Everything you need to improve your Spanish
Menu
Everything you need to improve your Spanish
Conservar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to preserve, maintain, stay young”.
Below are all of the conjugations for conservar 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 preserve, maintain, stay young |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | conservar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está conservando) and past continuous (estaba conservando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. preserving).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he conservado and hubiera conservado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have preserved).
| Gerundio / Gerund | conservando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | conservado |
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 preserve” or “they preserve”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | conservo |
| Tú | conservas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | conserva |
| Nosotros / as | conservamos |
| Vosotros / as | conserváis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | conservan |
| Vos | conservás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I preserved” or “she preserved” 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 | conservé | I preserved |
| Tú | conservaste | You preserved |
| Él / Ella / Usted | conservó | He / she / you preserved |
| Nosotros / as | conservamos | We preserved |
| Vosotros / as | conservasteis | You preserved |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | conservaron | They / you preserved |
| Vos | conservaste | You preserved |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was preserving” or “she was preserving” 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 | conservaba | I was preserving |
| Tú | conservabas | You were preserving |
| Él / Ella / Usted | conservaba | He was / she was / you were preserving |
| Nosotros / as | conservábamos | We were preserving |
| Vosotros / as | conservabais | You were preserving |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | conservaban | They / you were preserving |
| Vos | conservabas | You were preserving |
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 preserved” and “she has preserved”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he conservado | I have preserved |
| Tú | has conservado | You have preserved |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha conservado | He has / she has / you have preserved |
| Nosotros / as | hemos conservado | We have preserved |
| Vosotros / as | habéis conservado | You have preserved |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han conservado | They / you have preserved |
| Vos | has conservado | You have preserved |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would preserve” or “she would preserve”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | conservaría | I would preserve |
| Tú | conservarías | You would preserve |
| Él / Ella / Usted | conservaría | He / she / you would preserve |
| Nosotros / as | conservaríamos | We would preserve |
| Vosotros / as | conservaríais | You would preserve |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | conservarían | They / you would preserve |
| Vos | conservarías | You would preserve |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will preserve” or “they will preserve”.
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 conservar” means “They are going to preserve”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | conservaré | I will preserve |
| Tú | conservarás | You will preserve |
| Él / Ella / Usted | conservará | He / she / you will preserve |
| Nosotros / as | conservaremos | We will preserve |
| Vosotros / as | conservaréis | You will preserve |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | conservarán | They / you will preserve |
| Vos | conservarás | You will preserve |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | conserve |
| Tú | conserves |
| Él / Ella / Usted | conserve |
| Nosotros / as | conservemos |
| Vosotros / as | conservéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | conserven |
| Vos | conserves |
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 | conservara | conservase |
| Tú | conservaras | conservase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | conservara | conservase |
| Nosotros / as | conserváramos | conservásemos |
| Vosotros / as | conservarais | conservaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | conservaran | conservasen |
| Vos | conservaras | conservase |
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 | conservare |
| Tú | conservares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | conservare |
| Nosotros / as | conserváremos |
| Vosotros / as | conservareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | conservaren |
| Vos | conservares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “preserve!” and “don’t preserve!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | conserva | no conserves |
| Él / Ella / Usted | conserve | no conserve |
| Nosotros / as | conservemos | no conservemos |
| Vosotros / as | conservad | no conservéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | conserven | no conserven |
| Vos | conservá | no conserves |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya conservado |
| Tú | hayas conservado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya conservado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos conservado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis conservado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan conservado |
| Vos | hayas conservado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera conservado / hubiese conservado |
| Tú | hubieras conservado / hubieses conservado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera conservado / hubiese conservado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos conservado / hubiésemos conservado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais conservado / hubieseis conservado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran conservado / hubiesen conservado |
| Vos | hubieras conservado / hubieses conservado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere conservado |
| Tú | hubieres conservado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere conservado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos conservado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis conservado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren conservado |
| Vos | hubieres conservado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté conservando |
| Tú | estés conservando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté conservando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos conservando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis conservando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén conservando |
| Vos | estés conservando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera conservando / estuviese conservando |
| Tú | estuvieras conservando / estuvieses conservando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera conservando / estuviese conservando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos conservando / estuviésamos conservando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais conservando / estuvieseis conservando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera conservando / estuviese conservando |
| Vos | estuvieras conservando / estuvieses conservando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere conservando |
| Tú | estuvieres conservando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere conservando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos conservando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis conservando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere conservando |
| Vos | estuvieres conservando |
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 conservás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos conservaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos conservabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos conservarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos conservarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos conserves |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos conservaras / Vos conservase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos conservá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no conserves |