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Elevar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to raise, lift, elevate”.
Below are all of the conjugations for elevar 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 raise, lift, elevate |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | elevar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está elevando) and past continuous (estaba elevando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. raising).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he elevado and hubiera elevado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have raised).
| Gerundio / Gerund | elevando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | elevado |
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 raise” or “they raise”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | elevo |
| Tú | elevas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | eleva |
| Nosotros / as | elevamos |
| Vosotros / as | eleváis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | elevan |
| Vos | elevás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I raised” or “she raised” 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 | elevé | I raised |
| Tú | elevaste | You raised |
| Él / Ella / Usted | elevó | He / she / you raised |
| Nosotros / as | elevamos | We raised |
| Vosotros / as | elevasteis | You raised |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | elevaron | They / you raised |
| Vos | elevaste | You raised |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was raising” or “she was raising” 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 | elevaba | I was raising |
| Tú | elevabas | You were raising |
| Él / Ella / Usted | elevaba | He was / she was / you were raising |
| Nosotros / as | elevábamos | We were raising |
| Vosotros / as | elevabais | You were raising |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | elevaban | They / you were raising |
| Vos | elevabas | You were raising |
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 raised” and “she has raised”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he elevado | I have raised |
| Tú | has elevado | You have raised |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha elevado | He has / she has / you have raised |
| Nosotros / as | hemos elevado | We have raised |
| Vosotros / as | habéis elevado | You have raised |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han elevado | They / you have raised |
| Vos | has elevado | You have raised |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would raise” or “she would raise”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | elevaría | I would raise |
| Tú | elevarías | You would raise |
| Él / Ella / Usted | elevaría | He / she / you would raise |
| Nosotros / as | elevaríamos | We would raise |
| Vosotros / as | elevaríais | You would raise |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | elevarían | They / you would raise |
| Vos | elevarías | You would raise |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will raise” or “they will raise”.
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 elevar” means “They are going to raise”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | elevaré | I will raise |
| Tú | elevarás | You will raise |
| Él / Ella / Usted | elevará | He / she / you will raise |
| Nosotros / as | elevaremos | We will raise |
| Vosotros / as | elevaréis | You will raise |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | elevarán | They / you will raise |
| Vos | elevarás | You will raise |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | eleve |
| Tú | eleves |
| Él / Ella / Usted | eleve |
| Nosotros / as | elevemos |
| Vosotros / as | elevéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | eleven |
| Vos | eleves |
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 | elevara | elevase |
| Tú | elevaras | elevase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | elevara | elevase |
| Nosotros / as | eleváramos | elevásemos |
| Vosotros / as | elevarais | elevaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | elevaran | elevasen |
| Vos | elevaras | elevase |
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 | elevare |
| Tú | elevares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | elevare |
| Nosotros / as | eleváremos |
| Vosotros / as | elevareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | elevaren |
| Vos | elevares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “raise!” and “don’t raise!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | eleva | no eleves |
| Él / Ella / Usted | eleve | no eleve |
| Nosotros / as | elevemos | no elevemos |
| Vosotros / as | elevad | no elevéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | eleven | no eleven |
| Vos | elevá | no eleves |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya elevado |
| Tú | hayas elevado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya elevado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos elevado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis elevado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan elevado |
| Vos | hayas elevado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera elevado / hubiese elevado |
| Tú | hubieras elevado / hubieses elevado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera elevado / hubiese elevado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos elevado / hubiésemos elevado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais elevado / hubieseis elevado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran elevado / hubiesen elevado |
| Vos | hubieras elevado / hubieses elevado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere elevado |
| Tú | hubieres elevado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere elevado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos elevado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis elevado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren elevado |
| Vos | hubieres elevado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté elevando |
| Tú | estés elevando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté elevando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos elevando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis elevando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén elevando |
| Vos | estés elevando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera elevando / estuviese elevando |
| Tú | estuvieras elevando / estuvieses elevando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera elevando / estuviese elevando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos elevando / estuviésamos elevando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais elevando / estuvieseis elevando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera elevando / estuviese elevando |
| Vos | estuvieras elevando / estuvieses elevando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere elevando |
| Tú | estuvieres elevando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere elevando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos elevando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis elevando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere elevando |
| Vos | estuvieres elevando |
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 elevás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos elevaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos elevabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos elevarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos elevarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos eleves |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos elevaras / Vos elevase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos elevá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no eleves |