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Brincar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to skip, jump, bounce”.
Below are all of the conjugations for brincar 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 skip, jump, bounce |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | brincar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está brincando) and past continuous (estaba brincando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. skipping).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he brincado and hubiera brincado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have skipped).
| Gerundio / Gerund | brincando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | brincado |
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 skip” or “they skip”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | brinco |
| Tú | brincas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | brinca |
| Nosotros / as | brincamos |
| Vosotros / as | brincáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | brincan |
| Vos | brincás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I skipped” or “she skipped” 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 | brinqué | I skipped |
| Tú | brincaste | You skipped |
| Él / Ella / Usted | brincó | He / she / you skipped |
| Nosotros / as | brincamos | We skipped |
| Vosotros / as | brincasteis | You skipped |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | brincaron | They / you skipped |
| Vos | brincaste | You skipped |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was skipping” or “she was skipping” 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 | brincaba | I was skipping |
| Tú | brincabas | You were skipping |
| Él / Ella / Usted | brincaba | He was / she was / you were skipping |
| Nosotros / as | brincábamos | We were skipping |
| Vosotros / as | brincabais | You were skipping |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | brincaban | They / you were skipping |
| Vos | brincabas | You were skipping |
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 skipped” and “she has skipped”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he brincado | I have skipped |
| Tú | has brincado | You have skipped |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha brincado | He has / she has / you have skipped |
| Nosotros / as | hemos brincado | We have skipped |
| Vosotros / as | habéis brincado | You have skipped |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han brincado | They / you have skipped |
| Vos | has brincado | You have skipped |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would skip” or “she would skip”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | brincaría | I would skip |
| Tú | brincarías | You would skip |
| Él / Ella / Usted | brincaría | He / she / you would skip |
| Nosotros / as | brincaríamos | We would skip |
| Vosotros / as | brincaríais | You would skip |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | brincarían | They / you would skip |
| Vos | brincarías | You would skip |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will skip” or “they will skip”.
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 brincar” means “They are going to skip”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | brincaré | I will skip |
| Tú | brincarás | You will skip |
| Él / Ella / Usted | brincará | He / she / you will skip |
| Nosotros / as | brincaremos | We will skip |
| Vosotros / as | brincaréis | You will skip |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | brincarán | They / you will skip |
| Vos | brincarás | You will skip |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | brinque |
| Tú | brinques |
| Él / Ella / Usted | brinque |
| Nosotros / as | brinquemos |
| Vosotros / as | brinquéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | brinquen |
| Vos | brinques |
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 | brincara | brincase |
| Tú | brincaras | brincase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | brincara | brincase |
| Nosotros / as | brincáramos | brincásemos |
| Vosotros / as | brincarais | brincaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | brincaran | brincasen |
| Vos | brincaras | brincase |
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 | brincare |
| Tú | brincares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | brincare |
| Nosotros / as | brincáremos |
| Vosotros / as | brincareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | brincaren |
| Vos | brincares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “skip!” and “don’t skip!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | brinca | no brinques |
| Él / Ella / Usted | brinque | no brinque |
| Nosotros / as | brinquemos | no brinquemos |
| Vosotros / as | brincad | no brinquéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | brinquen | no brinquen |
| Vos | brincá | no brinques |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya brincado |
| Tú | hayas brincado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya brincado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos brincado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis brincado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan brincado |
| Vos | hayas brincado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera brincado / hubiese brincado |
| Tú | hubieras brincado / hubieses brincado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera brincado / hubiese brincado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos brincado / hubiésemos brincado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais brincado / hubieseis brincado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran brincado / hubiesen brincado |
| Vos | hubieras brincado / hubieses brincado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere brincado |
| Tú | hubieres brincado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere brincado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos brincado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis brincado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren brincado |
| Vos | hubieres brincado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté brincando |
| Tú | estés brincando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté brincando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos brincando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis brincando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén brincando |
| Vos | estés brincando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera brincando / estuviese brincando |
| Tú | estuvieras brincando / estuvieses brincando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera brincando / estuviese brincando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos brincando / estuviésamos brincando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais brincando / estuvieseis brincando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera brincando / estuviese brincando |
| Vos | estuvieras brincando / estuvieses brincando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere brincando |
| Tú | estuvieres brincando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere brincando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos brincando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis brincando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere brincando |
| Vos | estuvieres brincando |
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 brincás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos brincaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos brincabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos brincarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos brincarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos brinques |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos brincaras / Vos brincase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos brincá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no brinques |