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Cautivar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to attract, win over, take possession”.
Below are all of the conjugations for cautivar 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 attract, win over, take possession |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | cautivar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está cautivando) and past continuous (estaba cautivando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. attracting).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he cautivado and hubiera cautivado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have attracted).
| Gerundio / Gerund | cautivando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | cautivado |
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 attract” or “they attract”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | cautivo |
| Tú | cautivas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cautiva |
| Nosotros / as | cautivamos |
| Vosotros / as | cautiváis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cautivan |
| Vos | cautivás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I attracted” or “she attracted” 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 | cautivé | I attracted |
| Tú | cautivaste | You attracted |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cautivó | He / she / you attracted |
| Nosotros / as | cautivamos | We attracted |
| Vosotros / as | cautivasteis | You attracted |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cautivaron | They / you attracted |
| Vos | cautivaste | You attracted |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was attracting” or “she was attracting” 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 | cautivaba | I was attracting |
| Tú | cautivabas | You were attracting |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cautivaba | He was / she was / you were attracting |
| Nosotros / as | cautivábamos | We were attracting |
| Vosotros / as | cautivabais | You were attracting |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cautivaban | They / you were attracting |
| Vos | cautivabas | You were attracting |
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 attracted” and “she has attracted”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he cautivado | I have attracted |
| Tú | has cautivado | You have attracted |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha cautivado | He has / she has / you have attracted |
| Nosotros / as | hemos cautivado | We have attracted |
| Vosotros / as | habéis cautivado | You have attracted |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han cautivado | They / you have attracted |
| Vos | has cautivado | You have attracted |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would attract” or “she would attract”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | cautivaría | I would attract |
| Tú | cautivarías | You would attract |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cautivaría | He / she / you would attract |
| Nosotros / as | cautivaríamos | We would attract |
| Vosotros / as | cautivaríais | You would attract |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cautivarían | They / you would attract |
| Vos | cautivarías | You would attract |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will attract” or “they will attract”.
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 cautivar” means “They are going to attract”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | cautivaré | I will attract |
| Tú | cautivarás | You will attract |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cautivará | He / she / you will attract |
| Nosotros / as | cautivaremos | We will attract |
| Vosotros / as | cautivaréis | You will attract |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cautivarán | They / you will attract |
| Vos | cautivarás | You will attract |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | cautive |
| Tú | cautives |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cautive |
| Nosotros / as | cautivemos |
| Vosotros / as | cautivéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cautiven |
| Vos | cautives |
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 | cautivara | cautivase |
| Tú | cautivaras | cautivase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cautivara | cautivase |
| Nosotros / as | cautiváramos | cautivásemos |
| Vosotros / as | cautivarais | cautivaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cautivaran | cautivasen |
| Vos | cautivaras | cautivase |
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 | cautivare |
| Tú | cautivares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cautivare |
| Nosotros / as | cautiváremos |
| Vosotros / as | cautivareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cautivaren |
| Vos | cautivares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “attract!” and “don’t attract!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | cautiva | no cautives |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cautive | no cautive |
| Nosotros / as | cautivemos | no cautivemos |
| Vosotros / as | cautivad | no cautivéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cautiven | no cautiven |
| Vos | cautivá | no cautives |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya cautivado |
| Tú | hayas cautivado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya cautivado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos cautivado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis cautivado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan cautivado |
| Vos | hayas cautivado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera cautivado / hubiese cautivado |
| Tú | hubieras cautivado / hubieses cautivado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera cautivado / hubiese cautivado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos cautivado / hubiésemos cautivado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais cautivado / hubieseis cautivado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran cautivado / hubiesen cautivado |
| Vos | hubieras cautivado / hubieses cautivado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere cautivado |
| Tú | hubieres cautivado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere cautivado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos cautivado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis cautivado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren cautivado |
| Vos | hubieres cautivado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté cautivando |
| Tú | estés cautivando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté cautivando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos cautivando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis cautivando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén cautivando |
| Vos | estés cautivando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera cautivando / estuviese cautivando |
| Tú | estuvieras cautivando / estuvieses cautivando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera cautivando / estuviese cautivando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos cautivando / estuviésamos cautivando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais cautivando / estuvieseis cautivando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera cautivando / estuviese cautivando |
| Vos | estuvieras cautivando / estuvieses cautivando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere cautivando |
| Tú | estuvieres cautivando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere cautivando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos cautivando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis cautivando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere cautivando |
| Vos | estuvieres cautivando |
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 cautivás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos cautivaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos cautivabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos cautivarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos cautivarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos cautives |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos cautivaras / Vos cautivase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos cautivá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no cautives |