | I consumed |
| Tú | consumiste | You consumed |
| Él / Ella / Usted | consumió | He / she / you consumed |
| Nosotros / as | consumimos | We consumed |
| Vosotros / as | consumisteis | You consumed |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | consumieron | They / you consumed |
| Vos | consumiste | You consumed |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was consuming” or “she was consuming” 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 | consumía | I was consuming |
| Tú | consumías | You were consuming |
| Él / Ella / Usted | consumía | He was / she was / you were consuming |
| Nosotros / as | consumíamos | We were consuming |
| Vosotros / as | consumíais | You were consuming |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | consumían | They / you were consuming |
| Vos | consumías | You were consuming |
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 consumed” and “she has consumed”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he consumido | I have consumed |
| Tú | has consumido | You have consumed |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha consumido | He has / she has / you have consumed |
| Nosotros / as | hemos consumido | We have consumed |
| Vosotros / as | habéis consumido | You have consumed |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han consumido | They / you have consumed |
| Vos | has consumido | You have consumed |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would consume” or “she would consume”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | consumiría | I would consume |
| Tú | consumirías | You would consume |
| Él / Ella / Usted | consumiría | He / she / you would consume |
| Nosotros / as | consumiríamos | We would consume |
| Vosotros / as | consumiríais | You would consume |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | consumirían | They / you would consume |
| Vos | consumirías | You would consume |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will consume” or “they will consume”.
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 consumir” means “They are going to consume”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | consumiré | I will consume |
| Tú | consumirás | You will consume |
| Él / Ella / Usted | consumirá | He / she / you will consume |
| Nosotros / as | consumiremos | We will consume |
| Vosotros / as | consumiréis | You will consume |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | consumirán | They / you will consume |
| Vos | consumirás | You will consume |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | consuma |
| Tú | consumas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | consuma |
| Nosotros / as | consumamos |
| Vosotros / as | consumáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | consuman |
| Vos | consumas |
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 | consumiera | consumiese |
| Tú | consumieras | consumiese |
| Él / Ella / Usted | consumiera | consumiese |
| Nosotros / as | consumiéramos | consumiésemos |
| Vosotros / as | consumierais | consumieseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | consumieran | consumiesen |
| Vos | consumieras | consumiese |
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 | consumiere |
| Tú | consumieres |
| Él / Ella / Usted | consumiera |
| Nosotros / as | consumiéremos |
| Vosotros / as | consumiereis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | consumieren |
| Vos | consumieres |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “consume!” and “don’t consume!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | consume | no consumas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | consuma | no consuma |
| Nosotros / as | consumamos | no consumamos |
| Vosotros / as | consumid | no consumáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | consuman | no consuman |
| Vos | consumí | no consumas |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya consumido |
| Tú | hayas consumido |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya consumido |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos consumido |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis consumido |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan consumido |
| Vos | hayas consumido |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera consumido / hubiese consumido |
| Tú | hubieras consumido / hubieses consumido |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera consumido / hubiese consumido |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos consumido / hubiésemos consumido |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais consumido / hubieseis consumido |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran consumido / hubiesen consumido |
| Vos | hubieras consumido / hubieses consumido |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere consumido |
| Tú | hubieres consumido |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere consumido |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos consumido |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis consumido |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren consumido |
| Vos | hubieres consumido |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté consumiendo |
| Tú | estés consumiendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté consumiendo |
| Nosotros / as | estemos consumiendo |
| Vosotros / as | estéis consumiendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén consumiendo |
| Vos | estés consumiendo |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera consumiendo / estuviese consumiendo |
| Tú | estuvieras consumiendo / estuvieses consumiendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera consumiendo / estuviese consumiendo |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos consumiendo / estuviésamos consumiendo |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais consumiendo / estuvieseis consumiendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera consumiendo / estuviese consumiendo |
| Vos | estuvieras consumiendo / estuvieses consumiendo |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere consumiendo |
| Tú | estuvieres consumiendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere consumiendo |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos consumiendo |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis consumiendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere consumiendo |
| Vos | estuvieres consumiendo |
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 consumís |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos consumiste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos consumías |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos consumirías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos consumirás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos consumas |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos consumieras / Vos consumiese |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos consumí |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no consumas |