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Estudiar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to study”.
Below are all of the conjugations for estudiar 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 study |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | estudiar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está estudiando) and past continuous (estaba estudiando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. studying).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he estudiado and hubiera estudiado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have studied).
| Gerundio / Gerund | estudiando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | estudiado |
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 study” or “they study”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estudio |
| Tú | estudias |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estudia |
| Nosotros / as | estudiamos |
| Vosotros / as | estudiáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estudian |
| Vos | estudiás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I studied” or “she studied” 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 | estudié | I studied |
| Tú | estudiaste | You studied |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estudió | He / she / you studied |
| Nosotros / as | estudiamos | We studied |
| Vosotros / as | estudiasteis | You studied |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estudiaron | They / you studied |
| Vos | estudiaste | You studied |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was studying” or “she was studying” 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 | estudiaba | I was studying |
| Tú | estudiabas | You were studying |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estudiaba | He was / she was / you were studying |
| Nosotros / as | estudiábamos | We were studying |
| Vosotros / as | estudiabais | You were studying |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estudiaban | They / you were studying |
| Vos | estudiabas | You were studying |
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 studied” and “she has studied”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he estudiado | I have studied |
| Tú | has estudiado | You have studied |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha estudiado | He has / she has / you have studied |
| Nosotros / as | hemos estudiado | We have studied |
| Vosotros / as | habéis estudiado | You have studied |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han estudiado | They / you have studied |
| Vos | has estudiado | You have studied |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would study” or “she would study”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | estudiaría | I would study |
| Tú | estudiarías | You would study |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estudiaría | He / she / you would study |
| Nosotros / as | estudiaríamos | We would study |
| Vosotros / as | estudiaríais | You would study |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estudiarían | They / you would study |
| Vos | estudiarías | You would study |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will study” or “they will study”.
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 estudiar” means “They are going to study”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | estudiaré | I will study |
| Tú | estudiarás | You will study |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estudiará | He / she / you will study |
| Nosotros / as | estudiaremos | We will study |
| Vosotros / as | estudiaréis | You will study |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estudiarán | They / you will study |
| Vos | estudiarás | You will study |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estudie |
| Tú | estudies |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estudie |
| Nosotros / as | estudiemos |
| Vosotros / as | estudiéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estudien |
| Vos | estudies |
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 | estudiara | estudiase |
| Tú | estudiaras | estudiase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estudiara | estudiase |
| Nosotros / as | estudiáramos | estudiásemos |
| Vosotros / as | estudiarais | estudiaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estudiaran | estudiasen |
| Vos | estudiaras | estudiase |
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 | estudiare |
| Tú | estudiares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estudiare |
| Nosotros / as | estudiáremos |
| Vosotros / as | estudiareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estudiaren |
| Vos | estudiares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “study!” and “don’t study!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | estudia | no estudies |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estudie | no estudie |
| Nosotros / as | estudiemos | no estudiemos |
| Vosotros / as | estudiad | no estudiéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estudien | no estudien |
| Vos | estudiá | no estudies |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya estudiado |
| Tú | hayas estudiado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya estudiado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos estudiado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis estudiado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan estudiado |
| Vos | hayas estudiado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera estudiado / hubiese estudiado |
| Tú | hubieras estudiado / hubieses estudiado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera estudiado / hubiese estudiado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos estudiado / hubiésemos estudiado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais estudiado / hubieseis estudiado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran estudiado / hubiesen estudiado |
| Vos | hubieras estudiado / hubieses estudiado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere estudiado |
| Tú | hubieres estudiado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere estudiado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos estudiado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis estudiado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren estudiado |
| Vos | hubieres estudiado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté estudiando |
| Tú | estés estudiando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté estudiando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos estudiando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis estudiando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén estudiando |
| Vos | estés estudiando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera estudiando / estuviese estudiando |
| Tú | estuvieras estudiando / estuvieses estudiando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera estudiando / estuviese estudiando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos estudiando / estuviésamos estudiando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais estudiando / estuvieseis estudiando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera estudiando / estuviese estudiando |
| Vos | estuvieras estudiando / estuvieses estudiando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere estudiando |
| Tú | estuvieres estudiando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere estudiando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos estudiando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis estudiando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere estudiando |
| Vos | estuvieres estudiando |
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 estudiás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos estudiaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos estudiabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos estudiarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos estudiarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos estudies |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos estudiaras / Vos estudiase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos estudiá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no estudies |
