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Comunicar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to communicate, inform”.
Below are all of the conjugations for comunicar 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 communicate, inform |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | comunicar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está comunicando) and past continuous (estaba comunicando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. communicating).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he comunicado and hubiera comunicado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have communicated).
| Gerundio / Gerund | comunicando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | comunicado |
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 communicate” or “they communicate”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | comunico |
| Tú | comunicas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | comunica |
| Nosotros / as | comunicamos |
| Vosotros / as | comunicáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | comunican |
| Vos | comunicás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I communicated” or “she communicated” 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 | comuniqué | I communicated |
| Tú | comunicaste | You communicated |
| Él / Ella / Usted | comunicó | He / she / you communicated |
| Nosotros / as | comunicamos | We communicated |
| Vosotros / as | comunicasteis | You communicated |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | comunicaron | They / you communicated |
| Vos | comunicaste | You communicated |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was communicating” or “she was communicating” 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 | comunicaba | I was communicating |
| Tú | comunicabas | You were communicating |
| Él / Ella / Usted | comunicaba | He was / she was / you were communicating |
| Nosotros / as | comunicábamos | We were communicating |
| Vosotros / as | comunicabais | You were communicating |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | comunicaban | They / you were communicating |
| Vos | comunicabas | You were communicating |
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 communicated” and “she has communicated”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he comunicado | I have communicated |
| Tú | has comunicado | You have communicated |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha comunicado | He has / she has / you have communicated |
| Nosotros / as | hemos comunicado | We have communicated |
| Vosotros / as | habéis comunicado | You have communicated |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han comunicado | They / you have communicated |
| Vos | has comunicado | You have communicated |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would communicate” or “she would communicate”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | comunicaría | I would communicate |
| Tú | comunicarías | You would communicate |
| Él / Ella / Usted | comunicaría | He / she / you would communicate |
| Nosotros / as | comunicaríamos | We would communicate |
| Vosotros / as | comunicaríais | You would communicate |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | comunicarían | They / you would communicate |
| Vos | comunicarías | You would communicate |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will communicate” or “they will communicate”.
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 comunicar” means “They are going to communicate”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | comunicaré | I will communicate |
| Tú | comunicarás | You will communicate |
| Él / Ella / Usted | comunicará | He / she / you will communicate |
| Nosotros / as | comunicaremos | We will communicate |
| Vosotros / as | comunicaréis | You will communicate |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | comunicarán | They / you will communicate |
| Vos | comunicarás | You will communicate |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | comunique |
| Tú | comuniques |
| Él / Ella / Usted | comunique |
| Nosotros / as | comuniquemos |
| Vosotros / as | comuniquéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | comuniquen |
| Vos | comuniques |
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 | comunicara | comunicase |
| Tú | comunicaras | comunicase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | comunicara | comunicase |
| Nosotros / as | comunicáramos | comunicásemos |
| Vosotros / as | comunicarais | comunicaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | comunicaran | comunicasen |
| Vos | comunicaras | comunicase |
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 | comunicare |
| Tú | comunicares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | comunicare |
| Nosotros / as | comunicáremos |
| Vosotros / as | comunicareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | comunicaren |
| Vos | comunicares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “communicate!” and “don’t communicate!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | comunica | no comuniques |
| Él / Ella / Usted | comunique | no comunique |
| Nosotros / as | comuniquemos | no comuniquemos |
| Vosotros / as | comunicad | no comuniquéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | comuniquen | no comuniquen |
| Vos | comunicá | no comuniques |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya comunicado |
| Tú | hayas comunicado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya comunicado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos comunicado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis comunicado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan comunicado |
| Vos | hayas comunicado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera comunicado / hubiese comunicado |
| Tú | hubieras comunicado / hubieses comunicado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera comunicado / hubiese comunicado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos comunicado / hubiésemos comunicado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais comunicado / hubieseis comunicado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran comunicado / hubiesen comunicado |
| Vos | hubieras comunicado / hubieses comunicado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere comunicado |
| Tú | hubieres comunicado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere comunicado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos comunicado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis comunicado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren comunicado |
| Vos | hubieres comunicado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté comunicando |
| Tú | estés comunicando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté comunicando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos comunicando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis comunicando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén comunicando |
| Vos | estés comunicando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera comunicando / estuviese comunicando |
| Tú | estuvieras comunicando / estuvieses comunicando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera comunicando / estuviese comunicando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos comunicando / estuviésamos comunicando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais comunicando / estuvieseis comunicando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera comunicando / estuviese comunicando |
| Vos | estuvieras comunicando / estuvieses comunicando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere comunicando |
| Tú | estuvieres comunicando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere comunicando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos comunicando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis comunicando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere comunicando |
| Vos | estuvieres comunicando |
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 comunicás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos comunicaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos comunicabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos comunicarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos comunicarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos comuniques |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos comunicaras / Vos comunicase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos comunicá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no comuniques |