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Gatear is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to crawl, creep”.
Below are all of the conjugations for gatear 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 crawl, creep |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | gatear |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está gateando) and past continuous (estaba gateando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. crawled).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he crawled and hubiera crawled. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have crawling).
| Gerundio / Gerund | gateando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | crawled |
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 crawl” or “they crawl”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | gateo |
| Tú | gateas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | gatea |
| Nosotros / as | gateamos |
| Vosotros / as | gateáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | gatean |
| Vos | gateás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I crawl” or “she crawl” 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 | gateé | I crawl |
| Tú | gateaste | You crawl |
| Él / Ella / Usted | gateó | He / she / you crawl |
| Nosotros / as | gateamos | We crawl |
| Vosotros / as | gateasteis | You crawl |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | gatearon | They / you crawl |
| Vos | gateaste | You crawl |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was crawled” or “she was crawled” 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 | gateaba | I was crawled |
| Tú | gateabas | You were crawled |
| Él / Ella / Usted | gateaba | He was / she was / you were crawled |
| Nosotros / as | gateábamos | We were crawled |
| Vosotros / as | gateabais | You were crawled |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | gateaban | They / you were crawled |
| Vos | gateabas | You were crawled |
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 crawling” and “she has crawling”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he crawled | I have crawling |
| Tú | has crawled | You have crawling |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha crawled | He has / she has / you have crawling |
| Nosotros / as | hemos crawled | We have crawling |
| Vosotros / as | habéis crawled | You have crawling |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han crawled | They / you have crawling |
| Vos | has crawled | You have crawling |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would crawl” or “she would crawl”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | gatearía | I would crawl |
| Tú | gatearías | You would crawl |
| Él / Ella / Usted | gatearía | He / she / you would crawl |
| Nosotros / as | gatearíamos | We would crawl |
| Vosotros / as | gatearíais | You would crawl |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | gatearían | They / you would crawl |
| Vos | gatearías | You would crawl |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will crawl” or “they will crawl”.
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 gatear” means “They are going to crawl”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | gatearé | I will crawl |
| Tú | gatearás | You will crawl |
| Él / Ella / Usted | gateará | He / she / you will crawl |
| Nosotros / as | gatearemos | We will crawl |
| Vosotros / as | gatearéis | You will crawl |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | gatearán | They / you will crawl |
| Vos | gatearás | You will crawl |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | gatee |
| Tú | gatees |
| Él / Ella / Usted | gatee |
| Nosotros / as | gateemos |
| Vosotros / as | gateéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | gateen |
| Vos | gatees |
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 | gateara | gatease |
| Tú | gatearas | gatease |
| Él / Ella / Usted | gateara | gatease |
| Nosotros / as | gateáramos | gateásemos |
| Vosotros / as | gatearais | gateaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | gatearan | gateasen |
| Vos | gatearas | gatease |
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 | gateare |
| Tú | gateares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | gateare |
| Nosotros / as | gateáremos |
| Vosotros / as | gateareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | gatearen |
| Vos | gateares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “crawl!” and “don’t crawl!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | gatea | no gatees |
| Él / Ella / Usted | gatee | no gatee |
| Nosotros / as | gateemos | no gateemos |
| Vosotros / as | gatead | no gateéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | gateen | no gateen |
| Vos | gateá | no gatees |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya crawled |
| Tú | hayas crawled |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya crawled |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos crawled |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis crawled |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan crawled |
| Vos | hayas crawled |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera crawled / hubiese crawled |
| Tú | hubieras crawled / hubieses crawled |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera crawled / hubiese crawled |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos crawled / hubiésemos crawled |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais crawled / hubieseis crawled |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran crawled / hubiesen crawled |
| Vos | hubieras crawled / hubieses crawled |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere crawled |
| Tú | hubieres crawled |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere crawled |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos crawled |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis crawled |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren crawled |
| Vos | hubieres crawled |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté gateando |
| Tú | estés gateando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté gateando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos gateando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis gateando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén gateando |
| Vos | estés gateando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera gateando / estuviese gateando |
| Tú | estuvieras gateando / estuvieses gateando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera gateando / estuviese gateando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos gateando / estuviésamos gateando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais gateando / estuvieseis gateando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera gateando / estuviese gateando |
| Vos | estuvieras gateando / estuvieses gateando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere gateando |
| Tú | estuvieres gateando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere gateando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos gateando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis gateando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere gateando |
| Vos | estuvieres gateando |
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 gateás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos gateaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos gateabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos gatearías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos gatearás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos gatees |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos gatearas / Vos gatease |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos gateá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no gatees |