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Congratular is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to congratulate, rejoice”.
Below are all of the conjugations for congratular 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 congratulate, rejoice |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | congratular |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está congratulando) and past continuous (estaba congratulando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. congratulating).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he congratulado and hubiera congratulado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have congratulated).
| Gerundio / Gerund | congratulando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | congratulado |
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 congratulate” or “they congratulate”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | congratulo |
| Tú | congratulas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | congratula |
| Nosotros / as | congratulamos |
| Vosotros / as | congratuláis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | congratulan |
| Vos | congratulás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I congratulated” or “she congratulated” 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 | congratulé | I congratulated |
| Tú | congratulaste | You congratulated |
| Él / Ella / Usted | congratuló | He / she / you congratulated |
| Nosotros / as | congratulamos | We congratulated |
| Vosotros / as | congratulasteis | You congratulated |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | congratularon | They / you congratulated |
| Vos | congratulaste | You congratulated |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was congratulating” or “she was congratulating” 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 | congratulaba | I was congratulating |
| Tú | congratulabas | You were congratulating |
| Él / Ella / Usted | congratulaba | He was / she was / you were congratulating |
| Nosotros / as | congratulábamos | We were congratulating |
| Vosotros / as | congratulabais | You were congratulating |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | congratulaban | They / you were congratulating |
| Vos | congratulabas | You were congratulating |
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 congratulated” and “she has congratulated”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he congratulado | I have congratulated |
| Tú | has congratulado | You have congratulated |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha congratulado | He has / she has / you have congratulated |
| Nosotros / as | hemos congratulado | We have congratulated |
| Vosotros / as | habéis congratulado | You have congratulated |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han congratulado | They / you have congratulated |
| Vos | has congratulado | You have congratulated |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would congratulate” or “she would congratulate”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | congratularía | I would congratulate |
| Tú | congratularías | You would congratulate |
| Él / Ella / Usted | congratularía | He / she / you would congratulate |
| Nosotros / as | congratularíamos | We would congratulate |
| Vosotros / as | congratularíais | You would congratulate |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | congratularían | They / you would congratulate |
| Vos | congratularías | You would congratulate |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will congratulate” or “they will congratulate”.
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 congratular” means “They are going to congratulate”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | congratularé | I will congratulate |
| Tú | congratularás | You will congratulate |
| Él / Ella / Usted | congratulará | He / she / you will congratulate |
| Nosotros / as | congratularemos | We will congratulate |
| Vosotros / as | congratularéis | You will congratulate |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | congratularán | They / you will congratulate |
| Vos | congratularás | You will congratulate |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | congratule |
| Tú | congratules |
| Él / Ella / Usted | congratule |
| Nosotros / as | congratulemos |
| Vosotros / as | congratuléis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | congratulen |
| Vos | congratules |
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 | congratulara | congratulase |
| Tú | congratularas | congratulase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | congratulara | congratulase |
| Nosotros / as | congratuláramos | congratulásemos |
| Vosotros / as | congratularais | congratulaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | congratularan | congratulasen |
| Vos | congratularas | congratulase |
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 | congratulare |
| Tú | congratulares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | congratulare |
| Nosotros / as | congratuláremos |
| Vosotros / as | congratulareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | congratularen |
| Vos | congratulares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “congratulate!” and “don’t congratulate!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | congratula | no congratules |
| Él / Ella / Usted | congratule | no congratule |
| Nosotros / as | congratulemos | no congratulemos |
| Vosotros / as | congratulad | no congratuléis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | congratulen | no congratulen |
| Vos | congratulá | no congratules |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya congratulado |
| Tú | hayas congratulado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya congratulado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos congratulado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis congratulado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan congratulado |
| Vos | hayas congratulado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera congratulado / hubiese congratulado |
| Tú | hubieras congratulado / hubieses congratulado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera congratulado / hubiese congratulado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos congratulado / hubiésemos congratulado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais congratulado / hubieseis congratulado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran congratulado / hubiesen congratulado |
| Vos | hubieras congratulado / hubieses congratulado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere congratulado |
| Tú | hubieres congratulado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere congratulado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos congratulado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis congratulado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren congratulado |
| Vos | hubieres congratulado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté congratulando |
| Tú | estés congratulando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté congratulando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos congratulando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis congratulando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén congratulando |
| Vos | estés congratulando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera congratulando / estuviese congratulando |
| Tú | estuvieras congratulando / estuvieses congratulando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera congratulando / estuviese congratulando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos congratulando / estuviésamos congratulando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais congratulando / estuvieseis congratulando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera congratulando / estuviese congratulando |
| Vos | estuvieras congratulando / estuvieses congratulando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere congratulando |
| Tú | estuvieres congratulando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere congratulando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos congratulando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis congratulando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere congratulando |
| Vos | estuvieres congratulando |
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 congratulás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos congratulaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos congratulabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos congratularías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos congratularás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos congratules |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos congratularas / Vos congratulase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos congratulá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no congratules |