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Colorear is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to color, tint”.
Below are all of the conjugations for colorear 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 color, tint |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | colorear |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está coloreando) and past continuous (estaba coloreando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. coloring).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he coloreado and hubiera coloreado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have colored).
| Gerundio / Gerund | coloreando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | coloreado |
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 color” or “they color”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | coloreo |
| Tú | coloreas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | colorea |
| Nosotros / as | coloreamos |
| Vosotros / as | coloreáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | colorean |
| Vos | coloreás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I colored” or “she colored” 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 | coloreé | I colored |
| Tú | coloreaste | You colored |
| Él / Ella / Usted | coloreó | He / she / you colored |
| Nosotros / as | coloreamos | We colored |
| Vosotros / as | coloreasteis | You colored |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | colorearon | They / you colored |
| Vos | coloreaste | You colored |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was coloring” or “she was coloring” 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 | coloreaba | I was coloring |
| Tú | coloreabas | You were coloring |
| Él / Ella / Usted | coloreaba | He was / she was / you were coloring |
| Nosotros / as | coloreábamos | We were coloring |
| Vosotros / as | coloreabais | You were coloring |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | coloreaban | They / you were coloring |
| Vos | coloreabas | You were coloring |
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 colored” and “she has colored”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he coloreado | I have colored |
| Tú | has coloreado | You have colored |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha coloreado | He has / she has / you have colored |
| Nosotros / as | hemos coloreado | We have colored |
| Vosotros / as | habéis coloreado | You have colored |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han coloreado | They / you have colored |
| Vos | has coloreado | You have colored |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would color” or “she would color”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | colorearía | I would color |
| Tú | colorearías | You would color |
| Él / Ella / Usted | colorearía | He / she / you would color |
| Nosotros / as | colorearíamos | We would color |
| Vosotros / as | colorearíais | You would color |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | colorearían | They / you would color |
| Vos | colorearías | You would color |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will color” or “they will color”.
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 colorear” means “They are going to color”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | colorearé | I will color |
| Tú | colorearás | You will color |
| Él / Ella / Usted | coloreará | He / she / you will color |
| Nosotros / as | colorearemos | We will color |
| Vosotros / as | colorearéis | You will color |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | colorearán | They / you will color |
| Vos | colorearás | You will color |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | coloree |
| Tú | colorees |
| Él / Ella / Usted | coloree |
| Nosotros / as | coloreemos |
| Vosotros / as | coloreéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | coloreen |
| Vos | colorees |
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 | coloreara | colorease |
| Tú | colorearas | colorease |
| Él / Ella / Usted | coloreara | colorease |
| Nosotros / as | coloreáramos | coloreásemos |
| Vosotros / as | colorearais | coloreaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | colorearan | coloreasen |
| Vos | colorearas | colorease |
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 | coloreare |
| Tú | coloreares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | coloreare |
| Nosotros / as | coloreáremos |
| Vosotros / as | coloreareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | colorearen |
| Vos | coloreares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “color!” and “don’t color!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | colorea | no colorees |
| Él / Ella / Usted | coloree | no coloree |
| Nosotros / as | coloreemos | no coloreemos |
| Vosotros / as | coloread | no coloreéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | coloreen | no coloreen |
| Vos | coloreá | no colorees |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya coloreado |
| Tú | hayas coloreado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya coloreado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos coloreado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis coloreado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan coloreado |
| Vos | hayas coloreado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera coloreado / hubiese coloreado |
| Tú | hubieras coloreado / hubieses coloreado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera coloreado / hubiese coloreado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos coloreado / hubiésemos coloreado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais coloreado / hubieseis coloreado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran coloreado / hubiesen coloreado |
| Vos | hubieras coloreado / hubieses coloreado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere coloreado |
| Tú | hubieres coloreado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere coloreado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos coloreado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis coloreado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren coloreado |
| Vos | hubieres coloreado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté coloreando |
| Tú | estés coloreando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté coloreando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos coloreando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis coloreando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén coloreando |
| Vos | estés coloreando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera coloreando / estuviese coloreando |
| Tú | estuvieras coloreando / estuvieses coloreando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera coloreando / estuviese coloreando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos coloreando / estuviésamos coloreando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais coloreando / estuvieseis coloreando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera coloreando / estuviese coloreando |
| Vos | estuvieras coloreando / estuvieses coloreando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere coloreando |
| Tú | estuvieres coloreando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere coloreando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos coloreando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis coloreando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere coloreando |
| Vos | estuvieres coloreando |
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 coloreás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos coloreaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos coloreabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos colorearías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos colorearás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos colorees |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos colorearas / Vos colorease |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos coloreá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no colorees |