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Everything you need to improve your Spanish
Bocinar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to blow a horn”.
Below are all of the conjugations for bocinar 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 blow a horn |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | bocinar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está bocinando) and past continuous (estaba bocinando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. honking).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he bocinado and hubiera bocinado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have honked).
| Gerundio / Gerund | bocinando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | bocinado |
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 honk” or “they honk”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | bocino |
| Tú | bocinas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | bocina |
| Nosotros / as | bocinamos |
| Vosotros / as | bocináis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | bocinan |
| Vos | bocinás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I honked” or “she honked” 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 | bociné | I honked |
| Tú | bocinaste | You honked |
| Él / Ella / Usted | bocinó | He / she / you honked |
| Nosotros / as | bocinamos | We honked |
| Vosotros / as | bocinasteis | You honked |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | bocinaron | They / you honked |
| Vos | bocinaste | You honked |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was honking” or “she was honking” 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 | bocinaba | I was honking |
| Tú | bocinabas | You were honking |
| Él / Ella / Usted | bocinaba | He was / she was / you were honking |
| Nosotros / as | bocinábamos | We were honking |
| Vosotros / as | bocinabais | You were honking |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | bocinaban | They / you were honking |
| Vos | bocinabas | You were honking |
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 honked” and “she has honked”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he bocinado | I have honked |
| Tú | has bocinado | You have honked |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha bocinado | He has / she has / you have honked |
| Nosotros / as | hemos bocinado | We have honked |
| Vosotros / as | habéis bocinado | You have honked |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han bocinado | They / you have honked |
| Vos | has bocinado | You have honked |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would honk” or “she would honk”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | bocinaría | I would honk |
| Tú | bocinarías | You would honk |
| Él / Ella / Usted | bocinaría | He / she / you would honk |
| Nosotros / as | bocinaríamos | We would honk |
| Vosotros / as | bocinaríais | You would honk |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | bocinarían | They / you would honk |
| Vos | bocinarías | You would honk |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will honk” or “they will honk”.
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 bocinar” means “They are going to honk”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | bocinaré | I will honk |
| Tú | bocinarás | You will honk |
| Él / Ella / Usted | bocinará | He / she / you will honk |
| Nosotros / as | bocinaremos | We will honk |
| Vosotros / as | bocinaréis | You will honk |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | bocinarán | They / you will honk |
| Vos | bocinarás | You will honk |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | bocine |
| Tú | bocines |
| Él / Ella / Usted | bocine |
| Nosotros / as | bocinemos |
| Vosotros / as | bocinéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | bocinen |
| Vos | bocines |
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 | bocinara | bocinase |
| Tú | bocinaras | bocinase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | bocinara | bocinase |
| Nosotros / as | bocináramos | bocinásemos |
| Vosotros / as | bocinarais | bocinaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | bocinaran | bocinasen |
| Vos | bocinaras | bocinase |
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 | bocinare |
| Tú | bocinares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | bocinare |
| Nosotros / as | bocináremos |
| Vosotros / as | bocinareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | bocinaren |
| Vos | bocinares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “honk!” and “don’t honk!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | bocina | no bocines |
| Él / Ella / Usted | bocine | no bocine |
| Nosotros / as | bocinemos | no bocinemos |
| Vosotros / as | bocinad | no bocinéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | bocinen | no bocinen |
| Vos | bociná | no bocines |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya bocinado |
| Tú | hayas bocinado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya bocinado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos bocinado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis bocinado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan bocinado |
| Vos | hayas bocinado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera bocinado / hubiese bocinado |
| Tú | hubieras bocinado / hubieses bocinado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera bocinado / hubiese bocinado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos bocinado / hubiésemos bocinado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais bocinado / hubieseis bocinado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran bocinado / hubiesen bocinado |
| Vos | hubieras bocinado / hubieses bocinado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere bocinado |
| Tú | hubieres bocinado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere bocinado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos bocinado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis bocinado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren bocinado |
| Vos | hubieres bocinado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté bocinando |
| Tú | estés bocinando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté bocinando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos bocinando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis bocinando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén bocinando |
| Vos | estés bocinando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera bocinando / estuviese bocinando |
| Tú | estuvieras bocinando / estuvieses bocinando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera bocinando / estuviese bocinando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos bocinando / estuviésamos bocinando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais bocinando / estuvieseis bocinando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera bocinando / estuviese bocinando |
| Vos | estuvieras bocinando / estuvieses bocinando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere bocinando |
| Tú | estuvieres bocinando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere bocinando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos bocinando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis bocinando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere bocinando |
| Vos | estuvieres bocinando |
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 bocinás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos bocinaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos bocinabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos bocinarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos bocinarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos bocines |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos bocinaras / Vos bocinase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos bociná |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no bocines |