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Encontrar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to find”.
Below are all of the conjugations for encontrar 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 find |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | encontrar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está encontrando) and past continuous (estaba encontrando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. finding).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he encontrado and hubiera encontrado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have found).
| Gerundio / Gerund | encontrando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | encontrado |
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 find” or “they find”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | encuentro |
| Tú | encuentras |
| Él / Ella / Usted | encuentra |
| Nosotros / as | encontramos |
| Vosotros / as | encontráis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | encuentran |
| Vos | encontrás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I found” or “she found” 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 | encontré | I found |
| Tú | encontraste | You found |
| Él / Ella / Usted | encontró | He / she / you found |
| Nosotros / as | encontramos | We found |
| Vosotros / as | encontrasteis | You found |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | encontraron | They / you found |
| Vos | encontraste | You found |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was finding” or “she was finding” 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 | encontraba | I was finding |
| Tú | encontrabas | You were finding |
| Él / Ella / Usted | encontraba | He was / she was / you were finding |
| Nosotros / as | encontrábamos | We were finding |
| Vosotros / as | encontrabais | You were finding |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | encontraban | They / you were finding |
| Vos | encontrabas | You were finding |
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 found” and “she has found”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he encontrado | I have found |
| Tú | has encontrado | You have found |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha encontrado | He has / she has / you have found |
| Nosotros / as | hemos encontrado | We have found |
| Vosotros / as | habéis encontrado | You have found |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han encontrado | They / you have found |
| Vos | has encontrado | You have found |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would find” or “she would find”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | encontraría | I would find |
| Tú | encontrarías | You would find |
| Él / Ella / Usted | encontraría | He / she / you would find |
| Nosotros / as | encontraríamos | We would find |
| Vosotros / as | encontraríais | You would find |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | encontrarían | They / you would find |
| Vos | encontrarías | You would find |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will find” or “they will find”.
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 encontrar” means “They are going to find”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | encontraré | I will find |
| Tú | encontrarás | You will find |
| Él / Ella / Usted | encontrará | He / she / you will find |
| Nosotros / as | encontraremos | We will find |
| Vosotros / as | encontraréis | You will find |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | encontrarán | They / you will find |
| Vos | encontrarás | You will find |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | encuentre |
| Tú | encuentres |
| Él / Ella / Usted | encuentre |
| Nosotros / as | encontremos |
| Vosotros / as | encontréis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | encuentren |
| Vos | encuentres |
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 | encontrara | encontrase |
| Tú | encontraras | encontrase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | encontrara | encontrase |
| Nosotros / as | encontráramos | encontrásemos |
| Vosotros / as | encontrarais | encontraseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | encontraran | encontrasen |
| Vos | encontraras | encontrase |
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 | encontrare |
| Tú | encontrares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | encontrare |
| Nosotros / as | encontráremos |
| Vosotros / as | encontrareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | encontraren |
| Vos | encontrares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “find!” and “don’t find!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | encuentra | no encuentres |
| Él / Ella / Usted | encuentre | no encuentre |
| Nosotros / as | encontremos | no encontremos |
| Vosotros / as | encontrad | no encontréis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | encuentren | no encuentren |
| Vos | encontrá | no encuentres |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya encontrado |
| Tú | hayas encontrado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya encontrado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos encontrado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis encontrado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan encontrado |
| Vos | hayas encontrado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera encontrado / hubiese encontrado |
| Tú | hubieras encontrado / hubieses encontrado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera encontrado / hubiese encontrado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos encontrado / hubiésemos encontrado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais encontrado / hubieseis encontrado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran encontrado / hubiesen encontrado |
| Vos | hubieras encontrado / hubieses encontrado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere encontrado |
| Tú | hubieres encontrado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere encontrado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos encontrado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis encontrado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren encontrado |
| Vos | hubieres encontrado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté encontrando |
| Tú | estés encontrando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté encontrando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos encontrando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis encontrando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén encontrando |
| Vos | estés encontrando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera encontrando / estuviese encontrando |
| Tú | estuvieras encontrando / estuvieses encontrando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera encontrando / estuviese encontrando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos encontrando / estuviésamos encontrando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais encontrando / estuvieseis encontrando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera encontrando / estuviese encontrando |
| Vos | estuvieras encontrando / estuvieses encontrando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere encontrando |
| Tú | estuvieres encontrando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere encontrando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos encontrando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis encontrando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere encontrando |
| Vos | estuvieres encontrando |
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 encontrás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos encontraste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos encontrabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos encontrarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos encontrarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos encuentres |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos encontraras / Vos encontrase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos encontrá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no encuentres |
