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Cerner is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to sift”.
Below are all of the conjugations for cerner 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 sift |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | cerner |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está cerniendo) and past continuous (estaba cerniendo). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. sifting).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he cernido and hubiera cernido. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have sifted).
| Gerundio / Gerund | cerniendo |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | cernido |
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 sift” or “they sift”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | cierno |
| Tú | ciernes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cierne |
| Nosotros / as | cernemos |
| Vosotros / as | cernéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | ciernen |
| Vos | cernís |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I sifted” or “she sifted” 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 | cerní | I sifted |
| Tú | cerniste | You sifted |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cernió | He / she / you sifted |
| Nosotros / as | cernimos | We sifted |
| Vosotros / as | cernisteis | You sifted |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cernieron | They / you sifted |
| Vos | cerniste | You sifted |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was sifting” or “she was sifting” 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 | cernía | I was sifting |
| Tú | cernías | You were sifting |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cernía | He was / she was / you were sifting |
| Nosotros / as | cerníamos | We were sifting |
| Vosotros / as | cerníais | You were sifting |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cernían | They / you were sifting |
| Vos | cernías | You were sifting |
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 sifted” and “she has sifted”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he cernido | I have sifted |
| Tú | has cernido | You have sifted |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha cernido | He has / she has / you have sifted |
| Nosotros / as | hemos cernido | We have sifted |
| Vosotros / as | habéis cernido | You have sifted |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han cernido | They / you have sifted |
| Vos | has cernido | You have sifted |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would sift” or “she would sift”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | cernería | I would sift |
| Tú | cernerías | You would sift |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cernería | He / she / you would sift |
| Nosotros / as | cerneríamos | We would sift |
| Vosotros / as | cerneríais | You would sift |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cernerían | They / you would sift |
| Vos | cernerías | You would sift |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will sift” or “they will sift”.
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 cerner” means “They are going to sift”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | cerneré | I will sift |
| Tú | cernerás | You will sift |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cernerá | He / she / you will sift |
| Nosotros / as | cerneremos | We will sift |
| Vosotros / as | cerneréis | You will sift |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cernerán | They / you will sift |
| Vos | cernerás | You will sift |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | cierna |
| Tú | ciernas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cierna |
| Nosotros / as | cernamos |
| Vosotros / as | cernáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | ciernan |
| Vos | ciernas |
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 | cerniera | cerniese |
| Tú | cernieras | cerniese |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cerniera | cerniese |
| Nosotros / as | cerniéramos | cerniésemos |
| Vosotros / as | cernierais | cernieseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cernieran | cerniesen |
| Vos | cernieras | cerniese |
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 | cerniere |
| Tú | cernieres |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cerniere |
| Nosotros / as | cerniéremos |
| Vosotros / as | cerniereis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cernieren |
| Vos | cernieres |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “sift!” and “don’t sift!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | cierne | no ciernas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cierna | no cierna |
| Nosotros / as | cernamos | no cernamos |
| Vosotros / as | cerned | no cernáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | ciernan | no ciernan |
| Vos | cerní | no ciernas |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya cernido |
| Tú | hayas cernido |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya cernido |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos cernido |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis cernido |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan cernido |
| Vos | hayas cernido |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera cernido / hubiese cernido |
| Tú | hubieras cernido / hubieses cernido |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera cernido / hubiese cernido |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos cernido / hubiésemos cernido |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais cernido / hubieseis cernido |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran cernido / hubiesen cernido |
| Vos | hubieras cernido / hubieses cernido |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere cernido |
| Tú | hubieres cernido |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere cernido |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos cernido |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis cernido |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren cernido |
| Vos | hubieres cernido |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté cerniendo |
| Tú | estés cerniendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté cerniendo |
| Nosotros / as | estemos cerniendo |
| Vosotros / as | estéis cerniendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén cerniendo |
| Vos | estés cerniendo |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera cerniendo / estuviese cerniendo |
| Tú | estuvieras cerniendo / estuvieses cerniendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera cerniendo / estuviese cerniendo |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos cerniendo / estuviésamos cerniendo |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais cerniendo / estuvieseis cerniendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera cerniendo / estuviese cerniendo |
| Vos | estuvieras cerniendo / estuvieses cerniendo |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere cerniendo |
| Tú | estuvieres cerniendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere cerniendo |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos cerniendo |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis cerniendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere cerniendo |
| Vos | estuvieres cerniendo |
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 cernís |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos cerniste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos cernías |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos cernerías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos cernerás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos ciernas |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos cernieras / Vos cerniese |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos cerní |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no ciernas |