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Lavar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to wash”.
Below are all of the conjugations for lavar 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 wash |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | lavar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está lavando) and past continuous (estaba lavando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. washing).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he lavado and hubiera lavado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have washed).
| Gerundio / Gerund | lavando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | lavado |
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 wash” or “they wash”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | lavo |
| Tú | lavas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | lava |
| Nosotros / as | lavamos |
| Vosotros / as | laváis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | lavan |
| Vos | lavás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I washed” or “she washed” 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 | lavé | I washed |
| Tú | lavaste | You washed |
| Él / Ella / Usted | lavó | He / she / you washed |
| Nosotros / as | lavamos | We washed |
| Vosotros / as | lavasteis | You washed |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | lavaron | They / you washed |
| Vos | lavaste | You washed |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was washing” or “she was washing” 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 | lavaba | I was washing |
| Tú | lavabas | You were washing |
| Él / Ella / Usted | lavaba | He was / she was / you were washing |
| Nosotros / as | lavábamos | We were washing |
| Vosotros / as | lavabais | You were washing |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | lavaban | They / you were washing |
| Vos | lavabas | You were washing |
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 washed” and “she has washed”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he lavado | I have washed |
| Tú | has lavado | You have washed |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha lavado | He has / she has / you have washed |
| Nosotros / as | hemos lavado | We have washed |
| Vosotros / as | habéis lavado | You have washed |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han lavado | They / you have washed |
| Vos | has lavado | You have washed |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would wash” or “she would wash”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | lavaría | I would wash |
| Tú | lavarías | You would wash |
| Él / Ella / Usted | lavaría | He / she / you would wash |
| Nosotros / as | lavaríamos | We would wash |
| Vosotros / as | lavaríais | You would wash |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | lavarían | They / you would wash |
| Vos | lavarías | You would wash |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will wash” or “they will wash”.
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 lavar” means “They are going to wash”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | lavaré | I will wash |
| Tú | lavarás | You will wash |
| Él / Ella / Usted | lavará | He / she / you will wash |
| Nosotros / as | lavaremos | We will wash |
| Vosotros / as | lavaréis | You will wash |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | lavarán | They / you will wash |
| Vos | lavarás | You will wash |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | lave |
| Tú | laves |
| Él / Ella / Usted | lave |
| Nosotros / as | lavemos |
| Vosotros / as | lavéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | laven |
| Vos | laves |
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 | lavara | lavase |
| Tú | lavaras | lavase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | lavara | lavase |
| Nosotros / as | laváramos | lavásemos |
| Vosotros / as | lavarais | lavaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | lavaran | lavasen |
| Vos | lavaras | lavase |
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 | lavare |
| Tú | lavares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | lavare |
| Nosotros / as | laváremos |
| Vosotros / as | lavareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | lavaren |
| Vos | lavares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “wash!” and “don’t wash!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | lava | no laves |
| Él / Ella / Usted | lave | no lave |
| Nosotros / as | lavemos | no lavemos |
| Vosotros / as | lavad | no lavéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | laven | no laven |
| Vos | lavá | no laves |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya lavado |
| Tú | hayas lavado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya lavado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos lavado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis lavado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan lavado |
| Vos | hayas lavado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera lavado / hubiese lavado |
| Tú | hubieras lavado / hubieses lavado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera lavado / hubiese lavado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos lavado / hubiésemos lavado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais lavado / hubieseis lavado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran lavado / hubiesen lavado |
| Vos | hubieras lavado / hubieses lavado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere lavado |
| Tú | hubieres lavado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere lavado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos lavado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis lavado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren lavado |
| Vos | hubieres lavado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté lavando |
| Tú | estés lavando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté lavando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos lavando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis lavando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén lavando |
| Vos | estés lavando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera lavando / estuviese lavando |
| Tú | estuvieras lavando / estuvieses lavando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera lavando / estuviese lavando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos lavando / estuviésamos lavando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais lavando / estuvieseis lavando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera lavando / estuviese lavando |
| Vos | estuvieras lavando / estuvieses lavando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere lavando |
| Tú | estuvieres lavando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere lavando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos lavando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis lavando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere lavando |
| Vos | estuvieres lavando |
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 lavás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos lavaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos lavabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos lavarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos lavarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos laves |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos lavaras / Vos lavase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos lavá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no laves |