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Gastar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to spend money, waste, wear out”.
Below are all of the conjugations for gastar 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 spend money, waste, wear out |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | gastar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está gastando) and past continuous (estaba gastando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. wasted).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he wasted and hubiera wasted. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have wasting).
| Gerundio / Gerund | gastando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | wasted |
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 waste” or “they waste”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | gasto |
| Tú | gastas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | gasta |
| Nosotros / as | gastamos |
| Vosotros / as | gastáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | gastan |
| Vos | gastás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I waste” or “she waste” 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 | gasté | I waste |
| Tú | gastaste | You waste |
| Él / Ella / Usted | gastó | He / she / you waste |
| Nosotros / as | gastamos | We waste |
| Vosotros / as | gastasteis | You waste |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | gastaron | They / you waste |
| Vos | gastaste | You waste |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was wasted” or “she was wasted” 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 | gastaba | I was wasted |
| Tú | gastabas | You were wasted |
| Él / Ella / Usted | gastaba | He was / she was / you were wasted |
| Nosotros / as | gastábamos | We were wasted |
| Vosotros / as | gastabais | You were wasted |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | gastaban | They / you were wasted |
| Vos | gastabas | You were wasted |
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 wasting” and “she has wasting”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he wasted | I have wasting |
| Tú | has wasted | You have wasting |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha wasted | He has / she has / you have wasting |
| Nosotros / as | hemos wasted | We have wasting |
| Vosotros / as | habéis wasted | You have wasting |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han wasted | They / you have wasting |
| Vos | has wasted | You have wasting |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would waste” or “she would waste”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | gastaría | I would waste |
| Tú | gastarías | You would waste |
| Él / Ella / Usted | gastaría | He / she / you would waste |
| Nosotros / as | gastaríamos | We would waste |
| Vosotros / as | gastaríais | You would waste |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | gastarían | They / you would waste |
| Vos | gastarías | You would waste |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will waste” or “they will waste”.
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 gastar” means “They are going to waste”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | gastaré | I will waste |
| Tú | gastarás | You will waste |
| Él / Ella / Usted | gastará | He / she / you will waste |
| Nosotros / as | gastaremos | We will waste |
| Vosotros / as | gastaréis | You will waste |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | gastarán | They / you will waste |
| Vos | gastarás | You will waste |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | gaste |
| Tú | gastes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | gaste |
| Nosotros / as | gastemos |
| Vosotros / as | gastéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | gasten |
| Vos | gastes |
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 | gastara | gastase |
| Tú | gastaras | gastase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | gastara | gastase |
| Nosotros / as | gastáramos | gastásemos |
| Vosotros / as | gastarais | gastaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | gastaran | gastasen |
| Vos | gastaras | gastase |
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 | gastare |
| Tú | gastares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | gastare |
| Nosotros / as | gastáremos |
| Vosotros / as | gastareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | gastaren |
| Vos | gastares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “waste!” and “don’t waste!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | gasta | no gastes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | gaste | no gaste |
| Nosotros / as | gastemos | no gastemos |
| Vosotros / as | gastad | no gastéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | gasten | no gasten |
| Vos | gastá | no gastes |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya wasted |
| Tú | hayas wasted |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya wasted |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos wasted |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis wasted |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan wasted |
| Vos | hayas wasted |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera wasted / hubiese wasted |
| Tú | hubieras wasted / hubieses wasted |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera wasted / hubiese wasted |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos wasted / hubiésemos wasted |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais wasted / hubieseis wasted |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran wasted / hubiesen wasted |
| Vos | hubieras wasted / hubieses wasted |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere wasted |
| Tú | hubieres wasted |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere wasted |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos wasted |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis wasted |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren wasted |
| Vos | hubieres wasted |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté gastando |
| Tú | estés gastando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté gastando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos gastando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis gastando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén gastando |
| Vos | estés gastando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera gastando / estuviese gastando |
| Tú | estuvieras gastando / estuvieses gastando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera gastando / estuviese gastando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos gastando / estuviésamos gastando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais gastando / estuvieseis gastando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera gastando / estuviese gastando |
| Vos | estuvieras gastando / estuvieses gastando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere gastando |
| Tú | estuvieres gastando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere gastando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos gastando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis gastando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere gastando |
| Vos | estuvieres gastando |
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 gastás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos gastaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos gastabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos gastarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos gastarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos gastes |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos gastaras / Vos gastase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos gastá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no gastes |