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Coger is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to take, to get, to catch, to have sex”.
Below are all of the conjugations for coger 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 take, to get, to catch, to have sex |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | coger |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está cogiendo) and past continuous (estaba cogiendo). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. taking).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he cogido and hubiera cogido. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have taken).
| Gerundio / Gerund | cogiendo |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | cogido |
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 take” or “they take”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | cojo |
| Tú | coges |
| Él / Ella / Usted | coge |
| Nosotros / as | cogemos |
| Vosotros / as | cogéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cogen |
| Vos | cogés |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I took” or “she took” 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 | cogí | I took |
| Tú | cogiste | You took |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cogió | He / she / you took |
| Nosotros / as | cogimos | We took |
| Vosotros / as | cogisteis | You took |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cogieron | They / you took |
| Vos | cogiste | You took |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was taking” or “she was taking” 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 | cogía | I was taking |
| Tú | cogías | You were taking |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cogía | He was / she was / you were taking |
| Nosotros / as | cogíamos | We were taking |
| Vosotros / as | cogíais | You were taking |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cogían | They / you were taking |
| Vos | cogías | You were taking |
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 taken” and “she has taken”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he cogido | I have taken |
| Tú | has cogido | You have taken |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha cogido | He has / she has / you have taken |
| Nosotros / as | hemos cogido | We have taken |
| Vosotros / as | habéis cogido | You have taken |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han cogido | They / you have taken |
| Vos | has cogido | You have taken |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would take” or “she would take”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | cogería | I would take |
| Tú | cogerías | You would take |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cogería | He / she / you would take |
| Nosotros / as | cogeríamos | We would take |
| Vosotros / as | cogeríais | You would take |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cogerían | They / you would take |
| Vos | cogerías | You would take |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will take” or “they will take”.
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 coger” means “They are going to take”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | cogeré | I will take |
| Tú | cogerás | You will take |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cogerá | He / she / you will take |
| Nosotros / as | cogeremos | We will take |
| Vosotros / as | cogeréis | You will take |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cogerán | They / you will take |
| Vos | cogerás | You will take |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | coja |
| Tú | cojas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | coja |
| Nosotros / as | cojamos |
| Vosotros / as | cojáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cojan |
| Vos | cojas |
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 | cogiera | cogiese |
| Tú | cogieras | cogiese |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cogiera | cogiese |
| Nosotros / as | cogiéramos | cogiésemos |
| Vosotros / as | cogierais | cogieseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cogieran | cogiesen |
| Vos | cogieras | cogiese |
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 | cogiere |
| Tú | cogieres |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cogiere |
| Nosotros / as | cogiéremos |
| Vosotros / as | cogiereis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cogieren |
| Vos | cogieres |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “take!” and “don’t take!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | coge | no cojas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | coja | no coja |
| Nosotros / as | cojamos | no cojamos |
| Vosotros / as | coged | no cojáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cojan | no cojan |
| Vos | cogé | no cojas |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya cogido |
| Tú | hayas cogido |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya cogido |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos cogido |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis cogido |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan cogido |
| Vos | hayas cogido |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera cogido / hubiese cogido |
| Tú | hubieras cogido / hubieses cogido |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera cogido / hubiese cogido |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos cogido / hubiésemos cogido |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais cogido / hubieseis cogido |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran cogido / hubiesen cogido |
| Vos | hubieras cogido / hubieses cogido |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere cogido |
| Tú | hubieres cogido |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere cogido |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos cogido |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis cogido |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren cogido |
| Vos | hubieres cogido |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté cogiendo |
| Tú | estés cogiendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté cogiendo |
| Nosotros / as | estemos cogiendo |
| Vosotros / as | estéis cogiendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén cogiendo |
| Vos | estés cogiendo |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera cogiendo / estuviese cogiendo |
| Tú | estuvieras cogiendo / estuvieses cogiendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera cogiendo / estuviese cogiendo |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos cogiendo / estuviésamos cogiendo |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais cogiendo / estuvieseis cogiendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera cogiendo / estuviese cogiendo |
| Vos | estuvieras cogiendo / estuvieses cogiendo |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere cogiendo |
| Tú | estuvieres cogiendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere cogiendo |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos cogiendo |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis cogiendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere cogiendo |
| Vos | estuvieres cogiendo |
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 cogés |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos cogiste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos cogías |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos cogerías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos cogerás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos cojas |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos cogieras / Vos cogiese |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos cogé |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no cojas |