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Maniobrar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to work, operate”.
Below are all of the conjugations for maniobrar 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 work, operate |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | maniobrar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está maniobrando) and past continuous (estaba maniobrando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. operating).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he maniobrado and hubiera maniobrado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have operated).
| Gerundio / Gerund | maniobrando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | maniobrado |
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 operate” or “they operate”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | maniobro |
| Tú | maniobras |
| Él / Ella / Usted | maniobra |
| Nosotros / as | maniobramos |
| Vosotros / as | maniobráis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | maniobran |
| Vos |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I operated” or “she operated” 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 | maniobré | I operated |
| Tú | maniobraste | You operated |
| Él / Ella / Usted | maniobró | He / she / you operated |
| Nosotros / as | maniobramos | We operated |
| Vosotros / as | maniobrasteis | You operated |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | maniobraron | They / you operated |
| Vos | maniobraste | You operated |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was operating” or “she was operating” 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 | maniobraba | I was operating |
| Tú | maniobrabas | You were operating |
| Él / Ella / Usted | maniobraba | He was / she was / you were operating |
| Nosotros / as | maniobrábamos | We were operating |
| Vosotros / as | maniobrabais | You were operating |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | maniobraban | They / you were operating |
| Vos | maniobrabas | You were operating |
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 operated” and “she has operated”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he maniobrado | I have operated |
| Tú | has maniobrado | You have operated |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha maniobrado | He has / she has / you have operated |
| Nosotros / as | hemos maniobrado | We have operated |
| Vosotros / as | habéis maniobrado | You have operated |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han maniobrado | They / you have operated |
| Vos | has maniobrado | You have operated |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would operate” or “she would operate”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | maniobraría | I would operate |
| Tú | maniobrarías | You would operate |
| Él / Ella / Usted | maniobraría | He / she / you would operate |
| Nosotros / as | maniobraríamos | We would operate |
| Vosotros / as | maniobraríais | You would operate |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | maniobrarían | They / you would operate |
| Vos | maniobrarías | You would operate |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will operate” or “they will operate”.
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 maniobrar” means “They are going to operate”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | maniobraré | I will operate |
| Tú | maniobrarás | You will operate |
| Él / Ella / Usted | maniobrará | He / she / you will operate |
| Nosotros / as | maniobraremos | We will operate |
| Vosotros / as | maniobraréis | You will operate |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | maniobrarán | They / you will operate |
| Vos | maniobrarás | You will operate |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | maniobre |
| Tú | maniobres |
| Él / Ella / Usted | maniobre |
| Nosotros / as | maniobremos |
| Vosotros / as | maniobréis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | maniobren |
| Vos | maniobres |
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 | maniobrara | maniobrase |
| Tú | maniobraras | maniobrase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | maniobrara | maniobrase |
| Nosotros / as | maniobráramos | maniobrásemos |
| Vosotros / as | maniobrarais | maniobraseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | maniobraran | maniobrasen |
| Vos | maniobraras | maniobrase |
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 | maniobrare |
| Tú | maniobrares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | maniobrare |
| Nosotros / as | maniobráremos |
| Vosotros / as | maniobrareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | maniobraren |
| Vos | maniobrares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “operate!” and “don’t operate!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | maniobra | no maniobres |
| Él / Ella / Usted | maniobre | no maniobre |
| Nosotros / as | maniobremos | no maniobremos |
| Vosotros / as | maniobrad | no maniobréis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | maniobren | no maniobren |
| Vos | no maniobres |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya maniobrado |
| Tú | hayas maniobrado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya maniobrado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos maniobrado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis maniobrado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan maniobrado |
| Vos | hayas maniobrado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera maniobrado / hubiese maniobrado |
| Tú | hubieras maniobrado / hubieses maniobrado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera maniobrado / hubiese maniobrado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos maniobrado / hubiésemos maniobrado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais maniobrado / hubieseis maniobrado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran maniobrado / hubiesen maniobrado |
| Vos | hubieras maniobrado / hubieses maniobrado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere maniobrado |
| Tú | hubieres maniobrado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere maniobrado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos maniobrado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis maniobrado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren maniobrado |
| Vos | hubieres maniobrado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté maniobrando |
| Tú | estés maniobrando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté maniobrando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos maniobrando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis maniobrando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén maniobrando |
| Vos | estés maniobrando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera maniobrando / estuviese maniobrando |
| Tú | estuvieras maniobrando / estuvieses maniobrando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera maniobrando / estuviese maniobrando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos maniobrando / estuviésamos maniobrando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais maniobrando / estuvieseis maniobrando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera maniobrando / estuviese maniobrando |
| Vos | estuvieras maniobrando / estuvieses maniobrando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere maniobrando |
| Tú | estuvieres maniobrando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere maniobrando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos maniobrando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis maniobrando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere maniobrando |
| Vos | estuvieres maniobrando |
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 |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos maniobraste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos maniobrabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos maniobrarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos maniobrarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos maniobres |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos maniobraras / Vos maniobrase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no maniobres |