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Coser is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to sew, mend”.
Below are all of the conjugations for coser 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 sew, mend |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | coser |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está cosiendo) and past continuous (estaba cosiendo). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. sewing).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he cosido and hubiera cosido. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have sewn).
| Gerundio / Gerund | cosiendo |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | cosido |
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 sew” or “they sew”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | coso |
| Tú | coses |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cose |
| Nosotros / as | cosemos |
| Vosotros / as | coséis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cosen |
| Vos | cosés |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I sewed” or “she sewed” 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 | cosí | I sewed |
| Tú | cosiste | You sewed |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cosió | He / she / you sewed |
| Nosotros / as | cosimos | We sewed |
| Vosotros / as | cosisteis | You sewed |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cosieron | They / you sewed |
| Vos | cosiste | You sewed |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was sewing” or “she was sewing” 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 | cosía | I was sewing |
| Tú | cosías | You were sewing |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cosía | He was / she was / you were sewing |
| Nosotros / as | cosíamos | We were sewing |
| Vosotros / as | cosíais | You were sewing |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cosían | They / you were sewing |
| Vos | cosías | You were sewing |
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 sewn” and “she has sewn”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he cosido | I have sewn |
| Tú | has cosido | You have sewn |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha cosido | He has / she has / you have sewn |
| Nosotros / as | hemos cosido | We have sewn |
| Vosotros / as | habéis cosido | You have sewn |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han cosido | They / you have sewn |
| Vos | has cosido | You have sewn |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would sew” or “she would sew”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | cosería | I would sew |
| Tú | coserías | You would sew |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cosería | He / she / you would sew |
| Nosotros / as | coseríamos | We would sew |
| Vosotros / as | coseríais | You would sew |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | coserían | They / you would sew |
| Vos | coserías | You would sew |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will sew” or “they will sew”.
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 coser” means “They are going to sew”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | coseré | I will sew |
| Tú | coserás | You will sew |
| Él / Ella / Usted | coserá | He / she / you will sew |
| Nosotros / as | coseremos | We will sew |
| Vosotros / as | coseréis | You will sew |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | coserán | They / you will sew |
| Vos | coserás | You will sew |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | cosa |
| Tú | cosas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cosa |
| Nosotros / as | cosamos |
| Vosotros / as | cosáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cosan |
| Vos | cosas |
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 | cosiera | cosiese |
| Tú | cosieras | cosiese |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cosiera | cosiese |
| Nosotros / as | cosiéramos | cosiésemos |
| Vosotros / as | cosierais | cosieseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cosieran | cosiesen |
| Vos | cosieras | cosiese |
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 | cosiere |
| Tú | cosieres |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cosiere |
| Nosotros / as | cosiéremos |
| Vosotros / as | cosiereis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cosieren |
| Vos | cosieres |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “sew!” and “don’t sew!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | cose | no cosas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cosa | no cosa |
| Nosotros / as | cosamos | no cosamos |
| Vosotros / as | cosed | no cosáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cosan | no cosan |
| Vos | cosé | no cosas |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya cosido |
| Tú | hayas cosido |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya cosido |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos cosido |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis cosido |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan cosido |
| Vos | hayas cosido |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera cosido / hubiese cosido |
| Tú | hubieras cosido / hubieses cosido |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera cosido / hubiese cosido |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos cosido / hubiésemos cosido |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais cosido / hubieseis cosido |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran cosido / hubiesen cosido |
| Vos | hubieras cosido / hubieses cosido |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere cosido |
| Tú | hubieres cosido |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere cosido |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos cosido |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis cosido |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren cosido |
| Vos | hubieres cosido |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté cosiendo |
| Tú | estés cosiendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté cosiendo |
| Nosotros / as | estemos cosiendo |
| Vosotros / as | estéis cosiendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén cosiendo |
| Vos | estés cosiendo |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera cosiendo / estuviese cosiendo |
| Tú | estuvieras cosiendo / estuvieses cosiendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera cosiendo / estuviese cosiendo |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos cosiendo / estuviésamos cosiendo |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais cosiendo / estuvieseis cosiendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera cosiendo / estuviese cosiendo |
| Vos | estuvieras cosiendo / estuvieses cosiendo |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere cosiendo |
| Tú | estuvieres cosiendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere cosiendo |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos cosiendo |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis cosiendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere cosiendo |
| Vos | estuvieres cosiendo |
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 cosés |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos cosiste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos cosías |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos coserías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos coserás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos cosas |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos cosieras / Vos cosiese |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos cosé |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no cosas |