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Flotar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to float”.
Below are all of the conjugations for flotar 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 float |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | flotar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está flotando) and past continuous (estaba flotando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. floated).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he floated and hubiera floated. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have floating).
| Gerundio / Gerund | flotando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | floated |
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 float” or “they float”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | floto |
| Tú | flotas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | flota |
| Nosotros / as | flotamos |
| Vosotros / as | flotáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | flotan |
| Vos | flotás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I float” or “she float” 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 | floté | I float |
| Tú | flotaste | You float |
| Él / Ella / Usted | flotó | He / she / you float |
| Nosotros / as | flotamos | We float |
| Vosotros / as | flotasteis | You float |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | flotaron | They / you float |
| Vos | flotaste | You float |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was floated” or “she was floated” 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 | flotaba | I was floated |
| Tú | flotabas | You were floated |
| Él / Ella / Usted | flotaba | He was / she was / you were floated |
| Nosotros / as | flotábamos | We were floated |
| Vosotros / as | flotabais | You were floated |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | flotaban | They / you were floated |
| Vos | flotabas | You were floated |
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 floating” and “she has floating”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he floated | I have floating |
| Tú | has floated | You have floating |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha floated | He has / she has / you have floating |
| Nosotros / as | hemos floated | We have floating |
| Vosotros / as | habéis floated | You have floating |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han floated | They / you have floating |
| Vos | has floated | You have floating |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would float” or “she would float”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | flotaría | I would float |
| Tú | flotarías | You would float |
| Él / Ella / Usted | flotaría | He / she / you would float |
| Nosotros / as | flotaríamos | We would float |
| Vosotros / as | flotaríais | You would float |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | flotarían | They / you would float |
| Vos | flotarías | You would float |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will float” or “they will float”.
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 flotar” means “They are going to float”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | flotaré | I will float |
| Tú | flotarás | You will float |
| Él / Ella / Usted | flotará | He / she / you will float |
| Nosotros / as | flotaremos | We will float |
| Vosotros / as | flotaréis | You will float |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | flotarán | They / you will float |
| Vos | flotarás | You will float |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | flote |
| Tú | flotes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | flote |
| Nosotros / as | flotemos |
| Vosotros / as | flotéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | floten |
| Vos | flotes |
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 | flotara | flotase |
| Tú | flotaras | flotase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | flotara | flotase |
| Nosotros / as | flotáramos | flotásemos |
| Vosotros / as | flotarais | flotaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | flotaran | flotasen |
| Vos | flotaras | flotase |
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 | flotare |
| Tú | flotares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | flotare |
| Nosotros / as | flotáremos |
| Vosotros / as | flotareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | flotaren |
| Vos | flotares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “float!” and “don’t float!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | flota | no flotes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | flote | no flote |
| Nosotros / as | flotemos | no flotemos |
| Vosotros / as | flotad | no flotéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | floten | no floten |
| Vos | flotá | no flotes |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya floated |
| Tú | hayas floated |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya floated |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos floated |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis floated |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan floated |
| Vos | hayas floated |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera floated / hubiese floated |
| Tú | hubieras floated / hubieses floated |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera floated / hubiese floated |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos floated / hubiésemos floated |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais floated / hubieseis floated |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran floated / hubiesen floated |
| Vos | hubieras floated / hubieses floated |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere floated |
| Tú | hubieres floated |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere floated |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos floated |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis floated |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren floated |
| Vos | hubieres floated |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté flotando |
| Tú | estés flotando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté flotando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos flotando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis flotando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén flotando |
| Vos | estés flotando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera flotando / estuviese flotando |
| Tú | estuvieras flotando / estuvieses flotando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera flotando / estuviese flotando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos flotando / estuviésamos flotando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais flotando / estuvieseis flotando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera flotando / estuviese flotando |
| Vos | estuvieras flotando / estuvieses flotando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere flotando |
| Tú | estuvieres flotando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere flotando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos flotando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis flotando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere flotando |
| Vos | estuvieres flotando |
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 flotás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos flotaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos flotabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos flotarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos flotarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos flotes |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos flotaras / Vos flotase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos flotá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no flotes |