Everything you need to improve your Spanish
Menu
Everything you need to improve your Spanish
Firmar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to sign”.
Below are all of the conjugations for firmar 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 sign |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | firmar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está firmando) and past continuous (estaba firmando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. signed).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he signed and hubiera signed. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have signing).
| Gerundio / Gerund | firmando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | signed |
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 sign” or “they sign”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | firmo |
| Tú | firmas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | firma |
| Nosotros / as | firmamos |
| Vosotros / as | firmáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | firman |
| Vos | firmás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I sign” or “she sign” 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 | firmé | I sign |
| Tú | firmaste | You sign |
| Él / Ella / Usted | firmó | He / she / you sign |
| Nosotros / as | firmamos | We sign |
| Vosotros / as | firmasteis | You sign |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | firmaron | They / you sign |
| Vos | firmaste | You sign |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was signed” or “she was signed” 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 | firmaba | I was signed |
| Tú | firmabas | You were signed |
| Él / Ella / Usted | firmaba | He was / she was / you were signed |
| Nosotros / as | firmábamos | We were signed |
| Vosotros / as | firmabais | You were signed |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | firmaban | They / you were signed |
| Vos | firmabas | You were signed |
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 signing” and “she has signing”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he signed | I have signing |
| Tú | has signed | You have signing |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha signed | He has / she has / you have signing |
| Nosotros / as | hemos signed | We have signing |
| Vosotros / as | habéis signed | You have signing |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han signed | They / you have signing |
| Vos | has signed | You have signing |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would sign” or “she would sign”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | firmaría | I would sign |
| Tú | firmarías | You would sign |
| Él / Ella / Usted | firmaría | He / she / you would sign |
| Nosotros / as | firmaríamos | We would sign |
| Vosotros / as | firmaríais | You would sign |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | firmarían | They / you would sign |
| Vos | firmarías | You would sign |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will sign” or “they will sign”.
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 firmar” means “They are going to sign”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | firmaré | I will sign |
| Tú | firmarás | You will sign |
| Él / Ella / Usted | firmará | He / she / you will sign |
| Nosotros / as | firmaremos | We will sign |
| Vosotros / as | firmaréis | You will sign |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | firmarán | They / you will sign |
| Vos | firmarás | You will sign |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | firme |
| Tú | firmes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | firme |
| Nosotros / as | firmemos |
| Vosotros / as | firméis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | firmen |
| Vos | firmes |
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 | firmara | firmase |
| Tú | firmaras | firmase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | firmara | firmase |
| Nosotros / as | firmáramos | firmásemos |
| Vosotros / as | firmarais | firmaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | firmaran | firmasen |
| Vos | firmaras | firmase |
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 | firmare |
| Tú | firmares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | firmare |
| Nosotros / as | firmáremos |
| Vosotros / as | firmareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | firmaren |
| Vos | firmares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “sign!” and “don’t sign!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | firma | no firmes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | firme | no firme |
| Nosotros / as | firmemos | no firmemos |
| Vosotros / as | firmad | no firméis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | firmen | no firmen |
| Vos | firmá | no firmes |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya signed |
| Tú | hayas signed |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya signed |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos signed |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis signed |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan signed |
| Vos | hayas signed |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera signed / hubiese signed |
| Tú | hubieras signed / hubieses signed |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera signed / hubiese signed |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos signed / hubiésemos signed |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais signed / hubieseis signed |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran signed / hubiesen signed |
| Vos | hubieras signed / hubieses signed |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere signed |
| Tú | hubieres signed |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere signed |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos signed |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis signed |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren signed |
| Vos | hubieres signed |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté firmando |
| Tú | estés firmando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté firmando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos firmando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis firmando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén firmando |
| Vos | estés firmando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera firmando / estuviese firmando |
| Tú | estuvieras firmando / estuvieses firmando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera firmando / estuviese firmando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos firmando / estuviésamos firmando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais firmando / estuvieseis firmando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera firmando / estuviese firmando |
| Vos | estuvieras firmando / estuvieses firmando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere firmando |
| Tú | estuvieres firmando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere firmando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos firmando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis firmando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere firmando |
| Vos | estuvieres firmando |
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 firmás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos firmaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos firmabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos firmarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos firmarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos firmes |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos firmaras / Vos firmase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos firmá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no firmes |