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Chiflar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to whistle, blow a whistle, go crazy”.
Below are all of the conjugations for chiflar 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 whistle, blow a whistle, go crazy |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | chiflar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está chiflando) and past continuous (estaba chiflando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. whistling).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he chiflado and hubiera chiflado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have whistled).
| Gerundio / Gerund | chiflando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | chiflado |
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 whistle” or “they whistle”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | chiflo |
| Tú | chiflas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | chifla |
| Nosotros / as | chiflamos |
| Vosotros / as | chifláis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | chiflan |
| Vos | chiflás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I whistled” or “she whistled” 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 | chiflé | I whistled |
| Tú | chiflaste | You whistled |
| Él / Ella / Usted | chifló | He / she / you whistled |
| Nosotros / as | chiflamos | We whistled |
| Vosotros / as | chiflasteis | You whistled |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | chiflaron | They / you whistled |
| Vos | chiflaste | You whistled |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was whistling” or “she was whistling” 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 | chiflaba | I was whistling |
| Tú | chiflabas | You were whistling |
| Él / Ella / Usted | chiflaba | He was / she was / you were whistling |
| Nosotros / as | chiflábamos | We were whistling |
| Vosotros / as | chiflabais | You were whistling |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | chiflaban | They / you were whistling |
| Vos | chiflabas | You were whistling |
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 whistled” and “she has whistled”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he chiflado | I have whistled |
| Tú | has chiflado | You have whistled |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha chiflado | He has / she has / you have whistled |
| Nosotros / as | hemos chiflado | We have whistled |
| Vosotros / as | habéis chiflado | You have whistled |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han chiflado | They / you have whistled |
| Vos | has chiflado | You have whistled |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would whistle” or “she would whistle”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | chiflaría | I would whistle |
| Tú | chiflarías | You would whistle |
| Él / Ella / Usted | chiflaría | He / she / you would whistle |
| Nosotros / as | chiflaríamos | We would whistle |
| Vosotros / as | chiflaríais | You would whistle |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | chiflarían | They / you would whistle |
| Vos | chiflarías | You would whistle |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will whistle” or “they will whistle”.
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 chiflar” means “They are going to whistle”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | chiflaré | I will whistle |
| Tú | chiflarás | You will whistle |
| Él / Ella / Usted | chiflará | He / she / you will whistle |
| Nosotros / as | chiflaremos | We will whistle |
| Vosotros / as | chiflaréis | You will whistle |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | chiflarán | They / you will whistle |
| Vos | chiflarás | You will whistle |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | chifle |
| Tú | chifles |
| Él / Ella / Usted | chifle |
| Nosotros / as | chiflemos |
| Vosotros / as | chifléis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | chiflen |
| Vos | chifles |
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 | chiflara | chiflase |
| Tú | chiflaras | chiflase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | chiflara | chiflase |
| Nosotros / as | chifláramos | chiflásemos |
| Vosotros / as | chiflarais | chiflaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | chiflaran | chiflasen |
| Vos | chiflaras | chiflase |
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 | chiflare |
| Tú | chiflares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | chiflare |
| Nosotros / as | chifláremos |
| Vosotros / as | chiflareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | chiflaren |
| Vos | chiflares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “whistle!” and “don’t whistle!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | chifla | no chifles |
| Él / Ella / Usted | chifle | no chifle |
| Nosotros / as | chiflemos | no chiflemos |
| Vosotros / as | chiflad | no chifléis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | chiflen | no chiflen |
| Vos | chiflá | no chifles |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya chiflado |
| Tú | hayas chiflado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya chiflado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos chiflado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis chiflado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan chiflado |
| Vos | hayas chiflado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera chiflado / hubiese chiflado |
| Tú | hubieras chiflado / hubieses chiflado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera chiflado / hubiese chiflado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos chiflado / hubiésemos chiflado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais chiflado / hubieseis chiflado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran chiflado / hubiesen chiflado |
| Vos | hubieras chiflado / hubieses chiflado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere chiflado |
| Tú | hubieres chiflado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere chiflado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos chiflado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis chiflado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren chiflado |
| Vos | hubieres chiflado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté chiflando |
| Tú | estés chiflando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté chiflando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos chiflando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis chiflando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén chiflando |
| Vos | estés chiflando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera chiflando / estuviese chiflando |
| Tú | estuvieras chiflando / estuvieses chiflando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera chiflando / estuviese chiflando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos chiflando / estuviésamos chiflando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais chiflando / estuvieseis chiflando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera chiflando / estuviese chiflando |
| Vos | estuvieras chiflando / estuvieses chiflando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere chiflando |
| Tú | estuvieres chiflando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere chiflando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos chiflando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis chiflando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere chiflando |
| Vos | estuvieres chiflando |
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 chiflás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos chiflaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos chiflabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos chiflarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos chiflarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos chifles |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos chiflaras / Vos chiflase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos chiflá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no chifles |