Everything you need to improve your Spanish
Menu
Everything you need to improve your Spanish
Chismear is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to gossip”.
Below are all of the conjugations for chismear 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 gossip |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | chismear |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está chismeando) and past continuous (estaba chismeando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. gossiping).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he chismeado and hubiera chismeado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have gossiped).
| Gerundio / Gerund | chismeando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | chismeado |
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 gossip” or “they gossip”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | chismeo |
| Tú | chismeas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | chismea |
| Nosotros / as | chismeamos |
| Vosotros / as | chismeáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | chismean |
| Vos | chismeás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I gossiped” or “she gossiped” 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 | chismeé | I gossiped |
| Tú | chismeaste | You gossiped |
| Él / Ella / Usted | chismeó | He / she / you gossiped |
| Nosotros / as | chismeamos | We gossiped |
| Vosotros / as | chismeasteis | You gossiped |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | chismearon | They / you gossiped |
| Vos | chismeaste | You gossiped |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was gossiping” or “she was gossiping” 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 | chismeaba | I was gossiping |
| Tú | chismeabas | You were gossiping |
| Él / Ella / Usted | chismeaba | He was / she was / you were gossiping |
| Nosotros / as | chismeábamos | We were gossiping |
| Vosotros / as | chismeabais | You were gossiping |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | chismeaban | They / you were gossiping |
| Vos | chismeabas | You were gossiping |
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 gossiped” and “she has gossiped”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he chismeado | I have gossiped |
| Tú | has chismeado | You have gossiped |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha chismeado | He has / she has / you have gossiped |
| Nosotros / as | hemos chismeado | We have gossiped |
| Vosotros / as | habéis chismeado | You have gossiped |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han chismeado | They / you have gossiped |
| Vos | has chismeado | You have gossiped |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would gossip” or “she would gossip”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | chismearía | I would gossip |
| Tú | chismearías | You would gossip |
| Él / Ella / Usted | chismearía | He / she / you would gossip |
| Nosotros / as | chismearíamos | We would gossip |
| Vosotros / as | chismearíais | You would gossip |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | chismearían | They / you would gossip |
| Vos | chismearías | You would gossip |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will gossip” or “they will gossip”.
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 chismear” means “They are going to gossip”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | chismearé | I will gossip |
| Tú | chismearás | You will gossip |
| Él / Ella / Usted | chismeará | He / she / you will gossip |
| Nosotros / as | chismearemos | We will gossip |
| Vosotros / as | chismearéis | You will gossip |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | chismearán | They / you will gossip |
| Vos | chismearás | You will gossip |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | chismee |
| Tú | chismees |
| Él / Ella / Usted | chismee |
| Nosotros / as | chismeemos |
| Vosotros / as | chismeéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | chismeen |
| Vos | chismees |
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 | chismeara | chismease |
| Tú | chismearas | chismease |
| Él / Ella / Usted | chismeara | chismease |
| Nosotros / as | chismeáramos | chismeásemos |
| Vosotros / as | chismearais | chismeaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | chismearan | chismeasen |
| Vos | chismearas | chismease |
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 | chismeare |
| Tú | chismeares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | chismeare |
| Nosotros / as | chismeáremos |
| Vosotros / as | chismeareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | chismearen |
| Vos | chismeares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “gossip!” and “don’t gossip!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | chismea | no chismees |
| Él / Ella / Usted | chismee | no chismee |
| Nosotros / as | chismeemos | no chismeemos |
| Vosotros / as | chismead | no chismeéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | chismeen | no chismeen |
| Vos | chismeá | no chismees |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya chismeado |
| Tú | hayas chismeado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya chismeado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos chismeado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis chismeado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan chismeado |
| Vos | hayas chismeado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera chismeado / hubiese chismeado |
| Tú | hubieras chismeado / hubieses chismeado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera chismeado / hubiese chismeado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos chismeado / hubiésemos chismeado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais chismeado / hubieseis chismeado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran chismeado / hubiesen chismeado |
| Vos | hubieras chismeado / hubieses chismeado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere chismeado |
| Tú | hubieres chismeado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere chismeado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos chismeado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis chismeado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren chismeado |
| Vos | hubieres chismeado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté chismeando |
| Tú | estés chismeando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté chismeando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos chismeando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis chismeando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén chismeando |
| Vos | estés chismeando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera chismeando / estuviese chismeando |
| Tú | estuvieras chismeando / estuvieses chismeando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera chismeando / estuviese chismeando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos chismeando / estuviésamos chismeando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais chismeando / estuvieseis chismeando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera chismeando / estuviese chismeando |
| Vos | estuvieras chismeando / estuvieses chismeando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere chismeando |
| Tú | estuvieres chismeando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere chismeando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos chismeando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis chismeando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere chismeando |
| Vos | estuvieres chismeando |
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 chismeás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos chismeaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos chismeabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos chismearías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos chismearás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos chismees |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos chismearas / Vos chismease |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos chismeá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no chismees |