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Congelar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to freeze, congeal”.
Below are all of the conjugations for congelar 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 freeze, congeal |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | congelar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está congelando) and past continuous (estaba congelando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. freezing).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he congelado and hubiera congelado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have frozen).
| Gerundio / Gerund | congelando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | congelado |
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 freeze” or “they freeze”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | congelo |
| Tú | congelas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | congela |
| Nosotros / as | congelamos |
| Vosotros / as | congeláis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | congelan |
| Vos | congelás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I froze” or “she froze” 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 | congelé | I froze |
| Tú | congelaste | You froze |
| Él / Ella / Usted | congeló | He / she / you froze |
| Nosotros / as | congelamos | We froze |
| Vosotros / as | congelasteis | You froze |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | congelaron | They / you froze |
| Vos | congelaste | You froze |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was freezing” or “she was freezing” 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 | congelaba | I was freezing |
| Tú | congelabas | You were freezing |
| Él / Ella / Usted | congelaba | He was / she was / you were freezing |
| Nosotros / as | congelábamos | We were freezing |
| Vosotros / as | congelabais | You were freezing |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | congelaban | They / you were freezing |
| Vos | congelabas | You were freezing |
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 frozen” and “she has frozen”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he congelado | I have frozen |
| Tú | has congelado | You have frozen |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha congelado | He has / she has / you have frozen |
| Nosotros / as | hemos congelado | We have frozen |
| Vosotros / as | habéis congelado | You have frozen |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han congelado | They / you have frozen |
| Vos | has congelado | You have frozen |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would freeze” or “she would freeze”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | congelaría | I would freeze |
| Tú | congelarías | You would freeze |
| Él / Ella / Usted | congelaría | He / she / you would freeze |
| Nosotros / as | congelaríamos | We would freeze |
| Vosotros / as | congelaríais | You would freeze |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | congelarían | They / you would freeze |
| Vos | congelarías | You would freeze |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will freeze” or “they will freeze”.
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 congelar” means “They are going to freeze”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | congelaré | I will freeze |
| Tú | congelarás | You will freeze |
| Él / Ella / Usted | congelará | He / she / you will freeze |
| Nosotros / as | congelaremos | We will freeze |
| Vosotros / as | congelaréis | You will freeze |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | congelarán | They / you will freeze |
| Vos | congelarás | You will freeze |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | congele |
| Tú | congeles |
| Él / Ella / Usted | congele |
| Nosotros / as | congelemos |
| Vosotros / as | congeléis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | congelen |
| Vos | congeles |
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 | congelara | congelase |
| Tú | congelaras | congelase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | congelara | congelase |
| Nosotros / as | congeláramos | congelásemos |
| Vosotros / as | congelarais | congelaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | congelaran | congelasen |
| Vos | congelaras | congelase |
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 | congelare |
| Tú | congelares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | congelare |
| Nosotros / as | congeláremos |
| Vosotros / as | congelareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | congelaren |
| Vos | congelares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “freeze!” and “don’t freeze!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | congela | no congeles |
| Él / Ella / Usted | congele | no congele |
| Nosotros / as | congelemos | no congelemos |
| Vosotros / as | congelad | no congeléis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | congelen | no congelen |
| Vos | congelá | no congeles |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya congelado |
| Tú | hayas congelado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya congelado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos congelado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis congelado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan congelado |
| Vos | hayas congelado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera congelado / hubiese congelado |
| Tú | hubieras congelado / hubieses congelado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera congelado / hubiese congelado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos congelado / hubiésemos congelado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais congelado / hubieseis congelado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran congelado / hubiesen congelado |
| Vos | hubieras congelado / hubieses congelado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere congelado |
| Tú | hubieres congelado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere congelado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos congelado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis congelado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren congelado |
| Vos | hubieres congelado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté congelando |
| Tú | estés congelando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté congelando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos congelando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis congelando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén congelando |
| Vos | estés congelando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera congelando / estuviese congelando |
| Tú | estuvieras congelando / estuvieses congelando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera congelando / estuviese congelando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos congelando / estuviésamos congelando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais congelando / estuvieseis congelando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera congelando / estuviese congelando |
| Vos | estuvieras congelando / estuvieses congelando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere congelando |
| Tú | estuvieres congelando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere congelando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos congelando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis congelando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere congelando |
| Vos | estuvieres congelando |
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 congelás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos congelaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos congelabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos congelarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos congelarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos congeles |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos congelaras / Vos congelase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos congelá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no congeles |