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Cortejar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to court, woo”.
Below are all of the conjugations for cortejar 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 court, woo |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | cortejar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está cortejando) and past continuous (estaba cortejando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. courting).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he cortejado and hubiera cortejado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have courted).
| Gerundio / Gerund | cortejando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | cortejado |
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 court” or “they court”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | cortejo |
| Tú | cortejas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | corteja |
| Nosotros / as | cortejamos |
| Vosotros / as | cortejáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cortejan |
| Vos | cortejás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I courted” or “she courted” 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 | cortejé | I courted |
| Tú | cortejaste | You courted |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cortejó | He / she / you courted |
| Nosotros / as | cortejamos | We courted |
| Vosotros / as | cortejasteis | You courted |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cortejaron | They / you courted |
| Vos | cortejaste | You courted |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was courting” or “she was courting” 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 | cortejaba | I was courting |
| Tú | cortejabas | You were courting |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cortejaba | He was / she was / you were courting |
| Nosotros / as | cortejábamos | We were courting |
| Vosotros / as | cortejabais | You were courting |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cortejaban | They / you were courting |
| Vos | cortejabas | You were courting |
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 courted” and “she has courted”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he cortejado | I have courted |
| Tú | has cortejado | You have courted |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha cortejado | He has / she has / you have courted |
| Nosotros / as | hemos cortejado | We have courted |
| Vosotros / as | habéis cortejado | You have courted |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han cortejado | They / you have courted |
| Vos | has cortejado | You have courted |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would court” or “she would court”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | cortejaría | I would court |
| Tú | cortejarías | You would court |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cortejaría | He / she / you would court |
| Nosotros / as | cortejaríamos | We would court |
| Vosotros / as | cortejaríais | You would court |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cortejarían | They / you would court |
| Vos | cortejarías | You would court |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will court” or “they will court”.
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 cortejar” means “They are going to court”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | cortejaré | I will court |
| Tú | cortejarás | You will court |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cortejará | He / she / you will court |
| Nosotros / as | cortejaremos | We will court |
| Vosotros / as | cortejaréis | You will court |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cortejarán | They / you will court |
| Vos | cortejarás | You will court |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | corteje |
| Tú | cortejes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | corteje |
| Nosotros / as | cortejemos |
| Vosotros / as | cortejéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cortejen |
| Vos | cortejes |
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 | cortejara | cortejase |
| Tú | cortejaras | cortejase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cortejara | cortejase |
| Nosotros / as | cortejáramos | cortejásemos |
| Vosotros / as | cortejarais | cortejaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cortejaran | cortejasen |
| Vos | cortejaras | cortejase |
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 | cortejare |
| Tú | cortejares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cortejare |
| Nosotros / as | cortejáremos |
| Vosotros / as | cortejareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cortejaren |
| Vos | cortejares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “court!” and “don’t court!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | corteja | no cortejes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | corteje | no corteje |
| Nosotros / as | cortejemos | no cortejemos |
| Vosotros / as | cortejad | no cortejéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cortejen | no cortejen |
| Vos | cortejá | no cortejes |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya cortejado |
| Tú | hayas cortejado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya cortejado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos cortejado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis cortejado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan cortejado |
| Vos | hayas cortejado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera cortejado / hubiese cortejado |
| Tú | hubieras cortejado / hubieses cortejado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera cortejado / hubiese cortejado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos cortejado / hubiésemos cortejado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais cortejado / hubieseis cortejado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran cortejado / hubiesen cortejado |
| Vos | hubieras cortejado / hubieses cortejado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere cortejado |
| Tú | hubieres cortejado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere cortejado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos cortejado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis cortejado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren cortejado |
| Vos | hubieres cortejado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté cortejando |
| Tú | estés cortejando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté cortejando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos cortejando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis cortejando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén cortejando |
| Vos | estés cortejando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera cortejando / estuviese cortejando |
| Tú | estuvieras cortejando / estuvieses cortejando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera cortejando / estuviese cortejando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos cortejando / estuviésamos cortejando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais cortejando / estuvieseis cortejando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera cortejando / estuviese cortejando |
| Vos | estuvieras cortejando / estuvieses cortejando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere cortejando |
| Tú | estuvieres cortejando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere cortejando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos cortejando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis cortejando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere cortejando |
| Vos | estuvieres cortejando |
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 cortejás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos cortejaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos cortejabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos cortejarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos cortejarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos cortejes |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos cortejaras / Vos cortejase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos cortejá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no cortejes |