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Calar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to soak, drench, permeate”.
Below are all of the conjugations for calar 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 soak, drench, permeate |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | calar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está calando) and past continuous (estaba calando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. soaking).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he calado and hubiera calado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have soaked).
| Gerundio / Gerund | calando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | calado |
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 soak” or “they soak”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | calo |
| Tú | calas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cala |
| Nosotros / as | calamos |
| Vosotros / as | caláis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | calan |
| Vos | calás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I soaked” or “she soaked” 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 | calé | I soaked |
| Tú | calaste | You soaked |
| Él / Ella / Usted | caló | He / she / you soaked |
| Nosotros / as | calamos | We soaked |
| Vosotros / as | calasteis | You soaked |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | calaron | They / you soaked |
| Vos | calaste | You soaked |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was soaking” or “she was soaking” 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 | calaba | I was soaking |
| Tú | calabas | You were soaking |
| Él / Ella / Usted | calaba | He was / she was / you were soaking |
| Nosotros / as | calábamos | We were soaking |
| Vosotros / as | calabais | You were soaking |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | calaban | They / you were soaking |
| Vos | calabas | You were soaking |
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 soaked” and “she has soaked”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he calado | I have soaked |
| Tú | has calado | You have soaked |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha calado | He has / she has / you have soaked |
| Nosotros / as | hemos calado | We have soaked |
| Vosotros / as | habéis calado | You have soaked |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han calado | They / you have soaked |
| Vos | has calado | You have soaked |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would soak” or “she would soak”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | calaría | I would soak |
| Tú | calarías | You would soak |
| Él / Ella / Usted | calaría | He / she / you would soak |
| Nosotros / as | calaríamos | We would soak |
| Vosotros / as | calaríais | You would soak |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | calarían | They / you would soak |
| Vos | calarías | You would soak |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will soak” or “they will soak”.
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 calar” means “They are going to soak”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | calaré | I will soak |
| Tú | calarás | You will soak |
| Él / Ella / Usted | calará | He / she / you will soak |
| Nosotros / as | calaremos | We will soak |
| Vosotros / as | calaréis | You will soak |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | calarán | They / you will soak |
| Vos | calarás | You will soak |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | cale |
| Tú | cales |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cale |
| Nosotros / as | calemos |
| Vosotros / as | caléis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | calen |
| Vos | cales |
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 | calara | calase |
| Tú | calaras | calase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | calara | calase |
| Nosotros / as | caláramos | calásemos |
| Vosotros / as | calarais | calaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | calaran | calasen |
| Vos | calaras | calase |
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 | calare |
| Tú | calares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | calare |
| Nosotros / as | caláremos |
| Vosotros / as | calareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | calaren |
| Vos | calares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “soak!” and “don’t soak!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | cala | no cales |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cale | no cale |
| Nosotros / as | calemos | no calemos |
| Vosotros / as | calad | no caléis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | calen | no calen |
| Vos | calá | no cales |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya calado |
| Tú | hayas calado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya calado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos calado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis calado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan calado |
| Vos | hayas calado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera calado / hubiese calado |
| Tú | hubieras calado / hubieses calado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera calado / hubiese calado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos calado / hubiésemos calado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais calado / hubieseis calado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran calado / hubiesen calado |
| Vos | hubieras calado / hubieses calado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere calado |
| Tú | hubieres calado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere calado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos calado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis calado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren calado |
| Vos | hubieres calado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté calando |
| Tú | estés calando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté calando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos calando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis calando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén calando |
| Vos | estés calando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera calando / estuviese calando |
| Tú | estuvieras calando / estuvieses calando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera calando / estuviese calando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos calando / estuviésamos calando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais calando / estuvieseis calando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera calando / estuviese calando |
| Vos | estuvieras calando / estuvieses calando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere calando |
| Tú | estuvieres calando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere calando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos calando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis calando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere calando |
| Vos | estuvieres calando |
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 calás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos calaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos calabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos calarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos calarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos cales |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos calaras / Vos calase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos calá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no cales |