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Documentar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to inform, document”.
Below are all of the conjugations for documentar 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 inform, document |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | documentar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está documentando) and past continuous (estaba documentando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. informing).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he documentado and hubiera documentado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have informed).
| Gerundio / Gerund | documentando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | documentado |
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 inform” or “they inform”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | documento |
| Tú | documentas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | documenta |
| Nosotros / as | documentamos |
| Vosotros / as | documentáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | documentan |
| Vos | documentás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I informed” or “she informed” 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 | documenté | I informed |
| Tú | documentaste | You informed |
| Él / Ella / Usted | documentó | He / she / you informed |
| Nosotros / as | documentamos | We informed |
| Vosotros / as | documentasteis | You informed |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | documentaron | They / you informed |
| Vos | documentaste | You informed |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was informing” or “she was informing” 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 | documentaba | I was informing |
| Tú | documentabas | You were informing |
| Él / Ella / Usted | documentaba | He was / she was / you were informing |
| Nosotros / as | documentábamos | We were informing |
| Vosotros / as | documentabais | You were informing |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | documentaban | They / you were informing |
| Vos | documentabas | You were informing |
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 informed” and “she has informed”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he documentado | I have informed |
| Tú | has documentado | You have informed |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha documentado | He has / she has / you have informed |
| Nosotros / as | hemos documentado | We have informed |
| Vosotros / as | habéis documentado | You have informed |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han documentado | They / you have informed |
| Vos | has documentado | You have informed |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would inform” or “she would inform”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | documentaría | I would inform |
| Tú | documentarías | You would inform |
| Él / Ella / Usted | documentaría | He / she / you would inform |
| Nosotros / as | documentaríamos | We would inform |
| Vosotros / as | documentaríais | You would inform |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | documentarían | They / you would inform |
| Vos | documentarías | You would inform |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will inform” or “they will inform”.
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 documentar” means “They are going to inform”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | documentaré | I will inform |
| Tú | documentarás | You will inform |
| Él / Ella / Usted | documentará | He / she / you will inform |
| Nosotros / as | documentaremos | We will inform |
| Vosotros / as | documentaréis | You will inform |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | documentarán | They / you will inform |
| Vos | documentarás | You will inform |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | documente |
| Tú | documentes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | documente |
| Nosotros / as | documentemos |
| Vosotros / as | documentéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | documenten |
| Vos | documentes |
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 | documentara | documentase |
| Tú | documentaras | documentase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | documentara | documentase |
| Nosotros / as | documentáramos | documentásemos |
| Vosotros / as | documentarais | documentaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | documentaran | documentasen |
| Vos | documentaras | documentase |
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 | documentare |
| Tú | documentares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | documentare |
| Nosotros / as | documentáremos |
| Vosotros / as | documentareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | documentaren |
| Vos | documentares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “inform!” and “don’t inform!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | documenta | no documentes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | documente | no documente |
| Nosotros / as | documentemos | no documentemos |
| Vosotros / as | documentad | no documentéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | documenten | no documenten |
| Vos | documentá | no documentes |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya documentado |
| Tú | hayas documentado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya documentado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos documentado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis documentado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan documentado |
| Vos | hayas documentado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera documentado / hubiese documentado |
| Tú | hubieras documentado / hubieses documentado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera documentado / hubiese documentado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos documentado / hubiésemos documentado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais documentado / hubieseis documentado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran documentado / hubiesen documentado |
| Vos | hubieras documentado / hubieses documentado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere documentado |
| Tú | hubieres documentado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere documentado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos documentado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis documentado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren documentado |
| Vos | hubieres documentado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté documentando |
| Tú | estés documentando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté documentando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos documentando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis documentando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén documentando |
| Vos | estés documentando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera documentando / estuviese documentando |
| Tú | estuvieras documentando / estuvieses documentando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera documentando / estuviese documentando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos documentando / estuviésamos documentando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais documentando / estuvieseis documentando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera documentando / estuviese documentando |
| Vos | estuvieras documentando / estuvieses documentando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere documentando |
| Tú | estuvieres documentando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere documentando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos documentando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis documentando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere documentando |
| Vos | estuvieres documentando |
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 documentás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos documentaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos documentabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos documentarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos documentarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos documentes |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos documentaras / Vos documentase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos documentá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no documentes |