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Costear is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to finance, pay for”.
Below are all of the conjugations for costear 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 finance, pay for |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | costear |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está costeando) and past continuous (estaba costeando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. financing).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he costeado and hubiera costeado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have financed).
| Gerundio / Gerund | costeando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | costeado |
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 finance” or “they finance”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | costeo |
| Tú | costeas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | costea |
| Nosotros / as | costeamos |
| Vosotros / as | costeáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | costean |
| Vos | costeás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I financed” or “she financed” 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 | costeé | I financed |
| Tú | costeaste | You financed |
| Él / Ella / Usted | costeó | He / she / you financed |
| Nosotros / as | costeamos | We financed |
| Vosotros / as | costeasteis | You financed |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | costearon | They / you financed |
| Vos | costeaste | You financed |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was financing” or “she was financing” 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 | costeaba | I was financing |
| Tú | costeabas | You were financing |
| Él / Ella / Usted | costeaba | He was / she was / you were financing |
| Nosotros / as | costeábamos | We were financing |
| Vosotros / as | costeabais | You were financing |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | costeaban | They / you were financing |
| Vos | costeabas | You were financing |
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 financed” and “she has financed”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he costeado | I have financed |
| Tú | has costeado | You have financed |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha costeado | He has / she has / you have financed |
| Nosotros / as | hemos costeado | We have financed |
| Vosotros / as | habéis costeado | You have financed |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han costeado | They / you have financed |
| Vos | has costeado | You have financed |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would finance” or “she would finance”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | costearía | I would finance |
| Tú | costearías | You would finance |
| Él / Ella / Usted | costearía | He / she / you would finance |
| Nosotros / as | costearíamos | We would finance |
| Vosotros / as | costearíais | You would finance |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | costearían | They / you would finance |
| Vos | costearías | You would finance |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will finance” or “they will finance”.
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 costear” means “They are going to finance”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | costearé | I will finance |
| Tú | costearás | You will finance |
| Él / Ella / Usted | costeará | He / she / you will finance |
| Nosotros / as | costearemos | We will finance |
| Vosotros / as | costearéis | You will finance |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | costearán | They / you will finance |
| Vos | costearás | You will finance |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | costee |
| Tú | costees |
| Él / Ella / Usted | costee |
| Nosotros / as | costeemos |
| Vosotros / as | costeéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | costeen |
| Vos | costees |
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 | costeara | costease |
| Tú | costearas | costease |
| Él / Ella / Usted | costeara | costease |
| Nosotros / as | costeáramos | costeásemos |
| Vosotros / as | costearais | costeaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | costearan | costeasen |
| Vos | costearas | costease |
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 | costeare |
| Tú | costeares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | costeare |
| Nosotros / as | costeáremos |
| Vosotros / as | costeareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | costearen |
| Vos | costeares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “finance!” and “don’t finance!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | costea | no costees |
| Él / Ella / Usted | costee | no costee |
| Nosotros / as | costeemos | no costeemos |
| Vosotros / as | costead | no costeéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | costeen | no costeen |
| Vos | costeá | no costees |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya costeado |
| Tú | hayas costeado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya costeado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos costeado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis costeado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan costeado |
| Vos | hayas costeado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera costeado / hubiese costeado |
| Tú | hubieras costeado / hubieses costeado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera costeado / hubiese costeado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos costeado / hubiésemos costeado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais costeado / hubieseis costeado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran costeado / hubiesen costeado |
| Vos | hubieras costeado / hubieses costeado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere costeado |
| Tú | hubieres costeado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere costeado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos costeado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis costeado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren costeado |
| Vos | hubieres costeado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté costeando |
| Tú | estés costeando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté costeando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos costeando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis costeando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén costeando |
| Vos | estés costeando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera costeando / estuviese costeando |
| Tú | estuvieras costeando / estuvieses costeando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera costeando / estuviese costeando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos costeando / estuviésamos costeando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais costeando / estuvieseis costeando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera costeando / estuviese costeando |
| Vos | estuvieras costeando / estuvieses costeando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere costeando |
| Tú | estuvieres costeando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere costeando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos costeando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis costeando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere costeando |
| Vos | estuvieres costeando |
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 costeás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos costeaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos costeabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos costearías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos costearás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos costees |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos costearas / Vos costease |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos costeá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no costees |