Everything you need to improve your Spanish
Menu
Everything you need to improve your Spanish
Cursar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to study, attend”.
Below are all of the conjugations for cursar 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 study, attend |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | cursar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está cursando) and past continuous (estaba cursando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. studying).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he cursado and hubiera cursado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have studied).
| Gerundio / Gerund | cursando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | cursado |
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 study” or “they study”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | curso |
| Tú | cursas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cursa |
| Nosotros / as | cursamos |
| Vosotros / as | cursáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cursan |
| Vos | cursás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I studied” or “she studied” 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 | cursé | I studied |
| Tú | cursaste | You studied |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cursó | He / she / you studied |
| Nosotros / as | cursamos | We studied |
| Vosotros / as | cursasteis | You studied |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cursaron | They / you studied |
| Vos | cursaste | You studied |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was studying” or “she was studying” 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 | cursaba | I was studying |
| Tú | cursabas | You were studying |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cursaba | He was / she was / you were studying |
| Nosotros / as | cursábamos | We were studying |
| Vosotros / as | cursabais | You were studying |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cursaban | They / you were studying |
| Vos | cursabas | You were studying |
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 studied” and “she has studied”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he cursado | I have studied |
| Tú | has cursado | You have studied |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha cursado | He has / she has / you have studied |
| Nosotros / as | hemos cursado | We have studied |
| Vosotros / as | habéis cursado | You have studied |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han cursado | They / you have studied |
| Vos | has cursado | You have studied |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would study” or “she would study”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | cursaría | I would study |
| Tú | cursarías | You would study |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cursaría | He / she / you would study |
| Nosotros / as | cursaríamos | We would study |
| Vosotros / as | cursaríais | You would study |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cursarían | They / you would study |
| Vos | cursarías | You would study |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will study” or “they will study”.
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 cursar” means “They are going to study”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | cursaré | I will study |
| Tú | cursarás | You will study |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cursará | He / she / you will study |
| Nosotros / as | cursaremos | We will study |
| Vosotros / as | cursaréis | You will study |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cursarán | They / you will study |
| Vos | cursarás | You will study |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | curse |
| Tú | curses |
| Él / Ella / Usted | curse |
| Nosotros / as | cursemos |
| Vosotros / as | curséis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cursen |
| Vos | curses |
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 | cursara | cursase |
| Tú | cursaras | cursase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cursara | cursase |
| Nosotros / as | cursáramos | cursásemos |
| Vosotros / as | cursarais | cursaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cursaran | cursasen |
| Vos | cursaras | cursase |
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 | cursare |
| Tú | cursares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cursare |
| Nosotros / as | cursáremos |
| Vosotros / as | cursareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cursaren |
| Vos | cursares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “study!” and “don’t study!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | cursa | no curses |
| Él / Ella / Usted | curse | no curse |
| Nosotros / as | cursemos | no cursemos |
| Vosotros / as | cursad | no curséis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cursen | no cursen |
| Vos | cursá | no curses |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya cursado |
| Tú | hayas cursado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya cursado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos cursado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis cursado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan cursado |
| Vos | hayas cursado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera cursado / hubiese cursado |
| Tú | hubieras cursado / hubieses cursado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera cursado / hubiese cursado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos cursado / hubiésemos cursado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais cursado / hubieseis cursado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran cursado / hubiesen cursado |
| Vos | hubieras cursado / hubieses cursado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere cursado |
| Tú | hubieres cursado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere cursado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos cursado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis cursado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren cursado |
| Vos | hubieres cursado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté cursando |
| Tú | estés cursando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté cursando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos cursando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis cursando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén cursando |
| Vos | estés cursando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera cursando / estuviese cursando |
| Tú | estuvieras cursando / estuvieses cursando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera cursando / estuviese cursando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos cursando / estuviésamos cursando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais cursando / estuvieseis cursando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera cursando / estuviese cursando |
| Vos | estuvieras cursando / estuvieses cursando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere cursando |
| Tú | estuvieres cursando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere cursando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos cursando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis cursando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere cursando |
| Vos | estuvieres cursando |
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 cursás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos cursaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos cursabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos cursarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos cursarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos curses |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos cursaras / Vos cursase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos cursá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no curses |