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Echar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to throw, pitch, cast”.
Below are all of the conjugations for echar 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 throw, pitch, cast |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | echar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está echando) and past continuous (estaba echando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. throwing).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he echado and hubiera echado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have thrown).
| Gerundio / Gerund | echando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | echado |
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 throw” or “they throw”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | echo |
| Tú | echas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | echa |
| Nosotros / as | echamos |
| Vosotros / as | echáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | echan |
| Vos | echás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I threw” or “she threw” 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 | eché | I threw |
| Tú | echaste | You threw |
| Él / Ella / Usted | echó | He / she / you threw |
| Nosotros / as | echamos | We threw |
| Vosotros / as | echasteis | You threw |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | echaron | They / you threw |
| Vos | echaste | You threw |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was throwing” or “she was throwing” 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 | echaba | I was throwing |
| Tú | echabas | You were throwing |
| Él / Ella / Usted | echaba | He was / she was / you were throwing |
| Nosotros / as | echábamos | We were throwing |
| Vosotros / as | echabais | You were throwing |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | echaban | They / you were throwing |
| Vos | echabas | You were throwing |
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 thrown” and “she has thrown”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he echado | I have thrown |
| Tú | has echado | You have thrown |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha echado | He has / she has / you have thrown |
| Nosotros / as | hemos echado | We have thrown |
| Vosotros / as | habéis echado | You have thrown |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han echado | They / you have thrown |
| Vos | has echado | You have thrown |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would throw” or “she would throw”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | echaría | I would throw |
| Tú | echarías | You would throw |
| Él / Ella / Usted | echaría | He / she / you would throw |
| Nosotros / as | echaríamos | We would throw |
| Vosotros / as | echaríais | You would throw |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | echarían | They / you would throw |
| Vos | echarías | You would throw |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will throw” or “they will throw”.
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 echar” means “They are going to throw”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | echaré | I will throw |
| Tú | echarás | You will throw |
| Él / Ella / Usted | echará | He / she / you will throw |
| Nosotros / as | echaremos | We will throw |
| Vosotros / as | echaréis | You will throw |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | echarán | They / you will throw |
| Vos | echarás | You will throw |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | eche |
| Tú | eches |
| Él / Ella / Usted | eche |
| Nosotros / as | echemos |
| Vosotros / as | echéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | echen |
| Vos | eches |
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 | echara | echase |
| Tú | echaras | echase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | echara | echase |
| Nosotros / as | echáramos | echásemos |
| Vosotros / as | echarais | echaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | echaran | echasen |
| Vos | echaras | echase |
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 | echare |
| Tú | echares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | echare |
| Nosotros / as | echáremos |
| Vosotros / as | echareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | echaren |
| Vos | echares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “throw!” and “don’t throw!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | echa | no eches |
| Él / Ella / Usted | eche | no eche |
| Nosotros / as | echemos | no echemos |
| Vosotros / as | echad | no echéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | echen | no echen |
| Vos | no eches |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya echado |
| Tú | hayas echado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya echado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos echado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis echado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan echado |
| Vos | hayas echado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera echado / hubiese echado |
| Tú | hubieras echado / hubieses echado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera echado / hubiese echado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos echado / hubiésemos echado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais echado / hubieseis echado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran echado / hubiesen echado |
| Vos | hubieras echado / hubieses echado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere echado |
| Tú | hubieres echado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere echado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos echado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis echado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren echado |
| Vos | hubieres echado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté echando |
| Tú | estés echando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté echando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos echando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis echando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén echando |
| Vos | estés echando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera echando / estuviese echando |
| Tú | estuvieras echando / estuvieses echando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera echando / estuviese echando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos echando / estuviésamos echando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais echando / estuvieseis echando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera echando / estuviese echando |
| Vos | estuvieras echando / estuvieses echando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere echando |
| Tú | estuvieres echando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere echando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos echando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis echando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere echando |
| Vos | estuvieres echando |
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 echás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos echaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos echabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos echarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos echarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos eches |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos echaras / Vos echase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no eches |