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Calentar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to heat up, warm up”.
Below are all of the conjugations for calentar 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 heat up, warm up |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | calentar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está calentando) and past continuous (estaba calentando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. heating up).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he calentado and hubiera calentado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have heated up).
| Gerundio / Gerund | calentando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | calentado |
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 heat up” or “they heat up”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | caliento |
| Tú | calientas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | calienta |
| Nosotros / as | calentamos |
| Vosotros / as | calentáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | calientan |
| Vos | calentás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I heated up” or “she heated up” 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 | calenté | I heated up |
| Tú | calentaste | You heated up |
| Él / Ella / Usted | calentó | He / she / you heated up |
| Nosotros / as | calentamos | We heated up |
| Vosotros / as | calentasteis | You heated up |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | calentaron | They / you heated up |
| Vos | calentaste | You heated up |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was heating up” or “she was heating up” 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 | calentaba | I was heating up |
| Tú | calentabas | You were heating up |
| Él / Ella / Usted | calentaba | He was / she was / you were heating up |
| Nosotros / as | calentábamos | We were heating up |
| Vosotros / as | calentabais | You were heating up |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | calentaban | They / you were heating up |
| Vos | calentabas | You were heating up |
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 heated up” and “she has heated up”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he calentado | I have heated up |
| Tú | has calentado | You have heated up |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha calentado | He has / she has / you have heated up |
| Nosotros / as | hemos calentado | We have heated up |
| Vosotros / as | habéis calentado | You have heated up |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han calentado | They / you have heated up |
| Vos | has calentado | You have heated up |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would heat up” or “she would heat up”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | calentaría | I would heat up |
| Tú | calentarías | You would heat up |
| Él / Ella / Usted | calentaría | He / she / you would heat up |
| Nosotros / as | calentaríamos | We would heat up |
| Vosotros / as | calentaríais | You would heat up |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | calentarían | They / you would heat up |
| Vos | calentarías | You would heat up |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will heat up” or “they will heat up”.
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 calentar” means “They are going to heat up”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | calentaré | I will heat up |
| Tú | calentarás | You will heat up |
| Él / Ella / Usted | calentará | He / she / you will heat up |
| Nosotros / as | calentaremos | We will heat up |
| Vosotros / as | calentaréis | You will heat up |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | calentarán | They / you will heat up |
| Vos | calentarás | You will heat up |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | caliente |
| Tú | calientes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | caliente |
| Nosotros / as | calentemos |
| Vosotros / as | calentéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | calienten |
| Vos | calientes |
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 | calentara | calentase |
| Tú | calentaras | calentase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | calentara | calentase |
| Nosotros / as | calentáramos | calentásemos |
| Vosotros / as | calentarais | calentaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | calentaran | calentasen |
| Vos | calentaras | calentase |
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 | calentare |
| Tú | calentares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | calentare |
| Nosotros / as | calentáremos |
| Vosotros / as | calentareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | calentaren |
| Vos | calentares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “heat up!” and “don’t heat up!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | calienta | no calientes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | caliente | no caliente |
| Nosotros / as | calentemos | no calentemos |
| Vosotros / as | calentad | no calentéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | calienten | no calienten |
| Vos | calentá | no calientes |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya calentado |
| Tú | hayas calentado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya calentado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos calentado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis calentado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan calentado |
| Vos | hayas calentado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera calentado / hubiese calentado |
| Tú | hubieras calentado / hubieses calentado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera calentado / hubiese calentado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos calentado / hubiésemos calentado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais calentado / hubieseis calentado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran calentado / hubiesen calentado |
| Vos | hubieras calentado / hubieses calentado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere calentado |
| Tú | hubieres calentado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere calentado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos calentado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis calentado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren calentado |
| Vos | hubieres calentado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté calentando |
| Tú | estés calentando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté calentando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos calentando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis calentando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén calentando |
| Vos | estés calentando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera calentando / estuviese calentando |
| Tú | estuvieras calentando / estuvieses calentando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera calentando / estuviese calentando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos calentando / estuviésamos calentando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais calentando / estuvieseis calentando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera calentando / estuviese calentando |
| Vos | estuvieras calentando / estuvieses calentando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere calentando |
| Tú | estuvieres calentando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere calentando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos calentando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis calentando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere calentando |
| Vos | estuvieres calentando |
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 calentás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos calentaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos calentabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos calentarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos calentarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos calientes |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos calentaras / Vos calentase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos calentá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no calientes |