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Cachetear is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to slap”.
Below are all of the conjugations for cachetear 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 slap |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | cachetear |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está cacheteando) and past continuous (estaba cacheteando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. slapping).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he cacheteado and hubiera cacheteado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have slapped).
| Gerundio / Gerund | cacheteando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | cacheteado |
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 slap” or “they slap”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | cacheteo |
| Tú | cacheteas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cachetea |
| Nosotros / as | cacheteamos |
| Vosotros / as | cacheteáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cachetean |
| Vos | cacheteás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I slapped” or “she slapped” 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 | cacheteé | I slapped |
| Tú | cacheteaste | You slapped |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cacheteó | He / she / you slapped |
| Nosotros / as | cacheteamos | We slapped |
| Vosotros / as | cacheteasteis | You slapped |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cachetearon | They / you slapped |
| Vos | cacheteaste | You slapped |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was slapping” or “she was slapping” 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 | cacheteaba | I was slapping |
| Tú | cacheteabas | You were slapping |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cacheteaba | He was / she was / you were slapping |
| Nosotros / as | cacheteábamos | We were slapping |
| Vosotros / as | cacheteabais | You were slapping |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cacheteaban | They / you were slapping |
| Vos | cacheteabas | You were slapping |
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 slapped” and “she has slapped”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he cacheteado | I have slapped |
| Tú | has cacheteado | You have slapped |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha cacheteado | He has / she has / you have slapped |
| Nosotros / as | hemos cacheteado | We have slapped |
| Vosotros / as | habéis cacheteado | You have slapped |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han cacheteado | They / you have slapped |
| Vos | has cacheteado | You have slapped |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would slap” or “she would slap”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | cachetearía | I would slap |
| Tú | cachetearías | You would slap |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cachetearía | He / she / you would slap |
| Nosotros / as | cachetearíamos | We would slap |
| Vosotros / as | cachetearíais | You would slap |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cachetearían | They / you would slap |
| Vos | cachetearías | You would slap |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will slap” or “they will slap”.
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 cachetear” means “They are going to slap”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | cachetearé | I will slap |
| Tú | cachetearás | You will slap |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cacheteará | He / she / you will slap |
| Nosotros / as | cachetearemos | We will slap |
| Vosotros / as | cachetearéis | You will slap |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cachetearán | They / you will slap |
| Vos | cachetearás | You will slap |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | cachetee |
| Tú | cachetees |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cachetee |
| Nosotros / as | cacheteemos |
| Vosotros / as | cacheteéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cacheteen |
| Vos | cachetees |
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 | cacheteara | cachetease |
| Tú | cachetearas | cachetease |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cacheteara | cachetease |
| Nosotros / as | cacheteáramos | cacheteásemos |
| Vosotros / as | cachetearais | cacheteaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cachetearan | cacheteasen |
| Vos | cachetearas | cachetease |
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 | cacheteare |
| Tú | cacheteares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cacheteare |
| Nosotros / as | cacheteáremos |
| Vosotros / as | cacheteareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cachetearen |
| Vos | cacheteares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “slap!” and “don’t slap!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | cachetea | no cachetees |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cachetee | no cachetee |
| Nosotros / as | cacheteemos | no cacheteemos |
| Vosotros / as | cachetead | no cacheteéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cacheteen | no cacheteen |
| Vos | cacheteá | no cachetees |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya cacheteado |
| Tú | hayas cacheteado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya cacheteado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos cacheteado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis cacheteado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan cacheteado |
| Vos | hayas cacheteado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera cacheteado / hubiese cacheteado |
| Tú | hubieras cacheteado / hubieses cacheteado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera cacheteado / hubiese cacheteado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos cacheteado / hubiésemos cacheteado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais cacheteado / hubieseis cacheteado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran cacheteado / hubiesen cacheteado |
| Vos | hubieras cacheteado / hubieses cacheteado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere cacheteado |
| Tú | hubieres cacheteado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere cacheteado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos cacheteado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis cacheteado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren cacheteado |
| Vos | hubieres cacheteado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté cacheteando |
| Tú | estés cacheteando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté cacheteando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos cacheteando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis cacheteando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén cacheteando |
| Vos | estés cacheteando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera cacheteando / estuviese cacheteando |
| Tú | estuvieras cacheteando / estuvieses cacheteando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera cacheteando / estuviese cacheteando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos cacheteando / estuviésamos cacheteando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais cacheteando / estuvieseis cacheteando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera cacheteando / estuviese cacheteando |
| Vos | estuvieras cacheteando / estuvieses cacheteando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere cacheteando |
| Tú | estuvieres cacheteando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere cacheteando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos cacheteando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis cacheteando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere cacheteando |
| Vos | estuvieres cacheteando |
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 cacheteás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos cacheteaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos cacheteabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos cachetearías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos cachetearás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos cachetees |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos cachetearas / Vos cachetease |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos cacheteá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no cachetees |