Everything you need to improve your Spanish
Menu
Everything you need to improve your Spanish
Felicitar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to congratulate”.
Below are all of the conjugations for felicitar 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 congratulate |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | felicitar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está felicitando) and past continuous (estaba felicitando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. congratulated).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he congratulated and hubiera congratulated. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have congratulating).
| Gerundio / Gerund | felicitando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | congratulated |
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 congratulate” or “they congratulate”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | felicito |
| Tú | felicitas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | felicita |
| Nosotros / as | felicitamos |
| Vosotros / as | felicitáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | felicitan |
| Vos | felicitás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I congratulate” or “she congratulate” 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 | felicité | I congratulate |
| Tú | felicitaste | You congratulate |
| Él / Ella / Usted | felicitó | He / she / you congratulate |
| Nosotros / as | felicitamos | We congratulate |
| Vosotros / as | felicitasteis | You congratulate |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | felicitaron | They / you congratulate |
| Vos | felicitaste | You congratulate |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was congratulated” or “she was congratulated” 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 | felicitaba | I was congratulated |
| Tú | felicitabas | You were congratulated |
| Él / Ella / Usted | felicitaba | He was / she was / you were congratulated |
| Nosotros / as | felicitábamos | We were congratulated |
| Vosotros / as | felicitabais | You were congratulated |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | felicitaban | They / you were congratulated |
| Vos | felicitabas | You were congratulated |
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 congratulating” and “she has congratulating”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he congratulated | I have congratulating |
| Tú | has congratulated | You have congratulating |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha congratulated | He has / she has / you have congratulating |
| Nosotros / as | hemos congratulated | We have congratulating |
| Vosotros / as | habéis congratulated | You have congratulating |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han congratulated | They / you have congratulating |
| Vos | has congratulated | You have congratulating |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would congratulate” or “she would congratulate”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | felicitaría | I would congratulate |
| Tú | felicitarías | You would congratulate |
| Él / Ella / Usted | felicitaría | He / she / you would congratulate |
| Nosotros / as | felicitaríamos | We would congratulate |
| Vosotros / as | felicitaríais | You would congratulate |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | felicitarían | They / you would congratulate |
| Vos | felicitarías | You would congratulate |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will congratulate” or “they will congratulate”.
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 felicitar” means “They are going to congratulate”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | felicitaré | I will congratulate |
| Tú | felicitarás | You will congratulate |
| Él / Ella / Usted | felicitará | He / she / you will congratulate |
| Nosotros / as | felicitaremos | We will congratulate |
| Vosotros / as | felicitaréis | You will congratulate |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | felicitarán | They / you will congratulate |
| Vos | felicitarás | You will congratulate |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | felicite |
| Tú | felicites |
| Él / Ella / Usted | felicite |
| Nosotros / as | felicitemos |
| Vosotros / as | felicitéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | feliciten |
| Vos | felicites |
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 | felicitara | felicitase |
| Tú | felicitaras | felicitase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | felicitara | felicitase |
| Nosotros / as | felicitáramos | felicitásemos |
| Vosotros / as | felicitarais | felicitaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | felicitaran | felicitasen |
| Vos | felicitaras | felicitase |
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 | felicitare |
| Tú | felicitares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | felicitare |
| Nosotros / as | felicitáremos |
| Vosotros / as | felicitareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | felicitaren |
| Vos | felicitares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “congratulate!” and “don’t congratulate!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | felicita | no felicites |
| Él / Ella / Usted | felicite | no felicite |
| Nosotros / as | felicitemos | no felicitemos |
| Vosotros / as | felicitad | no felicitéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | feliciten | no feliciten |
| Vos | felicitá | no felicites |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya congratulated |
| Tú | hayas congratulated |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya congratulated |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos congratulated |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis congratulated |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan congratulated |
| Vos | hayas congratulated |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera congratulated / hubiese congratulated |
| Tú | hubieras congratulated / hubieses congratulated |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera congratulated / hubiese congratulated |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos congratulated / hubiésemos congratulated |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais congratulated / hubieseis congratulated |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran congratulated / hubiesen congratulated |
| Vos | hubieras congratulated / hubieses congratulated |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere congratulated |
| Tú | hubieres congratulated |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere congratulated |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos congratulated |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis congratulated |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren congratulated |
| Vos | hubieres congratulated |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté felicitando |
| Tú | estés felicitando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté felicitando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos felicitando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis felicitando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén felicitando |
| Vos | estés felicitando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera felicitando / estuviese felicitando |
| Tú | estuvieras felicitando / estuvieses felicitando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera felicitando / estuviese felicitando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos felicitando / estuviésamos felicitando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais felicitando / estuvieseis felicitando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera felicitando / estuviese felicitando |
| Vos | estuvieras felicitando / estuvieses felicitando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere felicitando |
| Tú | estuvieres felicitando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere felicitando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos felicitando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis felicitando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere felicitando |
| Vos | estuvieres felicitando |
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 felicitás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos felicitaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos felicitabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos felicitarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos felicitarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos felicites |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos felicitaras / Vos felicitase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos felicitá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no felicites |