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Celar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to supervise, keep watch”.
Below are all of the conjugations for celar 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 supervise, keep watch |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | celar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está celando) and past continuous (estaba celando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. supervising).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he celado and hubiera celado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have supervised).
| Gerundio / Gerund | celando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | celado |
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 supervise” or “they supervise”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | celo |
| Tú | celas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cela |
| Nosotros / as | celamos |
| Vosotros / as | celáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | celan |
| Vos | celás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I supervised” or “she supervised” 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 | celé | I supervised |
| Tú | celaste | You supervised |
| Él / Ella / Usted | celó | He / she / you supervised |
| Nosotros / as | celamos | We supervised |
| Vosotros / as | celasteis | You supervised |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | celaron | They / you supervised |
| Vos | celaste | You supervised |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was supervising” or “she was supervising” 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 | celaba | I was supervising |
| Tú | celabas | You were supervising |
| Él / Ella / Usted | celaba | He was / she was / you were supervising |
| Nosotros / as | celábamos | We were supervising |
| Vosotros / as | celabais | You were supervising |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | celaban | They / you were supervising |
| Vos | celabas | You were supervising |
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 supervised” and “she has supervised”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he celado | I have supervised |
| Tú | has celado | You have supervised |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha celado | He has / she has / you have supervised |
| Nosotros / as | hemos celado | We have supervised |
| Vosotros / as | habéis celado | You have supervised |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han celado | They / you have supervised |
| Vos | has celado | You have supervised |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would supervise” or “she would supervise”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | celaría | I would supervise |
| Tú | celarías | You would supervise |
| Él / Ella / Usted | celaría | He / she / you would supervise |
| Nosotros / as | celaríamos | We would supervise |
| Vosotros / as | celaríais | You would supervise |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | celarían | They / you would supervise |
| Vos | celarías | You would supervise |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will supervise” or “they will supervise”.
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 celar” means “They are going to supervise”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | celaré | I will supervise |
| Tú | celarás | You will supervise |
| Él / Ella / Usted | celará | He / she / you will supervise |
| Nosotros / as | celaremos | We will supervise |
| Vosotros / as | celaréis | You will supervise |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | celarán | They / you will supervise |
| Vos | celarás | You will supervise |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | cele |
| Tú | celes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cele |
| Nosotros / as | celemos |
| Vosotros / as | celéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | celen |
| Vos | celes |
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 | celara | celase |
| Tú | celaras | celase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | celara | celase |
| Nosotros / as | celáramos | celásemos |
| Vosotros / as | celarais | celaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | celaran | celasen |
| Vos | celaras | celase |
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 | celare |
| Tú | celares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | celare |
| Nosotros / as | celáremos |
| Vosotros / as | celareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | celaren |
| Vos | celares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “supervise!” and “don’t supervise!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | cela | no celes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cele | no cele |
| Nosotros / as | celemos | no celemos |
| Vosotros / as | celad | no celéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | celen | no celen |
| Vos | celá | no celes |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya celado |
| Tú | hayas celado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya celado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos celado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis celado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan celado |
| Vos | hayas celado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera celado / hubiese celado |
| Tú | hubieras celado / hubieses celado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera celado / hubiese celado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos celado / hubiésemos celado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais celado / hubieseis celado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran celado / hubiesen celado |
| Vos | hubieras celado / hubieses celado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere celado |
| Tú | hubieres celado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere celado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos celado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis celado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren celado |
| Vos | hubieres celado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté celando |
| Tú | estés celando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté celando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos celando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis celando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén celando |
| Vos | estés celando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera celando / estuviese celando |
| Tú | estuvieras celando / estuvieses celando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera celando / estuviese celando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos celando / estuviésamos celando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais celando / estuvieseis celando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera celando / estuviese celando |
| Vos | estuvieras celando / estuvieses celando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere celando |
| Tú | estuvieres celando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere celando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos celando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis celando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere celando |
| Vos | estuvieres celando |
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 celás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos celaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos celabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos celarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos celarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos celes |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos celaras / Vos celase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos celá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no celes |