Everything you need to improve your Spanish
Menu
Everything you need to improve your Spanish
Colocar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to put, place, situate”.
Below are all of the conjugations for colocar 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 put, place, situate |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | colocar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está colocando) and past continuous (estaba colocando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. placing).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he colocado and hubiera colocado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have placed).
| Gerundio / Gerund | colocando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | colocado |
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 place” or “they place”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | coloco |
| Tú | colocas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | coloca |
| Nosotros / as | colocamos |
| Vosotros / as | colocáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | colocan |
| Vos | colocás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I placed” or “she placed” 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 | coloqué | I placed |
| Tú | colocaste | You placed |
| Él / Ella / Usted | colocó | He / she / you placed |
| Nosotros / as | colocamos | We placed |
| Vosotros / as | colocasteis | You placed |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | colocaron | They / you placed |
| Vos | colocaste | You placed |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was placing” or “she was placing” 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 | colocaba | I was placing |
| Tú | colocabas | You were placing |
| Él / Ella / Usted | colocaba | He was / she was / you were placing |
| Nosotros / as | colocábamos | We were placing |
| Vosotros / as | colocabais | You were placing |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | colocaban | They / you were placing |
| Vos | colocabas | You were placing |
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 placed” and “she has placed”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he colocado | I have placed |
| Tú | has colocado | You have placed |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha colocado | He has / she has / you have placed |
| Nosotros / as | hemos colocado | We have placed |
| Vosotros / as | habéis colocado | You have placed |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han colocado | They / you have placed |
| Vos | has colocado | You have placed |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would place” or “she would place”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | colocaría | I would place |
| Tú | colocarías | You would place |
| Él / Ella / Usted | colocaría | He / she / you would place |
| Nosotros / as | colocaríamos | We would place |
| Vosotros / as | colocaríais | You would place |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | colocarían | They / you would place |
| Vos | colocarías | You would place |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will place” or “they will place”.
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 colocar” means “They are going to place”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | colocaré | I will place |
| Tú | colocarás | You will place |
| Él / Ella / Usted | colocará | He / she / you will place |
| Nosotros / as | colocaremos | We will place |
| Vosotros / as | colocaréis | You will place |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | colocarán | They / you will place |
| Vos | colocarás | You will place |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | coloque |
| Tú | coloques |
| Él / Ella / Usted | coloque |
| Nosotros / as | coloquemos |
| Vosotros / as | coloquéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | coloquen |
| Vos | coloques |
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 | colocara | colocase |
| Tú | colocaras | colocase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | colocara | colocase |
| Nosotros / as | colocáramos | colocásemos |
| Vosotros / as | colocarais | colocaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | colocaran | colocasen |
| Vos | colocaras | colocase |
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 | colocare |
| Tú | colocares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | colocare |
| Nosotros / as | colocáremos |
| Vosotros / as | colocareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | colocaren |
| Vos | colocares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “place!” and “don’t place!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | coloca | no coloques |
| Él / Ella / Usted | coloque | no coloque |
| Nosotros / as | coloquemos | no coloquemos |
| Vosotros / as | colocad | no coloquéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | coloquen | no coloquen |
| Vos | colocá | no coloques |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya colocado |
| Tú | hayas colocado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya colocado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos colocado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis colocado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan colocado |
| Vos | hayas colocado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera colocado / hubiese colocado |
| Tú | hubieras colocado / hubieses colocado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera colocado / hubiese colocado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos colocado / hubiésemos colocado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais colocado / hubieseis colocado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran colocado / hubiesen colocado |
| Vos | hubieras colocado / hubieses colocado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere colocado |
| Tú | hubieres colocado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere colocado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos colocado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis colocado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren colocado |
| Vos | hubieres colocado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté colocando |
| Tú | estés colocando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté colocando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos colocando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis colocando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén colocando |
| Vos | estés colocando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera colocando / estuviese colocando |
| Tú | estuvieras colocando / estuvieses colocando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera colocando / estuviese colocando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos colocando / estuviésamos colocando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais colocando / estuvieseis colocando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera colocando / estuviese colocando |
| Vos | estuvieras colocando / estuvieses colocando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere colocando |
| Tú | estuvieres colocando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere colocando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos colocando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis colocando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere colocando |
| Vos | estuvieres colocando |
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 colocás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos colocaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos colocabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos colocarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos colocarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos coloques |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos colocaras / Vos colocase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos colocá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no coloques |