Everything you need to improve your Spanish
Menu
Everything you need to improve your Spanish
Besar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to kiss, touch lightly”.
Below are all of the conjugations for besar 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 kiss, touch lightly |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | besar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está besando) and past continuous (estaba besando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. kissing).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he besado and hubiera besado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have kissed).
| Gerundio / Gerund | besando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | besado |
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 kiss” or “they kiss”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | beso |
| Tú | besas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | besa |
| Nosotros / as | besamos |
| Vosotros / as | besáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | besan |
| Vos | besás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I kissed” or “she kissed” 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 | besé | I kissed |
| Tú | besaste | You kissed |
| Él / Ella / Usted | besó | He / she / you kissed |
| Nosotros / as | besamos | We kissed |
| Vosotros / as | besasteis | You kissed |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | besaron | They / you kissed |
| Vos | besaste | You kissed |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was kissing” or “she was kissing” 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 | besaba | I was kissing |
| Tú | besabas | You were kissing |
| Él / Ella / Usted | besaba | He was / she was / you were kissing |
| Nosotros / as | besábamos | We were kissing |
| Vosotros / as | besabais | You were kissing |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | besaban | They / you were kissing |
| Vos | besabas | You were kissing |
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 kissed” and “she has kissed”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he besado | I have kissed |
| Tú | has besado | You have kissed |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha besado | He has / she has / you have kissed |
| Nosotros / as | hemos besado | We have kissed |
| Vosotros / as | habéis besado | You have kissed |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han besado | They / you have kissed |
| Vos | has besado | You have kissed |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would kiss” or “she would kiss”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | besaría | I would kiss |
| Tú | besarías | You would kiss |
| Él / Ella / Usted | besaría | He / she / you would kiss |
| Nosotros / as | besaríamos | We would kiss |
| Vosotros / as | besaríais | You would kiss |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | besarían | They / you would kiss |
| Vos | besarías | You would kiss |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will kiss” or “they will kiss”.
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 besar” means “They are going to kiss”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | besaré | I will kiss |
| Tú | besarás | You will kiss |
| Él / Ella / Usted | besará | He / she / you will kiss |
| Nosotros / as | besaremos | We will kiss |
| Vosotros / as | besaréis | You will kiss |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | besarán | They / you will kiss |
| Vos | besarás | You will kiss |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | bese |
| Tú | beses |
| Él / Ella / Usted | bese |
| Nosotros / as | besemos |
| Vosotros / as | beséis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | besen |
| Vos | beses |
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 | besara | besase |
| Tú | besaras | besase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | besara | besase |
| Nosotros / as | besáramos | besásemos |
| Vosotros / as | besarais | besaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | besaran | besasen |
| Vos | besaras | besase |
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 | besare |
| Tú | besares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | besare |
| Nosotros / as | besáremos |
| Vosotros / as | besareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | besaren |
| Vos | besares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “kiss!” and “don’t kiss!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | besa | no beses |
| Él / Ella / Usted | bese | no bese |
| Nosotros / as | besemos | no besemos |
| Vosotros / as | besad | no beséis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | besen | no besen |
| Vos | besá | no beses |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya besado |
| Tú | hayas besado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya besado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos besado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis besado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan besado |
| Vos | hayas besado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera besado / hubiese besado |
| Tú | hubieras besado / hubieses besado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera besado / hubiese besado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos besado / hubiésemos besado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais besado / hubieseis besado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran besado / hubiesen besado |
| Vos | hubieras besado / hubieses besado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere besado |
| Tú | hubieres besado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere besado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos besado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis besado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren besado |
| Vos | hubieres besado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté besando |
| Tú | estés besando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté besando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos besando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis besando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén besando |
| Vos | estés besando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera besando / estuviese besando |
| Tú | estuvieras besando / estuvieses besando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera besando / estuviese besando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos besando / estuviésamos besando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais besando / estuvieseis besando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera besando / estuviese besando |
| Vos | estuvieras besando / estuvieses besando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere besando |
| Tú | estuvieres besando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere besando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos besando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis besando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere besando |
| Vos | estuvieres besando |
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 besás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos besaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos besabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos besarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos besarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos beses |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos besaras / Vos besase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos besá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no beses |