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Cercar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to fence in, enclose”.
Below are all of the conjugations for cercar 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 fence in, enclose |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | cercar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está cercando) and past continuous (estaba cercando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. enclosing).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he cercado and hubiera cercado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have enclosed).
| Gerundio / Gerund | cercando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | cercado |
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 enclose” or “they enclose”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | cerco |
| Tú | cercas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cerca |
| Nosotros / as | cercamos |
| Vosotros / as | cercáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cercan |
| Vos | cercás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I enclosed” or “she enclosed” 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 | cerqué | I enclosed |
| Tú | cercaste | You enclosed |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cercó | He / she / you enclosed |
| Nosotros / as | cercamos | We enclosed |
| Vosotros / as | cercasteis | You enclosed |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cercaron | They / you enclosed |
| Vos | cercaste | You enclosed |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was enclosing” or “she was enclosing” 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 | cercaba | I was enclosing |
| Tú | cercabas | You were enclosing |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cercaba | He was / she was / you were enclosing |
| Nosotros / as | cercábamos | We were enclosing |
| Vosotros / as | cercabais | You were enclosing |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cercaban | They / you were enclosing |
| Vos | cercabas | You were enclosing |
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 enclosed” and “she has enclosed”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he cercado | I have enclosed |
| Tú | has cercado | You have enclosed |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha cercado | He has / she has / you have enclosed |
| Nosotros / as | hemos cercado | We have enclosed |
| Vosotros / as | habéis cercado | You have enclosed |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han cercado | They / you have enclosed |
| Vos | has cercado | You have enclosed |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would enclose” or “she would enclose”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | cercaría | I would enclose |
| Tú | cercarías | You would enclose |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cercaría | He / she / you would enclose |
| Nosotros / as | cercaríamos | We would enclose |
| Vosotros / as | cercaríais | You would enclose |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cercarían | They / you would enclose |
| Vos | cercarías | You would enclose |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will enclose” or “they will enclose”.
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 cercar” means “They are going to enclose”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | cercaré | I will enclose |
| Tú | cercarás | You will enclose |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cercará | He / she / you will enclose |
| Nosotros / as | cercaremos | We will enclose |
| Vosotros / as | cercaréis | You will enclose |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cercarán | They / you will enclose |
| Vos | cercarás | You will enclose |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | cerque |
| Tú | cerques |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cerque |
| Nosotros / as | cerquemos |
| Vosotros / as | cerquéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cerquen |
| Vos | cerques |
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 | cercara | cercase |
| Tú | cercaras | cercase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cercara | cercase |
| Nosotros / as | cercáramos | cercásemos |
| Vosotros / as | cercarais | cercaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cercaran | cercasen |
| Vos | cercaras | cercase |
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 | cercare |
| Tú | cercares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cercare |
| Nosotros / as | cercáremos |
| Vosotros / as | cercareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cercaren |
| Vos | cercares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “enclose!” and “don’t enclose!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | cerca | no cerques |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cerque | no cerque |
| Nosotros / as | cerquemos | no cerquemos |
| Vosotros / as | cercad | no cerquéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cerquen | no cerquen |
| Vos | cercá | no cerques |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya cercado |
| Tú | hayas cercado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya cercado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos cercado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis cercado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan cercado |
| Vos | hayas cercado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera cercado / hubiese cercado |
| Tú | hubieras cercado / hubieses cercado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera cercado / hubiese cercado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos cercado / hubiésemos cercado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais cercado / hubieseis cercado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran cercado / hubiesen cercado |
| Vos | hubieras cercado / hubieses cercado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere cercado |
| Tú | hubieres cercado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere cercado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos cercado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis cercado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren cercado |
| Vos | hubieres cercado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté cercando |
| Tú | estés cercando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté cercando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos cercando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis cercando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén cercando |
| Vos | estés cercando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera cercando / estuviese cercando |
| Tú | estuvieras cercando / estuvieses cercando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera cercando / estuviese cercando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos cercando / estuviésamos cercando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais cercando / estuvieseis cercando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera cercando / estuviese cercando |
| Vos | estuvieras cercando / estuvieses cercando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere cercando |
| Tú | estuvieres cercando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere cercando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos cercando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis cercando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere cercando |
| Vos | estuvieres cercando |
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 cercás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos cercaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos cercabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos cercarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos cercarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos cerques |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos cercaras / Vos cercase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos cercá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no cerques |