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Espiar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to spy”.
Below are all of the conjugations for espiar 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 spy |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | espiar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está espiando) and past continuous (estaba espiando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. spying).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he espiado and hubiera espiado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have spied).
| Gerundio / Gerund | espiando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | espiado |
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 spy” or “they spy”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | espío |
| Tú | espías |
| Él / Ella / Usted | espía |
| Nosotros / as | espiamos |
| Vosotros / as | espiáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | espían |
| Vos | espiás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I spied” or “she spied” 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 | espié | I spied |
| Tú | espiaste | You spied |
| Él / Ella / Usted | espió | He / she / you spied |
| Nosotros / as | espiamos | We spied |
| Vosotros / as | espiasteis | You spied |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | espiaron | They / you spied |
| Vos | espiaste | You spied |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was spying” or “she was spying” 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 | espiaba | I was spying |
| Tú | espiabas | You were spying |
| Él / Ella / Usted | espiaba | He was / she was / you were spying |
| Nosotros / as | espiábamos | We were spying |
| Vosotros / as | espiabais | You were spying |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | espiaban | They / you were spying |
| Vos | espiabas | You were spying |
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 spied” and “she has spied”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he espiado | I have spied |
| Tú | has espiado | You have spied |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha espiado | He has / she has / you have spied |
| Nosotros / as | hemos espiado | We have spied |
| Vosotros / as | habéis espiado | You have spied |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han espiado | They / you have spied |
| Vos | has espiado | You have spied |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would spy” or “she would spy”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | espiaría | I would spy |
| Tú | espiarías | You would spy |
| Él / Ella / Usted | espiaría | He / she / you would spy |
| Nosotros / as | espiaríamos | We would spy |
| Vosotros / as | espiaríais | You would spy |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | espiarían | They / you would spy |
| Vos | espiarías | You would spy |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will spy” or “they will spy”.
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 espiar” means “They are going to spy”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | espiaré | I will spy |
| Tú | espiarás | You will spy |
| Él / Ella / Usted | espiará | He / she / you will spy |
| Nosotros / as | espiaremos | We will spy |
| Vosotros / as | espiaréis | You will spy |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | espiarán | They / you will spy |
| Vos | espiarás | You will spy |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | espíe |
| Tú | espíes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | espíe |
| Nosotros / as | espiemos |
| Vosotros / as | espiéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | espíen |
| Vos | espíes |
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 | espiara | espiase |
| Tú | espiaras | espiase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | espiara | espiase |
| Nosotros / as | espiáramos | espiásemos |
| Vosotros / as | espiarais | espiaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | espiaran | espiasen |
| Vos | espiaras | espiase |
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 | espiare |
| Tú | espiares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | espiare |
| Nosotros / as | espiáremos |
| Vosotros / as | espiareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | espiaren |
| Vos | espiares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “spy!” and “don’t spy!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | espía | no espíes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | espíe | no espíe |
| Nosotros / as | espiemos | no espiemos |
| Vosotros / as | espiad | no espiéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | espíen | no espíen |
| Vos | espiá | no espíes |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya espiado |
| Tú | hayas espiado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya espiado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos espiado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis espiado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan espiado |
| Vos | hayas espiado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera espiado / hubiese espiado |
| Tú | hubieras espiado / hubieses espiado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera espiado / hubiese espiado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos espiado / hubiésemos espiado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais espiado / hubieseis espiado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran espiado / hubiesen espiado |
| Vos | hubieras espiado / hubieses espiado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere espiado |
| Tú | hubieres espiado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere espiado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos espiado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis espiado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren espiado |
| Vos | hubieres espiado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté espiando |
| Tú | estés espiando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté espiando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos espiando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis espiando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén espiando |
| Vos | estés espiando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera espiando / estuviese espiando |
| Tú | estuvieras espiando / estuvieses espiando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera espiando / estuviese espiando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos espiando / estuviésamos espiando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais espiando / estuvieseis espiando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera espiando / estuviese espiando |
| Vos | estuvieras espiando / estuvieses espiando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere espiando |
| Tú | estuvieres espiando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere espiando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos espiando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis espiando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere espiando |
| Vos | estuvieres espiando |
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 espiás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos espiaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos espiabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos espiarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos espiarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos espíes |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos espiaras / Vos espiase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos espiá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no espíes |