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Cavilar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to ponder”.
Below are all of the conjugations for cavilar 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 ponder |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | cavilar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está cavilando) and past continuous (estaba cavilando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. pondering).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he cavilado and hubiera cavilado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have pondered).
| Gerundio / Gerund | cavilando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | cavilado |
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 ponder” or “they ponder”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | cavilo |
| Tú | cavilas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cavila |
| Nosotros / as | cavilamos |
| Vosotros / as | caviláis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cavilan |
| Vos | cavilás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I pondered” or “she pondered” 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 | cavilé | I pondered |
| Tú | cavilaste | You pondered |
| Él / Ella / Usted | caviló | He / she / you pondered |
| Nosotros / as | cavilamos | We pondered |
| Vosotros / as | cavilasteis | You pondered |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cavilaron | They / you pondered |
| Vos | cavilaste | You pondered |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was pondering” or “she was pondering” 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 | cavilaba | I was pondering |
| Tú | cavilabas | You were pondering |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cavilaba | He was / she was / you were pondering |
| Nosotros / as | cavilábamos | We were pondering |
| Vosotros / as | cavilabais | You were pondering |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cavilaban | They / you were pondering |
| Vos | cavilabas | You were pondering |
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 pondered” and “she has pondered”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he cavilado | I have pondered |
| Tú | has cavilado | You have pondered |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha cavilado | He has / she has / you have pondered |
| Nosotros / as | hemos cavilado | We have pondered |
| Vosotros / as | habéis cavilado | You have pondered |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han cavilado | They / you have pondered |
| Vos | has cavilado | You have pondered |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would ponder” or “she would ponder”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | cavilaría | I would ponder |
| Tú | cavilarías | You would ponder |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cavilaría | He / she / you would ponder |
| Nosotros / as | cavilaríamos | We would ponder |
| Vosotros / as | cavilaríais | You would ponder |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cavilarían | They / you would ponder |
| Vos | cavilarías | You would ponder |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will ponder” or “they will ponder”.
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 cavilar” means “They are going to ponder”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | cavilaré | I will ponder |
| Tú | cavilarás | You will ponder |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cavilará | He / she / you will ponder |
| Nosotros / as | cavilaremos | We will ponder |
| Vosotros / as | cavilaréis | You will ponder |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cavilarán | They / you will ponder |
| Vos | cavilarás | You will ponder |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | cavile |
| Tú | caviles |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cavile |
| Nosotros / as | cavilemos |
| Vosotros / as | caviléis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cavilen |
| Vos | caviles |
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 | cavilara | cavilase |
| Tú | cavilaras | cavilase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cavilara | cavilase |
| Nosotros / as | caviláramos | cavilásemos |
| Vosotros / as | cavilarais | cavilaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cavilaran | cavilasen |
| Vos | cavilaras | cavilase |
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 | cavilare |
| Tú | cavilares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cavilare |
| Nosotros / as | caviláremos |
| Vosotros / as | cavilareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cavilaren |
| Vos | cavilares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “ponder!” and “don’t ponder!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | cavila | no caviles |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cavile | no cavile |
| Nosotros / as | cavilemos | no cavilemos |
| Vosotros / as | cavilad | no caviléis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cavilen | no cavilen |
| Vos | cavilá | no caviles |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya cavilado |
| Tú | hayas cavilado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya cavilado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos cavilado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis cavilado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan cavilado |
| Vos | hayas cavilado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera cavilado / hubiese cavilado |
| Tú | hubieras cavilado / hubieses cavilado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera cavilado / hubiese cavilado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos cavilado / hubiésemos cavilado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais cavilado / hubieseis cavilado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran cavilado / hubiesen cavilado |
| Vos | hubieras cavilado / hubieses cavilado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere cavilado |
| Tú | hubieres cavilado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere cavilado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos cavilado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis cavilado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren cavilado |
| Vos | hubieres cavilado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté cavilando |
| Tú | estés cavilando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté cavilando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos cavilando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis cavilando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén cavilando |
| Vos | estés cavilando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera cavilando / estuviese cavilando |
| Tú | estuvieras cavilando / estuvieses cavilando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera cavilando / estuviese cavilando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos cavilando / estuviésamos cavilando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais cavilando / estuvieseis cavilando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera cavilando / estuviese cavilando |
| Vos | estuvieras cavilando / estuvieses cavilando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere cavilando |
| Tú | estuvieres cavilando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere cavilando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos cavilando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis cavilando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere cavilando |
| Vos | estuvieres cavilando |
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 cavilás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos cavilaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos cavilabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos cavilarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos cavilarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos caviles |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos cavilaras / Vos cavilase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos cavilá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no caviles |