Everything you need to improve your Spanish
Menu
Everything you need to improve your Spanish
Tocar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to touch / to play an instrument”.
Below are all of the conjugations for tocar 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 touch / to play an instrument |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | tocar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está tocando) and past continuous (estaba tocando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. touching).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he tocado and hubiera tocado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have touched).
| Gerundio / Gerund | tocando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | tocado |
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 touch” or “they touch”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | toco |
| Tú | tocas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | toca |
| Nosotros / as | tocamos |
| Vosotros / as | tocáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | tocan |
| Vos | tocás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I touched” or “she touched” 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 | toqué | I touched |
| Tú | tocaste | You touched |
| Él / Ella / Usted | tocó | He / she / you touched |
| Nosotros / as | tocamos | We touched |
| Vosotros / as | tocasteis | You touched |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | tocaron | They / you touched |
| Vos | tocaste | You touched |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was touching” or “she was touching” 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 | tocaba | I was touching |
| Tú | tocabas | You were touching |
| Él / Ella / Usted | tocaba | He was / she was / you were touching |
| Nosotros / as | tocábamos | We were touching |
| Vosotros / as | tocabais | You were touching |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | tocaban | They / you were touching |
| Vos | tocabas | You were touching |
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 touched” and “she has touched”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he tocado | I have touched |
| Tú | has tocado | You have touched |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha tocado | He has / she has / you have touched |
| Nosotros / as | hemos tocado | We have touched |
| Vosotros / as | habéis tocado | You have touched |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han tocado | They / you have touched |
| Vos | has tocado | You have touched |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would touch” or “she would touch”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | tocaría | I would touch |
| Tú | tocarías | You would touch |
| Él / Ella / Usted | tocaría | He / she / you would touch |
| Nosotros / as | tocaríamos | We would touch |
| Vosotros / as | tocaríais | You would touch |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | tocarían | They / you would touch |
| Vos | tocarías | You would touch |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will touch” or “they will touch”.
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 tocar” means “They are going to touch”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | tocaré | I will touch |
| Tú | tocarás | You will touch |
| Él / Ella / Usted | tocará | He / she / you will touch |
| Nosotros / as | tocaremos | We will touch |
| Vosotros / as | tocaréis | You will touch |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | tocarán | They / you will touch |
| Vos | tocarás | You will touch |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | toque |
| Tú | toques |
| Él / Ella / Usted | toque |
| Nosotros / as | toquemos |
| Vosotros / as | toquéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | toquen |
| Vos | toques |
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 | tocara | tocase |
| Tú | tocaras | tocase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | tocara | tocase |
| Nosotros / as | tocáramos | tocásemos |
| Vosotros / as | tocarais | tocaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | tocaran | tocasen |
| Vos | tocaras | tocase |
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 | tocare |
| Tú | tocares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | tocare |
| Nosotros / as | tocáremos |
| Vosotros / as | tocareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | tocaren |
| Vos | tocares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “touch!” and “don’t touch!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | toca | no toques |
| Él / Ella / Usted | toque | no toque |
| Nosotros / as | toquemos | no toquemos |
| Vosotros / as | tocad | no toquéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | toquen | no toquen |
| Vos | tocá | no toques |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya tocado |
| Tú | hayas tocado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya tocado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos tocado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis tocado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan tocado |
| Vos | hayas tocado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera tocado / hubiese tocado |
| Tú | hubieras tocado / hubieses tocado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera tocado / hubiese tocado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos tocado / hubiésemos tocado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais tocado / hubieseis tocado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran tocado / hubiesen tocado |
| Vos | hubieras tocado / hubieses tocado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere tocado |
| Tú | hubieres tocado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere tocado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos tocado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis tocado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren tocado |
| Vos | hubieres tocado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté tocando |
| Tú | estés tocando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté tocando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos tocando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis tocando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén tocando |
| Vos | estés tocando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera tocando / estuviese tocando |
| Tú | estuvieras tocando / estuvieses tocando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera tocando / estuviese tocando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos tocando / estuviésamos tocando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais tocando / estuvieseis tocando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera tocando / estuviese tocando |
| Vos | estuvieras tocando / estuvieses tocando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere tocando |
| Tú | estuvieres tocando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere tocando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos tocando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis tocando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere tocando |
| Vos | estuvieres tocando |
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 tocás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos tocaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos tocabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos tocarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos tocarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos toques |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos tocaras / Vos tocase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos tocá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no toques |
