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Cobrar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to collect, charge, recuperate”.
Below are all of the conjugations for cobrar 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 collect, charge, recuperate |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | cobrar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está cobrando) and past continuous (estaba cobrando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. collecting).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he cobrado and hubiera cobrado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have collected).
| Gerundio / Gerund | cobrando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | cobrado |
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 collect” or “they collect”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | cobro |
| Tú | cobras |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cobra |
| Nosotros / as | cobramos |
| Vosotros / as | cobráis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cobran |
| Vos | cobrás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I collected” or “she collected” 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 | cobré | I collected |
| Tú | cobraste | You collected |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cobró | He / she / you collected |
| Nosotros / as | cobramos | We collected |
| Vosotros / as | cobrasteis | You collected |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cobraron | They / you collected |
| Vos | cobraste | You collected |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was collecting” or “she was collecting” 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 | cobraba | I was collecting |
| Tú | cobrabas | You were collecting |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cobraba | He was / she was / you were collecting |
| Nosotros / as | cobrábamos | We were collecting |
| Vosotros / as | cobrabais | You were collecting |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cobraban | They / you were collecting |
| Vos | cobrabas | You were collecting |
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 collected” and “she has collected”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he cobrado | I have collected |
| Tú | has cobrado | You have collected |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha cobrado | He has / she has / you have collected |
| Nosotros / as | hemos cobrado | We have collected |
| Vosotros / as | habéis cobrado | You have collected |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han cobrado | They / you have collected |
| Vos | has cobrado | You have collected |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would collect” or “she would collect”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | cobraría | I would collect |
| Tú | cobrarías | You would collect |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cobraría | He / she / you would collect |
| Nosotros / as | cobraríamos | We would collect |
| Vosotros / as | cobraríais | You would collect |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cobrarían | They / you would collect |
| Vos | cobrarías | You would collect |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will collect” or “they will collect”.
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 cobrar” means “They are going to collect”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | cobraré | I will collect |
| Tú | cobrarás | You will collect |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cobrará | He / she / you will collect |
| Nosotros / as | cobraremos | We will collect |
| Vosotros / as | cobraréis | You will collect |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cobrarán | They / you will collect |
| Vos | cobrarás | You will collect |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | cobre |
| Tú | cobres |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cobre |
| Nosotros / as | cobremos |
| Vosotros / as | cobréis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cobren |
| Vos | cobres |
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 | cobrara | cobrase |
| Tú | cobraras | cobrase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cobrara | cobrase |
| Nosotros / as | cobráramos | cobrásemos |
| Vosotros / as | cobrarais | cobraseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cobraran | cobrasen |
| Vos | cobraras | cobrase |
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 | cobrare |
| Tú | cobrares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cobrare |
| Nosotros / as | cobráremos |
| Vosotros / as | cobrareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cobraren |
| Vos | cobrares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “collect!” and “don’t collect!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | cobra | no cobres |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cobre | no cobre |
| Nosotros / as | cobremos | no cobremos |
| Vosotros / as | cobrad | no cobréis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cobren | no cobren |
| Vos | cobrá | no cobres |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya cobrado |
| Tú | hayas cobrado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya cobrado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos cobrado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis cobrado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan cobrado |
| Vos | hayas cobrado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera cobrado / hubiese cobrado |
| Tú | hubieras cobrado / hubieses cobrado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera cobrado / hubiese cobrado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos cobrado / hubiésemos cobrado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais cobrado / hubieseis cobrado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran cobrado / hubiesen cobrado |
| Vos | hubieras cobrado / hubieses cobrado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere cobrado |
| Tú | hubieres cobrado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere cobrado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos cobrado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis cobrado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren cobrado |
| Vos | hubieres cobrado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté cobrando |
| Tú | estés cobrando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté cobrando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos cobrando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis cobrando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén cobrando |
| Vos | estés cobrando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera cobrando / estuviese cobrando |
| Tú | estuvieras cobrando / estuvieses cobrando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera cobrando / estuviese cobrando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos cobrando / estuviésamos cobrando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais cobrando / estuvieseis cobrando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera cobrando / estuviese cobrando |
| Vos | estuvieras cobrando / estuvieses cobrando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere cobrando |
| Tú | estuvieres cobrando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere cobrando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos cobrando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis cobrando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere cobrando |
| Vos | estuvieres cobrando |
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 cobrás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos cobraste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos cobrabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos cobrarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos cobrarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos cobres |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos cobraras / Vos cobrase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos cobrá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no cobres |