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Reconocer is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to recognise”.
Below are all of the conjugations for reconocer 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 recognise |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | reconocer |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está reconociendo) and past continuous (estaba reconociendo). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. recognising).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he reconocido and hubiera reconocido. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have recognised).
| Gerundio / Gerund | reconociendo |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | reconocido |
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 recognise” or “they recognise”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | reconozco |
| Tú | reconoces |
| Él / Ella / Usted | reconoce |
| Nosotros / as | reconocemos |
| Vosotros / as | reconocéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | reconocen |
| Vos | reconocés |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I recognised” or “she recognised” 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 | reconocí | I recognised |
| Tú | reconociste | You recognised |
| Él / Ella / Usted | reconoció | He / she / you recognised |
| Nosotros / as | reconocimos | We recognised |
| Vosotros / as | reconocisteis | You recognised |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | reconocieron | They / you recognised |
| Vos | reconociste | You recognised |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was recognising” or “she was recognising” 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 | reconocía | I was recognising |
| Tú | reconocías | You were recognising |
| Él / Ella / Usted | reconocía | He was / she was / you were recognising |
| Nosotros / as | reconocíamos | We were recognising |
| Vosotros / as | reconocíais | You were recognising |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | reconocían | They / you were recognising |
| Vos | reconocías | You were recognising |
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 recognised” and “she has recognised”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he reconocido | I have recognised |
| Tú | has reconocido | You have recognised |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha reconocido | He has / she has / you have recognised |
| Nosotros / as | hemos reconocido | We have recognised |
| Vosotros / as | habéis reconocido | You have recognised |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han reconocido | They / you have recognised |
| Vos | has reconocido | You have recognised |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would recognise” or “she would recognise”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | reconocería | I would recognise |
| Tú | reconocerías | You would recognise |
| Él / Ella / Usted | reconocería | He / she / you would recognise |
| Nosotros / as | reconoceríamos | We would recognise |
| Vosotros / as | reconoceríais | You would recognise |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | reconocerían | They / you would recognise |
| Vos | reconocerías | You would recognise |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will recognise” or “they will recognise”.
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 reconocer” means “They are going to recognise”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | reconoceré | I will recognise |
| Tú | reconocerás | You will recognise |
| Él / Ella / Usted | reconocerá | He / she / you will recognise |
| Nosotros / as | reconoceremos | We will recognise |
| Vosotros / as | reconoceréis | You will recognise |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | reconocerán | They / you will recognise |
| Vos | reconocerás | You will recognise |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | reconozca |
| Tú | reconozcas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | reconozca |
| Nosotros / as | reconozcamos |
| Vosotros / as | reconozcáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | reconozcan |
| Vos | reconozcas |
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 | reconociera | reconociese |
| Tú | reconocieras | reconociese |
| Él / Ella / Usted | reconociera | reconociese |
| Nosotros / as | reconociéramos | reconociésemos |
| Vosotros / as | reconocierais | reconocieseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | reconocieran | reconociesen |
| Vos | reconocieras | reconociese |
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 | reconociere |
| Tú | reconocieres |
| Él / Ella / Usted | reconociere |
| Nosotros / as | reconociéremos |
| Vosotros / as | reconociereis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | reconocieren |
| Vos | reconocieres |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “recognise!” and “don’t recognise!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | reconoce | no reconozcas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | reconozca | no reconozca |
| Nosotros / as | reconozcamos | no reconozcamos |
| Vosotros / as | reconoced | no reconozcáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | reconozcan | no reconozcan |
| Vos | reconocé | no reconozcas |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya reconocido |
| Tú | hayas reconocido |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya reconocido |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos reconocido |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis reconocido |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan reconocido |
| Vos | hayas reconocido |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera reconocido / hubiese reconocido |
| Tú | hubieras reconocido / hubieses reconocido |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera reconocido / hubiese reconocido |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos reconocido / hubiésemos reconocido |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais reconocido / hubieseis reconocido |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran reconocido / hubiesen reconocido |
| Vos | hubieras reconocido / hubieses reconocido |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere reconocido |
| Tú | hubieres reconocido |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere reconocido |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos reconocido |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis reconocido |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren reconocido |
| Vos | hubieres reconocido |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté reconociendo |
| Tú | estés reconociendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté reconociendo |
| Nosotros / as | estemos reconociendo |
| Vosotros / as | estéis reconociendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén reconociendo |
| Vos | estés reconociendo |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera reconociendo / estuviese reconociendo |
| Tú | estuvieras reconociendo / estuvieses reconociendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera reconociendo / estuviese reconociendo |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos reconociendo / estuviésamos reconociendo |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais reconociendo / estuvieseis reconociendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera reconociendo / estuviese reconociendo |
| Vos | estuvieras reconociendo / estuvieses reconociendo |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere reconociendo |
| Tú | estuvieres reconociendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere reconociendo |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos reconociendo |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis reconociendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere reconociendo |
| Vos | estuvieres reconociendo |
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 reconocés |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos reconociste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos reconocías |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos reconocerías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos reconocerás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos reconozcas |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos reconocieras / Vos reconociese |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos reconocé |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no reconozcas |
