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Especular is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to speculate, ponder”.
Below are all of the conjugations for especular 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 speculate, ponder |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | especular |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está especulando) and past continuous (estaba especulando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. speculating).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he especulado and hubiera especulado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have speculated).
| Gerundio / Gerund | especulando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | especulado |
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 speculate” or “they speculate”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | especulo |
| Tú | especulas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | especula |
| Nosotros / as | especulamos |
| Vosotros / as | especuláis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | especulan |
| Vos | especulás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I speculated” or “she speculated” 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 | especulé | I speculated |
| Tú | especulaste | You speculated |
| Él / Ella / Usted | especuló | He / she / you speculated |
| Nosotros / as | especulamos | We speculated |
| Vosotros / as | especulasteis | You speculated |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | especularon | They / you speculated |
| Vos | especulaste | You speculated |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was speculating” or “she was speculating” 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 | especulaba | I was speculating |
| Tú | especulabas | You were speculating |
| Él / Ella / Usted | especulaba | He was / she was / you were speculating |
| Nosotros / as | especulábamos | We were speculating |
| Vosotros / as | especulabais | You were speculating |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | especulaban | They / you were speculating |
| Vos | especulabas | You were speculating |
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 speculated” and “she has speculated”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he especulado | I have speculated |
| Tú | has especulado | You have speculated |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha especulado | He has / she has / you have speculated |
| Nosotros / as | hemos especulado | We have speculated |
| Vosotros / as | habéis especulado | You have speculated |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han especulado | They / you have speculated |
| Vos | has especulado | You have speculated |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would speculate” or “she would speculate”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | especularía | I would speculate |
| Tú | especularías | You would speculate |
| Él / Ella / Usted | especularía | He / she / you would speculate |
| Nosotros / as | especularíamos | We would speculate |
| Vosotros / as | especularíais | You would speculate |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | especularían | They / you would speculate |
| Vos | especularías | You would speculate |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will speculate” or “they will speculate”.
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 especular” means “They are going to speculate”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | especularé | I will speculate |
| Tú | especularás | You will speculate |
| Él / Ella / Usted | especulará | He / she / you will speculate |
| Nosotros / as | especularemos | We will speculate |
| Vosotros / as | especularéis | You will speculate |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | especularán | They / you will speculate |
| Vos | especularás | You will speculate |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | especule |
| Tú | especules |
| Él / Ella / Usted | especule |
| Nosotros / as | especulemos |
| Vosotros / as | especuléis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | especulen |
| Vos | especules |
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 | especulara | especulase |
| Tú | especularas | especulase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | especulara | especulase |
| Nosotros / as | especuláramos | especulásemos |
| Vosotros / as | especularais | especulaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | especularan | especulasen |
| Vos | especularas | especulase |
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 | especulare |
| Tú | especulares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | especulare |
| Nosotros / as | especuláremos |
| Vosotros / as | especulareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | especularen |
| Vos | especulares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “speculate!” and “don’t speculate!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | especula | no especules |
| Él / Ella / Usted | especule | no especule |
| Nosotros / as | especulemos | no especulemos |
| Vosotros / as | especulad | no especuléis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | especulen | no especulen |
| Vos | especulá | no especules |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya especulado |
| Tú | hayas especulado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya especulado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos especulado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis especulado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan especulado |
| Vos | hayas especulado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera especulado / hubiese especulado |
| Tú | hubieras especulado / hubieses especulado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera especulado / hubiese especulado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos especulado / hubiésemos especulado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais especulado / hubieseis especulado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran especulado / hubiesen especulado |
| Vos | hubieras especulado / hubieses especulado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere especulado |
| Tú | hubieres especulado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere especulado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos especulado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis especulado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren especulado |
| Vos | hubieres especulado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté especulando |
| Tú | estés especulando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté especulando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos especulando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis especulando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén especulando |
| Vos | estés especulando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera especulando / estuviese especulando |
| Tú | estuvieras especulando / estuvieses especulando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera especulando / estuviese especulando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos especulando / estuviésamos especulando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais especulando / estuvieseis especulando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera especulando / estuviese especulando |
| Vos | estuvieras especulando / estuvieses especulando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere especulando |
| Tú | estuvieres especulando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere especulando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos especulando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis especulando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere especulando |
| Vos | estuvieres especulando |
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 especulás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos especulaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos especulabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos especularías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos especularás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos especules |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos especularas / Vos especulase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos especulá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no especules |