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Educar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to educate”.
Below are all of the conjugations for educar 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 educate |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | educar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está educando) and past continuous (estaba educando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. educating).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he educado and hubiera educado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have educated).
| Gerundio / Gerund | educando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | educado |
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 educate” or “they educate”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | educo |
| Tú | educas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | educa |
| Nosotros / as | educamos |
| Vosotros / as | educáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | educan |
| Vos | educás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I educated” or “she educated” 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 | eduqué | I educated |
| Tú | educaste | You educated |
| Él / Ella / Usted | educó | He / she / you educated |
| Nosotros / as | educamos | We educated |
| Vosotros / as | educasteis | You educated |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | educaron | They / you educated |
| Vos | educaste | You educated |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was educating” or “she was educating” 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 | educaba | I was educating |
| Tú | educabas | You were educating |
| Él / Ella / Usted | educaba | He was / she was / you were educating |
| Nosotros / as | educábamos | We were educating |
| Vosotros / as | educabais | You were educating |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | educaban | They / you were educating |
| Vos | educabas | You were educating |
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 educated” and “she has educated”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he educado | I have educated |
| Tú | has educado | You have educated |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha educado | He has / she has / you have educated |
| Nosotros / as | hemos educado | We have educated |
| Vosotros / as | habéis educado | You have educated |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han educado | They / you have educated |
| Vos | has educado | You have educated |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would educate” or “she would educate”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | educaría | I would educate |
| Tú | educarías | You would educate |
| Él / Ella / Usted | educaría | He / she / you would educate |
| Nosotros / as | educaríamos | We would educate |
| Vosotros / as | educaríais | You would educate |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | educarían | They / you would educate |
| Vos | educarías | You would educate |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will educate” or “they will educate”.
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 educar” means “They are going to educate”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | educaré | I will educate |
| Tú | educarás | You will educate |
| Él / Ella / Usted | educará | He / she / you will educate |
| Nosotros / as | educaremos | We will educate |
| Vosotros / as | educaréis | You will educate |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | educarán | They / you will educate |
| Vos | educarás | You will educate |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | eduque |
| Tú | eduques |
| Él / Ella / Usted | eduque |
| Nosotros / as | eduquemos |
| Vosotros / as | eduquéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | eduquen |
| Vos | eduques |
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 | educara | educase |
| Tú | educaras | educase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | educara | educase |
| Nosotros / as | educáramos | educásemos |
| Vosotros / as | educarais | educaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | educaran | educasen |
| Vos | educaras | educase |
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 | educare |
| Tú | educares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | educare |
| Nosotros / as | educáremos |
| Vosotros / as | educareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | educaren |
| Vos | educares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “educate!” and “don’t educate!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | educa | no eduques |
| Él / Ella / Usted | eduque | no eduque |
| Nosotros / as | eduquemos | no eduquemos |
| Vosotros / as | educad | no eduquéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | eduquen | no eduquen |
| Vos | educá | no eduques |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya educado |
| Tú | hayas educado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya educado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos educado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis educado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan educado |
| Vos | hayas educado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera educado / hubiese educado |
| Tú | hubieras educado / hubieses educado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera educado / hubiese educado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos educado / hubiésemos educado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais educado / hubieseis educado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran educado / hubiesen educado |
| Vos | hubieras educado / hubieses educado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere educado |
| Tú | hubieres educado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere educado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos educado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis educado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren educado |
| Vos | hubieres educado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté educando |
| Tú | estés educando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté educando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos educando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis educando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén educando |
| Vos | estés educando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera educando / estuviese educando |
| Tú | estuvieras educando / estuvieses educando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera educando / estuviese educando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos educando / estuviésamos educando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais educando / estuvieseis educando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera educando / estuviese educando |
| Vos | estuvieras educando / estuvieses educando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere educando |
| Tú | estuvieres educando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere educando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos educando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis educando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere educando |
| Vos | estuvieres educando |
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 educás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos educaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos educabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos educarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos educarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos eduques |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos educaras / Vos educase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos educá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no eduques |