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Ganarse la vida is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to earn a living”.
Below are all of the conjugations for ganarse la vida 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 earn a living |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | ganarse la vida |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está ) and past continuous (estaba ). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. earned a living).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he earned a living and hubiera earned a living. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have earning a living).
| Gerundio / Gerund | |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | earned a living |
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 earn a living” or “they earn a living”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | |
| Tú | |
| Él / Ella / Usted | |
| Nosotros / as | |
| Vosotros / as | |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | |
| Vos | te ganás la vida |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I earn a living” or “she earn a living” 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 | I earn a living | |
| Tú | You earn a living | |
| Él / Ella / Usted | He / she / you earn a living | |
| Nosotros / as | We earn a living | |
| Vosotros / as | You earn a living | |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | They / you earn a living | |
| Vos | You earn a living |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was earned a living” or “she was earned a living” 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 | I was earned a living | |
| Tú | You were earned a living | |
| Él / Ella / Usted | He was / she was / you were earned a living | |
| Nosotros / as | We were earned a living | |
| Vosotros / as | You were earned a living | |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | They / you were earned a living | |
| Vos | You were earned a living |
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 earning a living” and “she has earning a living”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he earned a living | I have earning a living |
| Tú | has earned a living | You have earning a living |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha earned a living | He has / she has / you have earning a living |
| Nosotros / as | hemos earned a living | We have earning a living |
| Vosotros / as | habéis earned a living | You have earning a living |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han earned a living | They / you have earning a living |
| Vos | has earned a living | You have earning a living |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would earn a living” or “she would earn a living”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | I would earn a living | |
| Tú | You would earn a living | |
| Él / Ella / Usted | He / she / you would earn a living | |
| Nosotros / as | We would earn a living | |
| Vosotros / as | You would earn a living | |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | They / you would earn a living | |
| Vos | You would earn a living |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will earn a living” or “they will earn a living”.
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 ganarse la vida” means “They are going to earn a living”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | I will earn a living | |
| Tú | You will earn a living | |
| Él / Ella / Usted | He / she / you will earn a living | |
| Nosotros / as | We will earn a living | |
| Vosotros / as | You will earn a living | |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | They / you will earn a living | |
| Vos | You will earn a living |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | |
| Tú | |
| Él / Ella / Usted | |
| Nosotros / as | |
| Vosotros / as | |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | |
| Vos |
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 | ||
| Tú | ||
| Él / Ella / Usted | ||
| Nosotros / as | ||
| Vosotros / as | ||
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | ||
| Vos |
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 | |
| Tú | |
| Él / Ella / Usted | |
| Nosotros / as | |
| Vosotros / as | |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | |
| Vos |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “earn a living!” and “don’t earn a living!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | ||
| Él / Ella / Usted | ||
| Nosotros / as | ||
| Vosotros / as | ||
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | ||
| Vos | ganate la vida |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya earned a living |
| Tú | hayas earned a living |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya earned a living |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos earned a living |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis earned a living |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan earned a living |
| Vos | hayas earned a living |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera earned a living / hubiese earned a living |
| Tú | hubieras earned a living / hubieses earned a living |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera earned a living / hubiese earned a living |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos earned a living / hubiésemos earned a living |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais earned a living / hubieseis earned a living |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran earned a living / hubiesen earned a living |
| Vos | hubieras earned a living / hubieses earned a living |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere earned a living |
| Tú | hubieres earned a living |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere earned a living |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos earned a living |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis earned a living |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren earned a living |
| Vos | hubieres earned a living |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté |
| Tú | estés |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté |
| Nosotros / as | estemos |
| Vosotros / as | estéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén |
| Vos | estés |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera / estuviese |
| Tú | estuvieras / estuvieses |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera / estuviese |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos / estuviésamos |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais / estuvieseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera / estuviese |
| Vos | estuvieras / estuvieses |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere |
| Tú | estuvieres |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere |
| Vos | estuvieres |
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 te ganás la vida |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos / Vos |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos ganate la vida |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos |