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Costar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to cost”.
Below are all of the conjugations for costar 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 cost |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | costar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está costando) and past continuous (estaba costando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. costing).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he costado and hubiera costado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have cost).
| Gerundio / Gerund | costando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | costado |
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 cost” or “they cost”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | cuesto |
| Tú | cuestas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cuesta |
| Nosotros / as | costamos |
| Vosotros / as | costáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cuestan |
| Vos | costás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I cost” or “she cost” 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 | costé | I cost |
| Tú | costaste | You cost |
| Él / Ella / Usted | costó | He / she / you cost |
| Nosotros / as | costamos | We cost |
| Vosotros / as | costasteis | You cost |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | costaron | They / you cost |
| Vos | costaste | You cost |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was costing” or “she was costing” 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 | costaba | I was costing |
| Tú | costabas | You were costing |
| Él / Ella / Usted | costaba | He was / she was / you were costing |
| Nosotros / as | costábamos | We were costing |
| Vosotros / as | costabais | You were costing |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | costaban | They / you were costing |
| Vos | costabas | You were costing |
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 cost” and “she has cost”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he costado | I have cost |
| Tú | has costado | You have cost |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha costado | He has / she has / you have cost |
| Nosotros / as | hemos costado | We have cost |
| Vosotros / as | habéis costado | You have cost |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han costado | They / you have cost |
| Vos | has costado | You have cost |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would cost” or “she would cost”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | costaría | I would cost |
| Tú | costarías | You would cost |
| Él / Ella / Usted | costaría | He / she / you would cost |
| Nosotros / as | costaríamos | We would cost |
| Vosotros / as | costaríais | You would cost |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | costarían | They / you would cost |
| Vos | costarías | You would cost |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will cost” or “they will cost”.
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 costar” means “They are going to cost”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | costaré | I will cost |
| Tú | costarás | You will cost |
| Él / Ella / Usted | costará | He / she / you will cost |
| Nosotros / as | costaremos | We will cost |
| Vosotros / as | costaréis | You will cost |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | costarán | They / you will cost |
| Vos | costarás | You will cost |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | cueste |
| Tú | cuestes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cueste |
| Nosotros / as | costemos |
| Vosotros / as | costéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cuesten |
| Vos | cuestes |
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 | costara | costase |
| Tú | costaras | costase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | costara | costase |
| Nosotros / as | costáramos | costásemos |
| Vosotros / as | costarais | costaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | costaran | costasen |
| Vos | costaras | costase |
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 | costare |
| Tú | costares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | costare |
| Nosotros / as | costáremos |
| Vosotros / as | costareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | costaren |
| Vos | costares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “cost!” and “don’t cost!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | cuesta | no cuestes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cueste | no cueste |
| Nosotros / as | costemos | no costemos |
| Vosotros / as | costad | no costéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cuesten | no cuesten |
| Vos | costá | no cuestes |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya costado |
| Tú | hayas costado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya costado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos costado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis costado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan costado |
| Vos | hayas costado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera costado / hubiese costado |
| Tú | hubieras costado / hubieses costado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera costado / hubiese costado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos costado / hubiésemos costado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais costado / hubieseis costado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran costado / hubiesen costado |
| Vos | hubieras costado / hubieses costado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere costado |
| Tú | hubieres costado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere costado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos costado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis costado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren costado |
| Vos | hubieres costado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté costando |
| Tú | estés costando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté costando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos costando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis costando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén costando |
| Vos | estés costando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera costando / estuviese costando |
| Tú | estuvieras costando / estuvieses costando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera costando / estuviese costando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos costando / estuviésamos costando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais costando / estuvieseis costando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera costando / estuviese costando |
| Vos | estuvieras costando / estuvieses costando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere costando |
| Tú | estuvieres costando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere costando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos costando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis costando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere costando |
| Vos | estuvieres costando |
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 costás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos costaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos costabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos costarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos costarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos cuestes |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos costaras / Vos costase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos costá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no cuestes |