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Bucear is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to dive, swim under water”.
Below are all of the conjugations for bucear 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 dive, swim under water |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | bucear |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está buceando) and past continuous (estaba buceando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. diving).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he buceado and hubiera buceado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have dived).
| Gerundio / Gerund | buceando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | buceado |
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 dive” or “they dive”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | buceo |
| Tú | buceas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | bucea |
| Nosotros / as | buceamos |
| Vosotros / as | buceáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | bucean |
| Vos | buceás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I dived” or “she dived” 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 | buceé | I dived |
| Tú | buceaste | You dived |
| Él / Ella / Usted | buceó | He / she / you dived |
| Nosotros / as | buceamos | We dived |
| Vosotros / as | buceasteis | You dived |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | bucearon | They / you dived |
| Vos | buceaste | You dived |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was diving” or “she was diving” 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 | buceaba | I was diving |
| Tú | buceabas | You were diving |
| Él / Ella / Usted | buceaba | He was / she was / you were diving |
| Nosotros / as | buceábamos | We were diving |
| Vosotros / as | buceabais | You were diving |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | buceaban | They / you were diving |
| Vos | buceabas | You were diving |
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 dived” and “she has dived”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he buceado | I have dived |
| Tú | has buceado | You have dived |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha buceado | He has / she has / you have dived |
| Nosotros / as | hemos buceado | We have dived |
| Vosotros / as | habéis buceado | You have dived |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han buceado | They / you have dived |
| Vos | has buceado | You have dived |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would dive” or “she would dive”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | bucearía | I would dive |
| Tú | bucearías | You would dive |
| Él / Ella / Usted | bucearía | He / she / you would dive |
| Nosotros / as | bucearíamos | We would dive |
| Vosotros / as | bucearíais | You would dive |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | bucearían | They / you would dive |
| Vos | bucearías | You would dive |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will dive” or “they will dive”.
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 bucear” means “They are going to dive”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | bucearé | I will dive |
| Tú | bucearás | You will dive |
| Él / Ella / Usted | buceará | He / she / you will dive |
| Nosotros / as | bucearemos | We will dive |
| Vosotros / as | bucearéis | You will dive |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | bucearán | They / you will dive |
| Vos | bucearás | You will dive |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | bucee |
| Tú | bucees |
| Él / Ella / Usted | bucee |
| Nosotros / as | buceemos |
| Vosotros / as | buceéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | buceen |
| Vos | bucees |
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 | buceara | bucease |
| Tú | bucearas | bucease |
| Él / Ella / Usted | buceara | bucease |
| Nosotros / as | buceáramos | buceásemos |
| Vosotros / as | bucearais | buceaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | bucearan | buceasen |
| Vos | bucearas | bucease |
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 | buceare |
| Tú | buceares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | buceare |
| Nosotros / as | buceáremos |
| Vosotros / as | buceareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | bucearen |
| Vos | buceares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “dive!” and “don’t dive!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | bucea | no bucees |
| Él / Ella / Usted | bucee | no bucee |
| Nosotros / as | buceemos | no buceemos |
| Vosotros / as | bucead | no buceéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | buceen | no buceen |
| Vos | buceá | no bucees |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya buceado |
| Tú | hayas buceado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya buceado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos buceado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis buceado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan buceado |
| Vos | hayas buceado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera buceado / hubiese buceado |
| Tú | hubieras buceado / hubieses buceado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera buceado / hubiese buceado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos buceado / hubiésemos buceado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais buceado / hubieseis buceado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran buceado / hubiesen buceado |
| Vos | hubieras buceado / hubieses buceado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere buceado |
| Tú | hubieres buceado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere buceado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos buceado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis buceado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren buceado |
| Vos | hubieres buceado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté buceando |
| Tú | estés buceando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté buceando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos buceando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis buceando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén buceando |
| Vos | estés buceando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera buceando / estuviese buceando |
| Tú | estuvieras buceando / estuvieses buceando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera buceando / estuviese buceando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos buceando / estuviésamos buceando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais buceando / estuvieseis buceando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera buceando / estuviese buceando |
| Vos | estuvieras buceando / estuvieses buceando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere buceando |
| Tú | estuvieres buceando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere buceando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos buceando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis buceando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere buceando |
| Vos | estuvieres buceando |
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 buceás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos buceaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos buceabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos bucearías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos bucearás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos bucees |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos bucearas / Vos bucease |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos buceá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no bucees |