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Frotar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to rub, touch lightly”.
Below are all of the conjugations for frotar 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 rub, touch lightly |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | frotar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está frenando) and past continuous (estaba frenando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. rubbed).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he rubbed and hubiera rubbed. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have rubbing).
| Gerundio / Gerund | frenando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | rubbed |
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 rub” or “they rub”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | freno |
| Tú | frenas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | frena |
| Nosotros / as | frenamos |
| Vosotros / as | frenáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | frenan |
| Vos | frotás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I rub” or “she rub” 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 | frené | I rub |
| Tú | frenaste | You rub |
| Él / Ella / Usted | frenó | He / she / you rub |
| Nosotros / as | frenamos | We rub |
| Vosotros / as | frenasteis | You rub |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | frenaron | They / you rub |
| Vos | frenaste | You rub |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was rubbed” or “she was rubbed” 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 | frenaba | I was rubbed |
| Tú | frenabas | You were rubbed |
| Él / Ella / Usted | frenaba | He was / she was / you were rubbed |
| Nosotros / as | frenábamos | We were rubbed |
| Vosotros / as | frenabais | You were rubbed |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | frenaban | They / you were rubbed |
| Vos | frenabas | You were rubbed |
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 rubbing” and “she has rubbing”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he rubbed | I have rubbing |
| Tú | has rubbed | You have rubbing |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha rubbed | He has / she has / you have rubbing |
| Nosotros / as | hemos rubbed | We have rubbing |
| Vosotros / as | habéis rubbed | You have rubbing |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han rubbed | They / you have rubbing |
| Vos | has rubbed | You have rubbing |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would rub” or “she would rub”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | frenaría | I would rub |
| Tú | frenarías | You would rub |
| Él / Ella / Usted | frenaría | He / she / you would rub |
| Nosotros / as | frenaríamos | We would rub |
| Vosotros / as | frenaríais | You would rub |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | frenarían | They / you would rub |
| Vos | frenarías | You would rub |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will rub” or “they will rub”.
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 frotar” means “They are going to rub”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | frenaré | I will rub |
| Tú | frenarás | You will rub |
| Él / Ella / Usted | frenará | He / she / you will rub |
| Nosotros / as | frenaremos | We will rub |
| Vosotros / as | frenaréis | You will rub |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | frenarán | They / you will rub |
| Vos | frenarás | You will rub |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | frene |
| Tú | frenes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | frene |
| Nosotros / as | frenemos |
| Vosotros / as | frenéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | frenen |
| Vos | frenes |
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 | frenara | frenase |
| Tú | frenaras | frenase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | frenara | frenase |
| Nosotros / as | frenáramos | frenásemos |
| Vosotros / as | frenarais | frenaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | frenaran | frenasen |
| Vos | frenaras | frenase |
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 | frenare |
| Tú | frenares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | frenare |
| Nosotros / as | frenáremos |
| Vosotros / as | frenareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | frenaren |
| Vos | frenares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “rub!” and “don’t rub!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | frena | no frenes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | frene | no frene |
| Nosotros / as | frenemos | no frenemos |
| Vosotros / as | frenad | no frenéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | frenen | no frenen |
| Vos | frotá | no frenes |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya rubbed |
| Tú | hayas rubbed |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya rubbed |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos rubbed |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis rubbed |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan rubbed |
| Vos | hayas rubbed |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera rubbed / hubiese rubbed |
| Tú | hubieras rubbed / hubieses rubbed |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera rubbed / hubiese rubbed |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos rubbed / hubiésemos rubbed |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais rubbed / hubieseis rubbed |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran rubbed / hubiesen rubbed |
| Vos | hubieras rubbed / hubieses rubbed |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere rubbed |
| Tú | hubieres rubbed |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere rubbed |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos rubbed |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis rubbed |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren rubbed |
| Vos | hubieres rubbed |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté frenando |
| Tú | estés frenando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté frenando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos frenando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis frenando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén frenando |
| Vos | estés frenando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera frenando / estuviese frenando |
| Tú | estuvieras frenando / estuvieses frenando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera frenando / estuviese frenando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos frenando / estuviésamos frenando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais frenando / estuvieseis frenando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera frenando / estuviese frenando |
| Vos | estuvieras frenando / estuvieses frenando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere frenando |
| Tú | estuvieres frenando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere frenando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos frenando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis frenando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere frenando |
| Vos | estuvieres frenando |
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 frotás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos frenaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos frenabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos frenarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos frenarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos frenes |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos frenaras / Vos frenase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos frotá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no frenes |