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Liberar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to liberate, free”.
Below are all of the conjugations for liberar 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 liberate, free |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | liberar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está liberando) and past continuous (estaba liberando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. liberating).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he liberado and hubiera liberado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have liberated).
| Gerundio / Gerund | liberando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | liberado |
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 liberate” or “they liberate”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | libero |
| Tú | liberas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | libera |
| Nosotros / as | liberamos |
| Vosotros / as | liberáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | liberan |
| Vos | liberás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I liberated” or “she liberated” 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 | liberé | I liberated |
| Tú | liberaste | You liberated |
| Él / Ella / Usted | liberó | He / she / you liberated |
| Nosotros / as | liberamos | We liberated |
| Vosotros / as | liberasteis | You liberated |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | liberaron | They / you liberated |
| Vos | liberaste | You liberated |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was liberating” or “she was liberating” 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 | liberaba | I was liberating |
| Tú | liberabas | You were liberating |
| Él / Ella / Usted | liberaba | He was / she was / you were liberating |
| Nosotros / as | liberábamos | We were liberating |
| Vosotros / as | liberabais | You were liberating |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | liberaban | They / you were liberating |
| Vos | liberabas | You were liberating |
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 liberated” and “she has liberated”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he liberado | I have liberated |
| Tú | has liberado | You have liberated |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha liberado | He has / she has / you have liberated |
| Nosotros / as | hemos liberado | We have liberated |
| Vosotros / as | habéis liberado | You have liberated |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han liberado | They / you have liberated |
| Vos | has liberado | You have liberated |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would liberate” or “she would liberate”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | liberaría | I would liberate |
| Tú | liberarías | You would liberate |
| Él / Ella / Usted | liberaría | He / she / you would liberate |
| Nosotros / as | liberaríamos | We would liberate |
| Vosotros / as | liberaríais | You would liberate |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | liberarían | They / you would liberate |
| Vos | liberarías | You would liberate |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will liberate” or “they will liberate”.
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 liberar” means “They are going to liberate”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | liberaré | I will liberate |
| Tú | liberarás | You will liberate |
| Él / Ella / Usted | liberará | He / she / you will liberate |
| Nosotros / as | liberaremos | We will liberate |
| Vosotros / as | liberaréis | You will liberate |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | liberarán | They / you will liberate |
| Vos | liberarás | You will liberate |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | libere |
| Tú | liberes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | libere |
| Nosotros / as | liberemos |
| Vosotros / as | liberéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | liberen |
| Vos | liberes |
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 | liberara | liberase |
| Tú | liberaras | liberase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | liberara | liberase |
| Nosotros / as | liberáramos | liberásemos |
| Vosotros / as | liberarais | liberaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | liberaran | liberasen |
| Vos | liberaras | liberase |
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 | liberare |
| Tú | liberares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | liberare |
| Nosotros / as | liberáremos |
| Vosotros / as | liberareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | liberaren |
| Vos | liberares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “liberate!” and “don’t liberate!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | libera | no liberes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | libere | no libere |
| Nosotros / as | liberemos | no liberemos |
| Vosotros / as | liberad | no liberéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | liberen | no liberen |
| Vos | liberá | no liberes |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya liberado |
| Tú | hayas liberado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya liberado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos liberado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis liberado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan liberado |
| Vos | hayas liberado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera liberado / hubiese liberado |
| Tú | hubieras liberado / hubieses liberado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera liberado / hubiese liberado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos liberado / hubiésemos liberado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais liberado / hubieseis liberado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran liberado / hubiesen liberado |
| Vos | hubieras liberado / hubieses liberado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere liberado |
| Tú | hubieres liberado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere liberado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos liberado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis liberado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren liberado |
| Vos | hubieres liberado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté liberando |
| Tú | estés liberando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté liberando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos liberando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis liberando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén liberando |
| Vos | estés liberando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera liberando / estuviese liberando |
| Tú | estuvieras liberando / estuvieses liberando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera liberando / estuviese liberando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos liberando / estuviésamos liberando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais liberando / estuvieseis liberando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera liberando / estuviese liberando |
| Vos | estuvieras liberando / estuvieses liberando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere liberando |
| Tú | estuvieres liberando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere liberando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos liberando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis liberando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere liberando |
| Vos | estuvieres liberando |
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 liberás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos liberaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos liberabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos liberarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos liberarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos liberes |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos liberaras / Vos liberase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos liberá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no liberes |