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Grabar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to engrave, record”.
Below are all of the conjugations for grabar 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 engrave, record |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | grabar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está grabando) and past continuous (estaba grabando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. engraved).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he engraved and hubiera engraved. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have engraving).
| Gerundio / Gerund | grabando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | engraved |
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 engrave” or “they engrave”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | grabo |
| Tú | grabas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | graba |
| Nosotros / as | grabamos |
| Vosotros / as | grabáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | graban |
| Vos | grabás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I engrave” or “she engrave” 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 | grabé | I engrave |
| Tú | grabaste | You engrave |
| Él / Ella / Usted | grabó | He / she / you engrave |
| Nosotros / as | grabamos | We engrave |
| Vosotros / as | grabasteis | You engrave |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | grabaron | They / you engrave |
| Vos | grabaste | You engrave |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was engraved” or “she was engraved” 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 | grababa | I was engraved |
| Tú | grababas | You were engraved |
| Él / Ella / Usted | grababa | He was / she was / you were engraved |
| Nosotros / as | grabábamos | We were engraved |
| Vosotros / as | grababais | You were engraved |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | grababan | They / you were engraved |
| Vos | grababas | You were engraved |
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 engraving” and “she has engraving”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he engraved | I have engraving |
| Tú | has engraved | You have engraving |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha engraved | He has / she has / you have engraving |
| Nosotros / as | hemos engraved | We have engraving |
| Vosotros / as | habéis engraved | You have engraving |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han engraved | They / you have engraving |
| Vos | has engraved | You have engraving |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would engrave” or “she would engrave”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | grabaría | I would engrave |
| Tú | grabarías | You would engrave |
| Él / Ella / Usted | grabaría | He / she / you would engrave |
| Nosotros / as | grabaríamos | We would engrave |
| Vosotros / as | grabaríais | You would engrave |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | grabarían | They / you would engrave |
| Vos | grabarías | You would engrave |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will engrave” or “they will engrave”.
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 grabar” means “They are going to engrave”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | grabaré | I will engrave |
| Tú | grabarás | You will engrave |
| Él / Ella / Usted | grabará | He / she / you will engrave |
| Nosotros / as | grabaremos | We will engrave |
| Vosotros / as | grabaréis | You will engrave |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | grabarán | They / you will engrave |
| Vos | grabarás | You will engrave |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | grabe |
| Tú | grabes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | grabe |
| Nosotros / as | grabemos |
| Vosotros / as | grabéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | graben |
| Vos | grabes |
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 | grabara | grabase |
| Tú | grabaras | grabase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | grabara | grabase |
| Nosotros / as | grabáramos | grabásemos |
| Vosotros / as | grabarais | grabaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | grabaran | grabasen |
| Vos | grabaras | grabase |
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 | grabare |
| Tú | grabares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | grabare |
| Nosotros / as | grabáremos |
| Vosotros / as | grabareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | grabaren |
| Vos | grabares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “engrave!” and “don’t engrave!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | graba | no grabes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | grabe | no grabe |
| Nosotros / as | grabemos | no grabemos |
| Vosotros / as | grabad | no grabéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | graben | no graben |
| Vos | grabá | no grabes |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya engraved |
| Tú | hayas engraved |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya engraved |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos engraved |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis engraved |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan engraved |
| Vos | hayas engraved |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera engraved / hubiese engraved |
| Tú | hubieras engraved / hubieses engraved |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera engraved / hubiese engraved |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos engraved / hubiésemos engraved |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais engraved / hubieseis engraved |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran engraved / hubiesen engraved |
| Vos | hubieras engraved / hubieses engraved |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere engraved |
| Tú | hubieres engraved |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere engraved |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos engraved |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis engraved |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren engraved |
| Vos | hubieres engraved |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté grabando |
| Tú | estés grabando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté grabando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos grabando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis grabando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén grabando |
| Vos | estés grabando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera grabando / estuviese grabando |
| Tú | estuvieras grabando / estuvieses grabando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera grabando / estuviese grabando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos grabando / estuviésamos grabando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais grabando / estuvieseis grabando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera grabando / estuviese grabando |
| Vos | estuvieras grabando / estuvieses grabando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere grabando |
| Tú | estuvieres grabando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere grabando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos grabando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis grabando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere grabando |
| Vos | estuvieres grabando |
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 grabás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos grabaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos grababas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos grabarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos grabarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos grabes |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos grabaras / Vos grabase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos grabá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no grabes |