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Cambiar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to change”.
Below are all of the conjugations for cambiar 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 change |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | cambiar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está cambiando) and past continuous (estaba cambiando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. changing).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he cambiado and hubiera cambiado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have changed).
| Gerundio / Gerund | cambiando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | cambiado |
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 change” or “they change”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | cambio |
| Tú | cambias |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cambia |
| Nosotros / as | cambiamos |
| Vosotros / as | cambiáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cambian |
| Vos | cambiás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I changed” or “she changed” 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 | cambié | I changed |
| Tú | cambiaste | You changed |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cambió | He / she / you changed |
| Nosotros / as | cambiamos | We changed |
| Vosotros / as | cambiasteis | You changed |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cambiaron | They / you changed |
| Vos | cambiaste | You changed |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was changing” or “she was changing” 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 | cambiaba | I was changing |
| Tú | cambiabas | You were changing |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cambiaba | He was / she was / you were changing |
| Nosotros / as | cambiábamos | We were changing |
| Vosotros / as | cambiabais | You were changing |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cambiaban | They / you were changing |
| Vos | cambiabas | You were changing |
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 changed” and “she has changed”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he cambiado | I have changed |
| Tú | has cambiado | You have changed |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha cambiado | He has / she has / you have changed |
| Nosotros / as | hemos cambiado | We have changed |
| Vosotros / as | habéis cambiado | You have changed |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han cambiado | They / you have changed |
| Vos | has cambiado | You have changed |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would change” or “she would change”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | cambiaría | I would change |
| Tú | cambiarías | You would change |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cambiaría | He / she / you would change |
| Nosotros / as | cambiaríamos | We would change |
| Vosotros / as | cambiaríais | You would change |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cambiarían | They / you would change |
| Vos | cambiarías | You would change |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will change” or “they will change”.
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 cambiar” means “They are going to change”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | cambiaré | I will change |
| Tú | cambiarás | You will change |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cambiará | He / she / you will change |
| Nosotros / as | cambiaremos | We will change |
| Vosotros / as | cambiaréis | You will change |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cambiarán | They / you will change |
| Vos | cambiarás | You will change |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | cambie |
| Tú | cambies |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cambie |
| Nosotros / as | cambiemos |
| Vosotros / as | cambiéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cambien |
| Vos | cambies |
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 | cambiara | cambiase |
| Tú | cambiaras | cambiase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cambiara | cambiase |
| Nosotros / as | cambiáramos | cambiásemos |
| Vosotros / as | cambiarais | cambiaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cambiaran | cambiasen |
| Vos | cambiaras | cambiase |
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 | cambiare |
| Tú | cambiares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cambiare |
| Nosotros / as | cambiáremos |
| Vosotros / as | cambiareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cambiaren |
| Vos | cambiares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “change!” and “don’t change!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | cambia | no cambies |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cambie | no cambie |
| Nosotros / as | cambiemos | no cambiemos |
| Vosotros / as | cambiad | no cambiéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cambien | no cambien |
| Vos | cambiá | no cambies |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya cambiado |
| Tú | hayas cambiado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya cambiado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos cambiado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis cambiado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan cambiado |
| Vos | hayas cambiado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera cambiado / hubiese cambiado |
| Tú | hubieras cambiado / hubieses cambiado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera cambiado / hubiese cambiado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos cambiado / hubiésemos cambiado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais cambiado / hubieseis cambiado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran cambiado / hubiesen cambiado |
| Vos | hubieras cambiado / hubieses cambiado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere cambiado |
| Tú | hubieres cambiado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere cambiado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos cambiado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis cambiado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren cambiado |
| Vos | hubieres cambiado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté cambiando |
| Tú | estés cambiando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté cambiando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos cambiando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis cambiando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén cambiando |
| Vos | estés cambiando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera cambiando / estuviese cambiando |
| Tú | estuvieras cambiando / estuvieses cambiando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera cambiando / estuviese cambiando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos cambiando / estuviésamos cambiando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais cambiando / estuvieseis cambiando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera cambiando / estuviese cambiando |
| Vos | estuvieras cambiando / estuvieses cambiando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere cambiando |
| Tú | estuvieres cambiando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere cambiando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos cambiando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis cambiando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere cambiando |
| Vos | estuvieres cambiando |
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 cambiás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos cambiaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos cambiabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos cambiarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos cambiarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos cambies |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos cambiaras / Vos cambiase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos cambiá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no cambies |
