Everything you need to improve your Spanish
Menu
Everything you need to improve your Spanish
Culpar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to blame”.
Below are all of the conjugations for culpar 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 blame |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | culpar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está culpando) and past continuous (estaba culpando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. blaming).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he culpado and hubiera culpado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have blamed).
| Gerundio / Gerund | culpando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | culpado |
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 blame” or “they blame”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | culpo |
| Tú | culpas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | culpa |
| Nosotros / as | culpamos |
| Vosotros / as | culpáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | culpan |
| Vos | culpás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I blamed” or “she blamed” 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 | culpé | I blamed |
| Tú | culpaste | You blamed |
| Él / Ella / Usted | culpó | He / she / you blamed |
| Nosotros / as | culpamos | We blamed |
| Vosotros / as | culpasteis | You blamed |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | culparon | They / you blamed |
| Vos | culpaste | You blamed |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was blaming” or “she was blaming” 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 | culpaba | I was blaming |
| Tú | culpabas | You were blaming |
| Él / Ella / Usted | culpaba | He was / she was / you were blaming |
| Nosotros / as | culpábamos | We were blaming |
| Vosotros / as | culpabais | You were blaming |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | culpaban | They / you were blaming |
| Vos | culpabas | You were blaming |
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 blamed” and “she has blamed”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he culpado | I have blamed |
| Tú | has culpado | You have blamed |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha culpado | He has / she has / you have blamed |
| Nosotros / as | hemos culpado | We have blamed |
| Vosotros / as | habéis culpado | You have blamed |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han culpado | They / you have blamed |
| Vos | has culpado | You have blamed |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would blame” or “she would blame”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | culparía | I would blame |
| Tú | culparías | You would blame |
| Él / Ella / Usted | culparía | He / she / you would blame |
| Nosotros / as | culparíamos | We would blame |
| Vosotros / as | culparíais | You would blame |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | culparían | They / you would blame |
| Vos | culparías | You would blame |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will blame” or “they will blame”.
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 culpar” means “They are going to blame”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | culparé | I will blame |
| Tú | culparás | You will blame |
| Él / Ella / Usted | culpará | He / she / you will blame |
| Nosotros / as | culparemos | We will blame |
| Vosotros / as | culparéis | You will blame |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | culparán | They / you will blame |
| Vos | culparás | You will blame |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | culpe |
| Tú | culpes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | culpe |
| Nosotros / as | culpemos |
| Vosotros / as | culpéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | culpen |
| Vos | culpes |
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 | culpara | culpase |
| Tú | culparas | culpase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | culpara | culpase |
| Nosotros / as | culpáramos | culpásemos |
| Vosotros / as | culparais | culpaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | culparan | culpasen |
| Vos | culparas | culpase |
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 | culpare |
| Tú | culpares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | culpare |
| Nosotros / as | culpáremos |
| Vosotros / as | culpareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | culparen |
| Vos | culpares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “blame!” and “don’t blame!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | culpa | no culpes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | culpe | no culpe |
| Nosotros / as | culpemos | no culpemos |
| Vosotros / as | culpad | no culpéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | culpen | no culpen |
| Vos | culpá | no culpes |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya culpado |
| Tú | hayas culpado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya culpado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos culpado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis culpado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan culpado |
| Vos | hayas culpado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera culpado / hubiese culpado |
| Tú | hubieras culpado / hubieses culpado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera culpado / hubiese culpado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos culpado / hubiésemos culpado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais culpado / hubieseis culpado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran culpado / hubiesen culpado |
| Vos | hubieras culpado / hubieses culpado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere culpado |
| Tú | hubieres culpado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere culpado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos culpado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis culpado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren culpado |
| Vos | hubieres culpado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté culpando |
| Tú | estés culpando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté culpando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos culpando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis culpando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén culpando |
| Vos | estés culpando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera culpando / estuviese culpando |
| Tú | estuvieras culpando / estuvieses culpando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera culpando / estuviese culpando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos culpando / estuviésamos culpando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais culpando / estuvieseis culpando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera culpando / estuviese culpando |
| Vos | estuvieras culpando / estuvieses culpando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere culpando |
| Tú | estuvieres culpando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere culpando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos culpando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis culpando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere culpando |
| Vos | estuvieres culpando |
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 culpás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos culpaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos culpabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos culparías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos culparás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos culpes |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos culparas / Vos culpase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos culpá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no culpes |