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Explorar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to explore, research”.
Below are all of the conjugations for explorar 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 explore, research |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | explorar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está explorando) and past continuous (estaba explorando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. exploring).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he explorado and hubiera explorado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have explored).
| Gerundio / Gerund | explorando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | explorado |
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 explore” or “they explore”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | exploro |
| Tú | exploras |
| Él / Ella / Usted | explora |
| Nosotros / as | exploramos |
| Vosotros / as | exploráis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | exploran |
| Vos | explorás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I explored” or “she explored” 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 | exploré | I explored |
| Tú | exploraste | You explored |
| Él / Ella / Usted | exploró | He / she / you explored |
| Nosotros / as | exploramos | We explored |
| Vosotros / as | explorasteis | You explored |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | exploraron | They / you explored |
| Vos | exploraste | You explored |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was exploring” or “she was exploring” 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 | exploraba | I was exploring |
| Tú | explorabas | You were exploring |
| Él / Ella / Usted | exploraba | He was / she was / you were exploring |
| Nosotros / as | explorábamos | We were exploring |
| Vosotros / as | explorabais | You were exploring |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | exploraban | They / you were exploring |
| Vos | explorabas | You were exploring |
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 explored” and “she has explored”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he explorado | I have explored |
| Tú | has explorado | You have explored |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha explorado | He has / she has / you have explored |
| Nosotros / as | hemos explorado | We have explored |
| Vosotros / as | habéis explorado | You have explored |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han explorado | They / you have explored |
| Vos | has explorado | You have explored |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would explore” or “she would explore”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | exploraría | I would explore |
| Tú | explorarías | You would explore |
| Él / Ella / Usted | exploraría | He / she / you would explore |
| Nosotros / as | exploraríamos | We would explore |
| Vosotros / as | exploraríais | You would explore |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | explorarían | They / you would explore |
| Vos | explorarías | You would explore |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will explore” or “they will explore”.
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 explorar” means “They are going to explore”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | exploraré | I will explore |
| Tú | explorarás | You will explore |
| Él / Ella / Usted | explorará | He / she / you will explore |
| Nosotros / as | exploraremos | We will explore |
| Vosotros / as | exploraréis | You will explore |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | explorarán | They / you will explore |
| Vos | explorarás | You will explore |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | explore |
| Tú | explores |
| Él / Ella / Usted | explore |
| Nosotros / as | exploremos |
| Vosotros / as | exploréis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | exploren |
| Vos | explores |
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 | explorara | explorase |
| Tú | exploraras | explorase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | explorara | explorase |
| Nosotros / as | exploráramos | explorásemos |
| Vosotros / as | explorarais | exploraseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | exploraran | explorasen |
| Vos | exploraras | explorase |
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 | explorare |
| Tú | explorares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | explorare |
| Nosotros / as | exploráremos |
| Vosotros / as | explorareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | exploraren |
| Vos | explorares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “explore!” and “don’t explore!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | explora | no explores |
| Él / Ella / Usted | explore | no explore |
| Nosotros / as | exploremos | no exploremos |
| Vosotros / as | explorad | no exploréis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | exploren | no exploren |
| Vos | explorá | no explores |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya explorado |
| Tú | hayas explorado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya explorado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos explorado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis explorado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan explorado |
| Vos | hayas explorado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera explorado / hubiese explorado |
| Tú | hubieras explorado / hubieses explorado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera explorado / hubiese explorado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos explorado / hubiésemos explorado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais explorado / hubieseis explorado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran explorado / hubiesen explorado |
| Vos | hubieras explorado / hubieses explorado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere explorado |
| Tú | hubieres explorado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere explorado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos explorado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis explorado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren explorado |
| Vos | hubieres explorado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté explorando |
| Tú | estés explorando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté explorando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos explorando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis explorando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén explorando |
| Vos | estés explorando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera explorando / estuviese explorando |
| Tú | estuvieras explorando / estuvieses explorando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera explorando / estuviese explorando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos explorando / estuviésamos explorando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais explorando / estuvieseis explorando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera explorando / estuviese explorando |
| Vos | estuvieras explorando / estuvieses explorando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere explorando |
| Tú | estuvieres explorando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere explorando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos explorando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis explorando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere explorando |
| Vos | estuvieres explorando |
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 explorás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos exploraste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos explorabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos explorarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos explorarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos explores |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos exploraras / Vos explorase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos explorá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no explores |