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Fotografiar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to photograph”.
Below are all of the conjugations for fotografiar 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 photograph |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | fotografiar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está fotografiando) and past continuous (estaba fotografiando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. photographed).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he photographed and hubiera photographed. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have photographing).
| Gerundio / Gerund | fotografiando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | photographed |
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 photograph” or “they photograph”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | fotografío |
| Tú | fotografías |
| Él / Ella / Usted | fotografía |
| Nosotros / as | fotografiamos |
| Vosotros / as | fotografiáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | fotografían |
| Vos | fotografiás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I photograph” or “she photograph” 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 | fotografié | I photograph |
| Tú | fotografiaste | You photograph |
| Él / Ella / Usted | fotografió | He / she / you photograph |
| Nosotros / as | fotografiamos | We photograph |
| Vosotros / as | fotografiasteis | You photograph |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | fotografiaron | They / you photograph |
| Vos | fotografiaste | You photograph |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was photographed” or “she was photographed” 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 | fotografiaba | I was photographed |
| Tú | fotografiabas | You were photographed |
| Él / Ella / Usted | fotografiaba | He was / she was / you were photographed |
| Nosotros / as | fotografiábamos | We were photographed |
| Vosotros / as | fotografiabais | You were photographed |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | fotografiaban | They / you were photographed |
| Vos | fotografiabas | You were photographed |
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 photographing” and “she has photographing”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he photographed | I have photographing |
| Tú | has photographed | You have photographing |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha photographed | He has / she has / you have photographing |
| Nosotros / as | hemos photographed | We have photographing |
| Vosotros / as | habéis photographed | You have photographing |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han photographed | They / you have photographing |
| Vos | has photographed | You have photographing |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would photograph” or “she would photograph”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | fotografiaría | I would photograph |
| Tú | fotografiarías | You would photograph |
| Él / Ella / Usted | fotografiaría | He / she / you would photograph |
| Nosotros / as | fotografiaríamos | We would photograph |
| Vosotros / as | fotografiaríais | You would photograph |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | fotografiarían | They / you would photograph |
| Vos | fotografiarías | You would photograph |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will photograph” or “they will photograph”.
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 fotografiar” means “They are going to photograph”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | fotografiaré | I will photograph |
| Tú | fotografiarás | You will photograph |
| Él / Ella / Usted | fotografiará | He / she / you will photograph |
| Nosotros / as | fotografiaremos | We will photograph |
| Vosotros / as | fotografiaréis | You will photograph |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | fotografiarán | They / you will photograph |
| Vos | fotografiarás | You will photograph |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | fotografíe |
| Tú | fotografíes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | fotografíe |
| Nosotros / as | fotografiemos |
| Vosotros / as | fotografiéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | fotografíen |
| Vos | fotografíes |
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 | fotografiara | fotografiase |
| Tú | fotografiaras | fotografiase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | fotografiara | fotografiase |
| Nosotros / as | fotografiáramos | fotografiásemos |
| Vosotros / as | fotografiarais | fotografiaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | fotografiaran | fotografiasen |
| Vos | fotografiaras | fotografiase |
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 | fotografiare |
| Tú | fotografiares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | fotografiare |
| Nosotros / as | fotografiáremos |
| Vosotros / as | fotografiareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | fotografiaren |
| Vos | fotografiares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “photograph!” and “don’t photograph!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | fotografía | no fotografíes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | fotografíe | no fotografíe |
| Nosotros / as | fotografiemos | no fotografiemos |
| Vosotros / as | fotografiad | no fotografiéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | fotografíen | no fotografíen |
| Vos | fotografiá | no fotografíes |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya photographed |
| Tú | hayas photographed |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya photographed |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos photographed |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis photographed |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan photographed |
| Vos | hayas photographed |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera photographed / hubiese photographed |
| Tú | hubieras photographed / hubieses photographed |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera photographed / hubiese photographed |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos photographed / hubiésemos photographed |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais photographed / hubieseis photographed |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran photographed / hubiesen photographed |
| Vos | hubieras photographed / hubieses photographed |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere photographed |
| Tú | hubieres photographed |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere photographed |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos photographed |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis photographed |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren photographed |
| Vos | hubieres photographed |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté fotografiando |
| Tú | estés fotografiando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté fotografiando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos fotografiando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis fotografiando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén fotografiando |
| Vos | estés fotografiando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera fotografiando / estuviese fotografiando |
| Tú | estuvieras fotografiando / estuvieses fotografiando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera fotografiando / estuviese fotografiando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos fotografiando / estuviésamos fotografiando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais fotografiando / estuvieseis fotografiando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera fotografiando / estuviese fotografiando |
| Vos | estuvieras fotografiando / estuvieses fotografiando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere fotografiando |
| Tú | estuvieres fotografiando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere fotografiando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos fotografiando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis fotografiando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere fotografiando |
| Vos | estuvieres fotografiando |
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 fotografiás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos fotografiaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos fotografiabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos fotografiarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos fotografiarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos fotografíes |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos fotografiaras / Vos fotografiase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos fotografiá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no fotografíes |