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Cortar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to cut”.
Below are all of the conjugations for cortar 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 cut |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | cortar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está cortando) and past continuous (estaba cortando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. cutting).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he cortado and hubiera cortado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have cut).
| Gerundio / Gerund | cortando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | cortado |
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 cut” or “they cut”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | corto |
| Tú | cortas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | corta |
| Nosotros / as | cortamos |
| Vosotros / as | cortáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cortan |
| Vos | cortás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I cut” or “she cut” 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 | corté | I cut |
| Tú | cortaste | You cut |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cortó | He / she / you cut |
| Nosotros / as | cortamos | We cut |
| Vosotros / as | cortasteis | You cut |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cortaron | They / you cut |
| Vos | cortaste | You cut |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was cutting” or “she was cutting” 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 | cortaba | I was cutting |
| Tú | cortabas | You were cutting |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cortaba | He was / she was / you were cutting |
| Nosotros / as | cortábamos | We were cutting |
| Vosotros / as | cortabais | You were cutting |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cortaban | They / you were cutting |
| Vos | cortabas | You were cutting |
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 cut” and “she has cut”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he cortado | I have cut |
| Tú | has cortado | You have cut |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha cortado | He has / she has / you have cut |
| Nosotros / as | hemos cortado | We have cut |
| Vosotros / as | habéis cortado | You have cut |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han cortado | They / you have cut |
| Vos | has cortado | You have cut |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would cut” or “she would cut”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | cortaría | I would cut |
| Tú | cortarías | You would cut |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cortaría | He / she / you would cut |
| Nosotros / as | cortaríamos | We would cut |
| Vosotros / as | cortaríais | You would cut |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cortarían | They / you would cut |
| Vos | cortarías | You would cut |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will cut” or “they will cut”.
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 cortar” means “They are going to cut”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | cortaré | I will cut |
| Tú | cortarás | You will cut |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cortará | He / she / you will cut |
| Nosotros / as | cortaremos | We will cut |
| Vosotros / as | cortaréis | You will cut |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cortarán | They / you will cut |
| Vos | cortarás | You will cut |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | corte |
| Tú | cortes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | corte |
| Nosotros / as | cortemos |
| Vosotros / as | cortéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | corten |
| Vos | cortes |
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 | cortara | cortase |
| Tú | cortaras | cortase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cortara | cortase |
| Nosotros / as | cortáramos | cortásemos |
| Vosotros / as | cortarais | cortaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cortaran | cortasen |
| Vos | cortaras | cortase |
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 | cortare |
| Tú | cortares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cortare |
| Nosotros / as | cortáremos |
| Vosotros / as | cortareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cortaren |
| Vos | cortares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “cut!” and “don’t cut!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | corta | no cortes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | corte | no corte |
| Nosotros / as | cortemos | no cortemos |
| Vosotros / as | cortad | no cortéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | corten | no corten |
| Vos | cortá | no cortes |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya cortado |
| Tú | hayas cortado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya cortado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos cortado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis cortado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan cortado |
| Vos | hayas cortado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera cortado / hubiese cortado |
| Tú | hubieras cortado / hubieses cortado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera cortado / hubiese cortado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos cortado / hubiésemos cortado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais cortado / hubieseis cortado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran cortado / hubiesen cortado |
| Vos | hubieras cortado / hubieses cortado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere cortado |
| Tú | hubieres cortado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere cortado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos cortado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis cortado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren cortado |
| Vos | hubieres cortado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté cortando |
| Tú | estés cortando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté cortando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos cortando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis cortando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén cortando |
| Vos | estés cortando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera cortando / estuviese cortando |
| Tú | estuvieras cortando / estuvieses cortando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera cortando / estuviese cortando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos cortando / estuviésamos cortando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais cortando / estuvieseis cortando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera cortando / estuviese cortando |
| Vos | estuvieras cortando / estuvieses cortando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere cortando |
| Tú | estuvieres cortando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere cortando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos cortando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis cortando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere cortando |
| Vos | estuvieres cortando |
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 cortás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos cortaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos cortabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos cortarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos cortarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos cortes |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos cortaras / Vos cortase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos cortá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no cortes |