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Amar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to love”.
Below are all of the conjugations for amar 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 love |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | amar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está amando) and past continuous (estaba amando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. loving).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he amado and hubiera amado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have loved).
| Gerundio / Gerund | amando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | amado |
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 love” or “they love”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | amo |
| Tú | amas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ama |
| Nosotros / as | amamos |
| Vosotros / as | amáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | aman |
| Vos | amás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I loved” or “she loved” 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 | amé | I loved |
| Tú | amaste | You loved |
| Él / Ella / Usted | amó | He / she / you loved |
| Nosotros / as | amamos | We loved |
| Vosotros / as | amasteis | You loved |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | amaron | They / you loved |
| Vos | amaste | You loved |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was loving” or “she was loving” 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 | amaba | I was loving |
| Tú | amabas | You were loving |
| Él / Ella / Usted | amaba | He was / she was / you were loving |
| Nosotros / as | amábamos | We were loving |
| Vosotros / as | amabais | You were loving |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | amaban | They / you were loving |
| Vos | amabas | You were loving |
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 loved” and “she has loved”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he amado | I have loved |
| Tú | has amado | You have loved |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha amado | He has / she has / you have loved |
| Nosotros / as | hemos amado | We have loved |
| Vosotros / as | habéis amado | You have loved |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han amado | They / you have loved |
| Vos | has amado | You have loved |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would love” or “she would love”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | amaría | I would love |
| Tú | amarías | You would love |
| Él / Ella / Usted | amaría | He / she / you would love |
| Nosotros / as | amaríamos | We would love |
| Vosotros / as | amaríais | You would love |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | amarían | They / you would love |
| Vos | amarías | You would love |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will love” or “they will love”.
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 amar” means “They are going to love”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | amaré | I will love |
| Tú | amarás | You will love |
| Él / Ella / Usted | amará | He / she / you will love |
| Nosotros / as | amaremos | We will love |
| Vosotros / as | amaréis | You will love |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | amarán | They / you will love |
| Vos | amarás | You will love |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | ame |
| Tú | ames |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ame |
| Nosotros / as | amemos |
| Vosotros / as | améis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | amen |
| Vos | ames |
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 | amara | amase |
| Tú | amaras | amase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | amara | amase |
| Nosotros / as | amáramos | amásemos |
| Vosotros / as | amarais | amaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | amaran | amasen |
| Vos | amaras | amase |
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 | amare |
| Tú | amares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | amare |
| Nosotros / as | amáremos |
| Vosotros / as | amareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | amaren |
| Vos | amares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “love!” and “don’t love!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | ama | no ames |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ame | no ame |
| Nosotros / as | amemos | no amemos |
| Vosotros / as | amad | no améis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | amen | no amen |
| Vos | amá | no ames |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya amado |
| Tú | hayas amado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya amado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos amado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis amado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan amado |
| Vos | hayas amado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera amado / hubiese amado |
| Tú | hubieras amado / hubieses amado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera amado / hubiese amado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos amado / hubiésemos amado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais amado / hubieseis amado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran amado / hubiesen amado |
| Vos | hubieras amado / hubieses amado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere amado |
| Tú | hubieres amado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere amado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos amado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis amado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren amado |
| Vos | hubieres amado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté amando |
| Tú | estés amando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté amando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos amando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis amando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén amando |
| Vos | estés amando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera amando / estuviese amando |
| Tú | estuvieras amando / estuvieses amando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera amando / estuviese amando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos amando / estuviésamos amando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais amando / estuvieseis amando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera amando / estuviese amando |
| Vos | estuvieras amando / estuvieses amando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere amando |
| Tú | estuvieres amando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere amando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos amando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis amando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere amando |
| Vos | estuvieres amando |
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 amás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos amaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos amabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos amarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos amarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos ames |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos amaras / Vos amase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos amá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no ames |