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Fregar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to wash (dishes, floors), scrub”.
Below are all of the conjugations for fregar 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 wash (dishes, floors), scrub |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | fregar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está fregando) and past continuous (estaba fregando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. scrubbed).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he scrubbed and hubiera scrubbed. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have scrubbing).
| Gerundio / Gerund | fregando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | scrubbed |
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 scrub” or “they scrub”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | friego |
| Tú | friegas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | friega |
| Nosotros / as | fregamos |
| Vosotros / as | fregáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | friegan |
| Vos | fregás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I scrub” or “she scrub” 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 | fregué | I scrub |
| Tú | fregaste | You scrub |
| Él / Ella / Usted | fregó | He / she / you scrub |
| Nosotros / as | fregamos | We scrub |
| Vosotros / as | fregasteis | You scrub |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | fregaron | They / you scrub |
| Vos | fregaste | You scrub |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was scrubbed” or “she was scrubbed” 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 | fregaba | I was scrubbed |
| Tú | fregabas | You were scrubbed |
| Él / Ella / Usted | fregaba | He was / she was / you were scrubbed |
| Nosotros / as | fregábamos | We were scrubbed |
| Vosotros / as | fregabais | You were scrubbed |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | fregaban | They / you were scrubbed |
| Vos | fregabas | You were scrubbed |
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 scrubbing” and “she has scrubbing”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he scrubbed | I have scrubbing |
| Tú | has scrubbed | You have scrubbing |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha scrubbed | He has / she has / you have scrubbing |
| Nosotros / as | hemos scrubbed | We have scrubbing |
| Vosotros / as | habéis scrubbed | You have scrubbing |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han scrubbed | They / you have scrubbing |
| Vos | has scrubbed | You have scrubbing |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would scrub” or “she would scrub”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | fregaría | I would scrub |
| Tú | fregarías | You would scrub |
| Él / Ella / Usted | fregaría | He / she / you would scrub |
| Nosotros / as | fregaríamos | We would scrub |
| Vosotros / as | fregaríais | You would scrub |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | fregarían | They / you would scrub |
| Vos | fregarías | You would scrub |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will scrub” or “they will scrub”.
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 fregar” means “They are going to scrub”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | fregaré | I will scrub |
| Tú | fregarás | You will scrub |
| Él / Ella / Usted | fregará | He / she / you will scrub |
| Nosotros / as | fregaremos | We will scrub |
| Vosotros / as | fregaréis | You will scrub |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | fregarán | They / you will scrub |
| Vos | fregarás | You will scrub |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | friegue |
| Tú | friegues |
| Él / Ella / Usted | friegue |
| Nosotros / as | freguemos |
| Vosotros / as | freguéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | frieguen |
| Vos | friegues |
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 | fregara | fregase |
| Tú | fregaras | fregase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | fregara | fregase |
| Nosotros / as | fregáramos | fregásemos |
| Vosotros / as | fregarais | fregaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | fregaran | fregasen |
| Vos | fregaras | fregase |
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 | fregare |
| Tú | fregares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | fregare |
| Nosotros / as | fregáremos |
| Vosotros / as | fregareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | fregaren |
| Vos | fregares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “scrub!” and “don’t scrub!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | friega | no friegues |
| Él / Ella / Usted | friegue | no friegue |
| Nosotros / as | freguemos | no freguemos |
| Vosotros / as | fregad | no freguéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | frieguen | no frieguen |
| Vos | fregá | no friegues |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya scrubbed |
| Tú | hayas scrubbed |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya scrubbed |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos scrubbed |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis scrubbed |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan scrubbed |
| Vos | hayas scrubbed |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera scrubbed / hubiese scrubbed |
| Tú | hubieras scrubbed / hubieses scrubbed |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera scrubbed / hubiese scrubbed |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos scrubbed / hubiésemos scrubbed |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais scrubbed / hubieseis scrubbed |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran scrubbed / hubiesen scrubbed |
| Vos | hubieras scrubbed / hubieses scrubbed |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere scrubbed |
| Tú | hubieres scrubbed |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere scrubbed |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos scrubbed |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis scrubbed |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren scrubbed |
| Vos | hubieres scrubbed |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté fregando |
| Tú | estés fregando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté fregando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos fregando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis fregando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén fregando |
| Vos | estés fregando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera fregando / estuviese fregando |
| Tú | estuvieras fregando / estuvieses fregando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera fregando / estuviese fregando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos fregando / estuviésamos fregando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais fregando / estuvieseis fregando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera fregando / estuviese fregando |
| Vos | estuvieras fregando / estuvieses fregando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere fregando |
| Tú | estuvieres fregando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere fregando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos fregando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis fregando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere fregando |
| Vos | estuvieres fregando |
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 fregás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos fregaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos fregabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos fregarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos fregarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos friegues |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos fregaras / Vos fregase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos fregá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no friegues |