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Guardar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to keep, guard, put away”.
Below are all of the conjugations for guardar 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 keep, guard, put away |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | guardar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está guardando) and past continuous (estaba guardando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. guarded).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he guarded and hubiera guarded. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have guarding).
| Gerundio / Gerund | guardando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | guarded |
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 guard” or “they guard”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | guardo |
| Tú | guardas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | guarda |
| Nosotros / as | guardamos |
| Vosotros / as | guardáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | guardan |
| Vos | guardás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I guard” or “she guard” 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 | guardé | I guard |
| Tú | guardaste | You guard |
| Él / Ella / Usted | guardó | He / she / you guard |
| Nosotros / as | guardamos | We guard |
| Vosotros / as | guardasteis | You guard |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | guardaron | They / you guard |
| Vos | guardaste | You guard |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was guarded” or “she was guarded” 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 | guardaba | I was guarded |
| Tú | guardabas | You were guarded |
| Él / Ella / Usted | guardaba | He was / she was / you were guarded |
| Nosotros / as | guardábamos | We were guarded |
| Vosotros / as | guardabais | You were guarded |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | guardaban | They / you were guarded |
| Vos | guardabas | You were guarded |
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 guarding” and “she has guarding”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he guarded | I have guarding |
| Tú | has guarded | You have guarding |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha guarded | He has / she has / you have guarding |
| Nosotros / as | hemos guarded | We have guarding |
| Vosotros / as | habéis guarded | You have guarding |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han guarded | They / you have guarding |
| Vos | has guarded | You have guarding |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would guard” or “she would guard”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | guardaría | I would guard |
| Tú | guardarías | You would guard |
| Él / Ella / Usted | guardaría | He / she / you would guard |
| Nosotros / as | guardaríamos | We would guard |
| Vosotros / as | guardaríais | You would guard |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | guardarían | They / you would guard |
| Vos | guardarías | You would guard |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will guard” or “they will guard”.
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 guardar” means “They are going to guard”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | guardaré | I will guard |
| Tú | guardarás | You will guard |
| Él / Ella / Usted | guardará | He / she / you will guard |
| Nosotros / as | guardaremos | We will guard |
| Vosotros / as | guardaréis | You will guard |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | guardarán | They / you will guard |
| Vos | guardarás | You will guard |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | guarde |
| Tú | guardes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | guarde |
| Nosotros / as | guardemos |
| Vosotros / as | guardéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | guarden |
| Vos | guardes |
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 | guardara | guardase |
| Tú | guardaras | guardase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | guardara | guardase |
| Nosotros / as | guardáramos | guardásemos |
| Vosotros / as | guardarais | guardaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | guardaran | guardasen |
| Vos | guardaras | guardase |
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 | guardare |
| Tú | guardares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | guardare |
| Nosotros / as | guardáremos |
| Vosotros / as | guardareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | guardaren |
| Vos | guardares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “guard!” and “don’t guard!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | guarda | no guardes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | guarde | no guarde |
| Nosotros / as | guardemos | no guardemos |
| Vosotros / as | guardad | no guardéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | guarden | no guarden |
| Vos | guardá | no guardes |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya guarded |
| Tú | hayas guarded |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya guarded |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos guarded |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis guarded |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan guarded |
| Vos | hayas guarded |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera guarded / hubiese guarded |
| Tú | hubieras guarded / hubieses guarded |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera guarded / hubiese guarded |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos guarded / hubiésemos guarded |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais guarded / hubieseis guarded |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran guarded / hubiesen guarded |
| Vos | hubieras guarded / hubieses guarded |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere guarded |
| Tú | hubieres guarded |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere guarded |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos guarded |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis guarded |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren guarded |
| Vos | hubieres guarded |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté guardando |
| Tú | estés guardando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté guardando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos guardando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis guardando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén guardando |
| Vos | estés guardando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera guardando / estuviese guardando |
| Tú | estuvieras guardando / estuvieses guardando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera guardando / estuviese guardando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos guardando / estuviésamos guardando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais guardando / estuvieseis guardando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera guardando / estuviese guardando |
| Vos | estuvieras guardando / estuvieses guardando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere guardando |
| Tú | estuvieres guardando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere guardando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos guardando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis guardando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere guardando |
| Vos | estuvieres guardando |
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 guardás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos guardaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos guardabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos guardarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos guardarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos guardes |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos guardaras / Vos guardase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos guardá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no guardes |