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Everything you need to improve your Spanish
Dorar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to gild, fry (golden brown)”.
Below are all of the conjugations for dorar 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 gild, fry (golden brown) |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | dorar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está dorando) and past continuous (estaba dorando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. gilding).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he dorado and hubiera dorado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have gilded).
| Gerundio / Gerund | dorando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | dorado |
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 gild” or “they gild”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | doro |
| Tú | doras |
| Él / Ella / Usted | dora |
| Nosotros / as | doramos |
| Vosotros / as | doráis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | doran |
| Vos | dorás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I gilded” or “she gilded” 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 | doré | I gilded |
| Tú | doraste | You gilded |
| Él / Ella / Usted | doró | He / she / you gilded |
| Nosotros / as | doramos | We gilded |
| Vosotros / as | dorasteis | You gilded |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | doraron | They / you gilded |
| Vos | doraste | You gilded |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was gilding” or “she was gilding” 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 | doraba | I was gilding |
| Tú | dorabas | You were gilding |
| Él / Ella / Usted | doraba | He was / she was / you were gilding |
| Nosotros / as | dorábamos | We were gilding |
| Vosotros / as | dorabais | You were gilding |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | doraban | They / you were gilding |
| Vos | dorabas | You were gilding |
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 gilded” and “she has gilded”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he dorado | I have gilded |
| Tú | has dorado | You have gilded |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha dorado | He has / she has / you have gilded |
| Nosotros / as | hemos dorado | We have gilded |
| Vosotros / as | habéis dorado | You have gilded |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han dorado | They / you have gilded |
| Vos | has dorado | You have gilded |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would gild” or “she would gild”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | doraría | I would gild |
| Tú | dorarías | You would gild |
| Él / Ella / Usted | doraría | He / she / you would gild |
| Nosotros / as | doraríamos | We would gild |
| Vosotros / as | doraríais | You would gild |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | dorarían | They / you would gild |
| Vos | dorarías | You would gild |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will gild” or “they will gild”.
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 dorar” means “They are going to gild”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | doraré | I will gild |
| Tú | dorarás | You will gild |
| Él / Ella / Usted | dorará | He / she / you will gild |
| Nosotros / as | doraremos | We will gild |
| Vosotros / as | doraréis | You will gild |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | dorarán | They / you will gild |
| Vos | dorarás | You will gild |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | dore |
| Tú | dores |
| Él / Ella / Usted | dore |
| Nosotros / as | doremos |
| Vosotros / as | doréis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | doren |
| Vos | dores |
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 | dorara | dorase |
| Tú | doraras | dorase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | dorara | dorase |
| Nosotros / as | doráramos | dorásemos |
| Vosotros / as | dorarais | doraseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | doraran | dorasen |
| Vos | doraras | dorase |
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 | dorare |
| Tú | dorares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | dorare |
| Nosotros / as | doráremos |
| Vosotros / as | dorareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | doraren |
| Vos | dorares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “gild!” and “don’t gild!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | dora | no dores |
| Él / Ella / Usted | dore | no dore |
| Nosotros / as | doremos | no doremos |
| Vosotros / as | dorad | no doréis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | doren | no doren |
| Vos | dorá | no dores |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya dorado |
| Tú | hayas dorado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya dorado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos dorado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis dorado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan dorado |
| Vos | hayas dorado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera dorado / hubiese dorado |
| Tú | hubieras dorado / hubieses dorado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera dorado / hubiese dorado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos dorado / hubiésemos dorado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais dorado / hubieseis dorado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran dorado / hubiesen dorado |
| Vos | hubieras dorado / hubieses dorado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere dorado |
| Tú | hubieres dorado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere dorado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos dorado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis dorado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren dorado |
| Vos | hubieres dorado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté dorando |
| Tú | estés dorando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté dorando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos dorando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis dorando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén dorando |
| Vos | estés dorando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera dorando / estuviese dorando |
| Tú | estuvieras dorando / estuvieses dorando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera dorando / estuviese dorando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos dorando / estuviésamos dorando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais dorando / estuvieseis dorando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera dorando / estuviese dorando |
| Vos | estuvieras dorando / estuvieses dorando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere dorando |
| Tú | estuvieres dorando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere dorando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos dorando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis dorando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere dorando |
| Vos | estuvieres dorando |
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 dorás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos doraste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos dorabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos dorarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos dorarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos dores |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos doraras / Vos dorase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos dorá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no dores |