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Lidiar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to fight, battle”.
Below are all of the conjugations for lidiar 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 fight, battle |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | lidiar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está lidiando) and past continuous (estaba lidiando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. fighting).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he lidiado and hubiera lidiado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have fought).
| Gerundio / Gerund | lidiando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | lidiado |
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 fight” or “they fight”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | lidio |
| Tú | lidias |
| Él / Ella / Usted | lidia |
| Nosotros / as | lidiamos |
| Vosotros / as | lidiáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | lidian |
| Vos | lidiás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I fought” or “she fought” 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 | lidié | I fought |
| Tú | lidiaste | You fought |
| Él / Ella / Usted | lidió | He / she / you fought |
| Nosotros / as | lidiamos | We fought |
| Vosotros / as | lidiasteis | You fought |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | lidiaron | They / you fought |
| Vos | lidiaste | You fought |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was fighting” or “she was fighting” 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 | lidiaba | I was fighting |
| Tú | lidiabas | You were fighting |
| Él / Ella / Usted | lidiaba | He was / she was / you were fighting |
| Nosotros / as | lidiábamos | We were fighting |
| Vosotros / as | lidiabais | You were fighting |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | lidiaban | They / you were fighting |
| Vos | lidiabas | You were fighting |
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 fought” and “she has fought”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he lidiado | I have fought |
| Tú | has lidiado | You have fought |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha lidiado | He has / she has / you have fought |
| Nosotros / as | hemos lidiado | We have fought |
| Vosotros / as | habéis lidiado | You have fought |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han lidiado | They / you have fought |
| Vos | has lidiado | You have fought |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would fight” or “she would fight”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | lidiaría | I would fight |
| Tú | lidiarías | You would fight |
| Él / Ella / Usted | lidiaría | He / she / you would fight |
| Nosotros / as | lidiaríamos | We would fight |
| Vosotros / as | lidiaríais | You would fight |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | lidiarían | They / you would fight |
| Vos | lidiarías | You would fight |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will fight” or “they will fight”.
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 lidiar” means “They are going to fight”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | lidiaré | I will fight |
| Tú | lidiarás | You will fight |
| Él / Ella / Usted | lidiará | He / she / you will fight |
| Nosotros / as | lidiaremos | We will fight |
| Vosotros / as | lidiaréis | You will fight |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | lidiarán | They / you will fight |
| Vos | lidiarás | You will fight |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | lidie |
| Tú | lidies |
| Él / Ella / Usted | lidie |
| Nosotros / as | lidiemos |
| Vosotros / as | lidiéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | lidien |
| Vos | lidies |
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 | lidiara | lidiase |
| Tú | lidiaras | lidiase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | lidiara | lidiase |
| Nosotros / as | lidiáramos | lidiásemos |
| Vosotros / as | lidiarais | lidiaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | lidiaran | lidiasen |
| Vos | lidiaras | lidiase |
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 | lidiare |
| Tú | lidiares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | lidiare |
| Nosotros / as | lidiáremos |
| Vosotros / as | lidiareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | lidiaren |
| Vos | lidiares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “fight!” and “don’t fight!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | lidia | no lidies |
| Él / Ella / Usted | lidie | no lidie |
| Nosotros / as | lidiemos | no lidiemos |
| Vosotros / as | lidiad | no lidiéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | lidien | no lidien |
| Vos | lidiá | no lidies |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya lidiado |
| Tú | hayas lidiado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya lidiado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos lidiado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis lidiado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan lidiado |
| Vos | hayas lidiado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera lidiado / hubiese lidiado |
| Tú | hubieras lidiado / hubieses lidiado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera lidiado / hubiese lidiado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos lidiado / hubiésemos lidiado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais lidiado / hubieseis lidiado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran lidiado / hubiesen lidiado |
| Vos | hubieras lidiado / hubieses lidiado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere lidiado |
| Tú | hubieres lidiado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere lidiado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos lidiado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis lidiado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren lidiado |
| Vos | hubieres lidiado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté lidiando |
| Tú | estés lidiando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté lidiando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos lidiando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis lidiando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén lidiando |
| Vos | estés lidiando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera lidiando / estuviese lidiando |
| Tú | estuvieras lidiando / estuvieses lidiando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera lidiando / estuviese lidiando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos lidiando / estuviésamos lidiando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais lidiando / estuvieseis lidiando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera lidiando / estuviese lidiando |
| Vos | estuvieras lidiando / estuvieses lidiando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere lidiando |
| Tú | estuvieres lidiando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere lidiando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos lidiando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis lidiando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere lidiando |
| Vos | estuvieres lidiando |
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 lidiás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos lidiaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos lidiabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos lidiarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos lidiarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos lidies |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos lidiaras / Vos lidiase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos lidiá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no lidies |