Everything you need to improve your Spanish
Menu
Everything you need to improve your Spanish
Cocinar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to cook”.
Below are all of the conjugations for cocinar 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 cook |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | cocinar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está cocinando) and past continuous (estaba cocinando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. cooking).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he cocinado and hubiera cocinado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have cooked).
| Gerundio / Gerund | cocinando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | cocinado |
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 cook” or “they cook”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | cocino |
| Tú | cocinas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cocina |
| Nosotros / as | cocinamos |
| Vosotros / as | cocináis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cocinan |
| Vos | cocinás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I cooked” or “she cooked” 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 | cociné | I cooked |
| Tú | cocinaste | You cooked |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cocinó | He / she / you cooked |
| Nosotros / as | cocinamos | We cooked |
| Vosotros / as | cocinasteis | You cooked |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cocinaron | They / you cooked |
| Vos | cocinaste | You cooked |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was cooking” or “she was cooking” 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 | cocinaba | I was cooking |
| Tú | cocinabas | You were cooking |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cocinaba | He was / she was / you were cooking |
| Nosotros / as | cocinábamos | We were cooking |
| Vosotros / as | cocinabais | You were cooking |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cocinaban | They / you were cooking |
| Vos | cocinabas | You were cooking |
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 cooked” and “she has cooked”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he cocinado | I have cooked |
| Tú | has cocinado | You have cooked |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha cocinado | He has / she has / you have cooked |
| Nosotros / as | hemos cocinado | We have cooked |
| Vosotros / as | habéis cocinado | You have cooked |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han cocinado | They / you have cooked |
| Vos | has cocinado | You have cooked |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would cook” or “she would cook”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | cocinaría | I would cook |
| Tú | cocinarías | You would cook |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cocinaría | He / she / you would cook |
| Nosotros / as | cocinaríamos | We would cook |
| Vosotros / as | cocinaríais | You would cook |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cocinarían | They / you would cook |
| Vos | cocinarías | You would cook |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will cook” or “they will cook”.
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 cocinar” means “They are going to cook”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | cocinaré | I will cook |
| Tú | cocinarás | You will cook |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cocinará | He / she / you will cook |
| Nosotros / as | cocinaremos | We will cook |
| Vosotros / as | cocinaréis | You will cook |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cocinarán | They / you will cook |
| Vos | cocinarás | You will cook |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | cocine |
| Tú | cocines |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cocine |
| Nosotros / as | cocinemos |
| Vosotros / as | cocinéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cocinen |
| Vos | cocines |
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 | cocinara | cocinase |
| Tú | cocinaras | cocinase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cocinara | cocinase |
| Nosotros / as | cocináramos | cocinásemos |
| Vosotros / as | cocinarais | cocinaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cocinaran | cocinasen |
| Vos | cocinaras | cocinase |
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 | cocinare |
| Tú | cocinares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cocinare |
| Nosotros / as | cocináremos |
| Vosotros / as | cocinareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cocinaren |
| Vos | cocinares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “cook!” and “don’t cook!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | cocina | no cocines |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cocine | no cocine |
| Nosotros / as | cocinemos | no cocinemos |
| Vosotros / as | cocinad | no cocinéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cocinen | no cocinen |
| Vos | cociná | no cocines |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya cocinado |
| Tú | hayas cocinado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya cocinado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos cocinado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis cocinado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan cocinado |
| Vos | hayas cocinado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera cocinado / hubiese cocinado |
| Tú | hubieras cocinado / hubieses cocinado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera cocinado / hubiese cocinado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos cocinado / hubiésemos cocinado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais cocinado / hubieseis cocinado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran cocinado / hubiesen cocinado |
| Vos | hubieras cocinado / hubieses cocinado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere cocinado |
| Tú | hubieres cocinado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere cocinado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos cocinado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis cocinado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren cocinado |
| Vos | hubieres cocinado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté cocinando |
| Tú | estés cocinando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté cocinando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos cocinando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis cocinando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén cocinando |
| Vos | estés cocinando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera cocinando / estuviese cocinando |
| Tú | estuvieras cocinando / estuvieses cocinando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera cocinando / estuviese cocinando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos cocinando / estuviésamos cocinando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais cocinando / estuvieseis cocinando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera cocinando / estuviese cocinando |
| Vos | estuvieras cocinando / estuvieses cocinando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere cocinando |
| Tú | estuvieres cocinando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere cocinando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos cocinando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis cocinando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere cocinando |
| Vos | estuvieres cocinando |
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 cocinás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos cocinaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos cocinabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos cocinarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos cocinarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos cocines |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos cocinaras / Vos cocinase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos cociná |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no cocines |