Everything you need to improve your Spanish
Menu
Everything you need to improve your Spanish
Colar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to strain, sift, slip in (sneak)”.
Below are all of the conjugations for colar 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 strain, sift, slip in (sneak) |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | colar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está colando) and past continuous (estaba colando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. straining).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he colado and hubiera colado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have strained).
| Gerundio / Gerund | colando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | colado |
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 strain” or “they strain”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | cuelo |
| Tú | cuelas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cuela |
| Nosotros / as | colamos |
| Vosotros / as | coláis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cuelan |
| Vos | colás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I strained” or “she strained” 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 | colé | I strained |
| Tú | colaste | You strained |
| Él / Ella / Usted | coló | He / she / you strained |
| Nosotros / as | colamos | We strained |
| Vosotros / as | colasteis | You strained |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | colaron | They / you strained |
| Vos | colaste | You strained |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was straining” or “she was straining” 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 | colaba | I was straining |
| Tú | colabas | You were straining |
| Él / Ella / Usted | colaba | He was / she was / you were straining |
| Nosotros / as | colábamos | We were straining |
| Vosotros / as | colabais | You were straining |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | colaban | They / you were straining |
| Vos | colabas | You were straining |
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 strained” and “she has strained”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he colado | I have strained |
| Tú | has colado | You have strained |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha colado | He has / she has / you have strained |
| Nosotros / as | hemos colado | We have strained |
| Vosotros / as | habéis colado | You have strained |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han colado | They / you have strained |
| Vos | has colado | You have strained |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would strain” or “she would strain”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | colaría | I would strain |
| Tú | colarías | You would strain |
| Él / Ella / Usted | colaría | He / she / you would strain |
| Nosotros / as | colaríamos | We would strain |
| Vosotros / as | colaríais | You would strain |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | colarían | They / you would strain |
| Vos | colarías | You would strain |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will strain” or “they will strain”.
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 colar” means “They are going to strain”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | colaré | I will strain |
| Tú | colarás | You will strain |
| Él / Ella / Usted | colará | He / she / you will strain |
| Nosotros / as | colaremos | We will strain |
| Vosotros / as | colaréis | You will strain |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | colarán | They / you will strain |
| Vos | colarás | You will strain |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | cuele |
| Tú | cueles |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cuele |
| Nosotros / as | colemos |
| Vosotros / as | coléis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cuelen |
| Vos | cueles |
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 | colara | colase |
| Tú | colaras | colase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | colara | colase |
| Nosotros / as | coláramos | colásemos |
| Vosotros / as | colarais | colaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | colaran | colasen |
| Vos | colaras | colase |
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 | colare |
| Tú | colares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | colare |
| Nosotros / as | coláremos |
| Vosotros / as | colareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | colaren |
| Vos | colares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “strain!” and “don’t strain!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | cuela | no cueles |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cuele | no cuele |
| Nosotros / as | colemos | no colemos |
| Vosotros / as | colad | no coléis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cuelen | no cuelen |
| Vos | colá | no cueles |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya colado |
| Tú | hayas colado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya colado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos colado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis colado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan colado |
| Vos | hayas colado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera colado / hubiese colado |
| Tú | hubieras colado / hubieses colado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera colado / hubiese colado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos colado / hubiésemos colado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais colado / hubieseis colado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran colado / hubiesen colado |
| Vos | hubieras colado / hubieses colado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere colado |
| Tú | hubieres colado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere colado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos colado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis colado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren colado |
| Vos | hubieres colado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté colando |
| Tú | estés colando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté colando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos colando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis colando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén colando |
| Vos | estés colando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera colando / estuviese colando |
| Tú | estuvieras colando / estuvieses colando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera colando / estuviese colando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos colando / estuviésamos colando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais colando / estuvieseis colando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera colando / estuviese colando |
| Vos | estuvieras colando / estuvieses colando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere colando |
| Tú | estuvieres colando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere colando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos colando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis colando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere colando |
| Vos | estuvieres colando |
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 colás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos colaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos colabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos colarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos colarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos cueles |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos colaras / Vos colase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos colá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no cueles |