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Golpear is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to hit, strike, knock”.
Below are all of the conjugations for golpear 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 hit, strike, knock |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | golpear |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está golpeando) and past continuous (estaba golpeando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. struck).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he struck and hubiera struck. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have striking).
| Gerundio / Gerund | golpeando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | struck |
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 strike” or “they strike”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | golpeo |
| Tú | golpeas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | golpea |
| Nosotros / as | golpeamos |
| Vosotros / as | golpeáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | golpean |
| Vos | golpeás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I strike” or “she strike” 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 | golpeé | I strike |
| Tú | golpeaste | You strike |
| Él / Ella / Usted | golpeó | He / she / you strike |
| Nosotros / as | golpeamos | We strike |
| Vosotros / as | golpeasteis | You strike |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | golpearon | They / you strike |
| Vos | golpeaste | You strike |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was struck” or “she was struck” 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 | golpeaba | I was struck |
| Tú | golpeabas | You were struck |
| Él / Ella / Usted | golpeaba | He was / she was / you were struck |
| Nosotros / as | golpeábamos | We were struck |
| Vosotros / as | golpeabais | You were struck |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | golpeaban | They / you were struck |
| Vos | golpeabas | You were struck |
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 striking” and “she has striking”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he struck | I have striking |
| Tú | has struck | You have striking |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha struck | He has / she has / you have striking |
| Nosotros / as | hemos struck | We have striking |
| Vosotros / as | habéis struck | You have striking |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han struck | They / you have striking |
| Vos | has struck | You have striking |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would strike” or “she would strike”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | golpearía | I would strike |
| Tú | golpearías | You would strike |
| Él / Ella / Usted | golpearía | He / she / you would strike |
| Nosotros / as | golpearíamos | We would strike |
| Vosotros / as | golpearíais | You would strike |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | golpearían | They / you would strike |
| Vos | golpearías | You would strike |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will strike” or “they will strike”.
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 golpear” means “They are going to strike”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | golpearé | I will strike |
| Tú | golpearás | You will strike |
| Él / Ella / Usted | golpeará | He / she / you will strike |
| Nosotros / as | golpearemos | We will strike |
| Vosotros / as | golpearéis | You will strike |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | golpearán | They / you will strike |
| Vos | golpearás | You will strike |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | golpee |
| Tú | golpees |
| Él / Ella / Usted | golpee |
| Nosotros / as | golpeemos |
| Vosotros / as | golpeéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | golpeen |
| Vos | golpees |
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 | golpeara | golpease |
| Tú | golpearas | golpease |
| Él / Ella / Usted | golpeara | golpease |
| Nosotros / as | golpeáramos | golpeásemos |
| Vosotros / as | golpearais | golpeaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | golpearan | golpeasen |
| Vos | golpearas | golpease |
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 | golpeare |
| Tú | golpeares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | golpeare |
| Nosotros / as | golpeáremos |
| Vosotros / as | golpeareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | golpearen |
| Vos | golpeares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “strike!” and “don’t strike!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | golpea | no golpees |
| Él / Ella / Usted | golpee | no golpee |
| Nosotros / as | golpeemos | no golpeemos |
| Vosotros / as | golpead | no golpeéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | golpeen | no golpeen |
| Vos | golpeá | no golpees |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya struck |
| Tú | hayas struck |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya struck |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos struck |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis struck |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan struck |
| Vos | hayas struck |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera struck / hubiese struck |
| Tú | hubieras struck / hubieses struck |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera struck / hubiese struck |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos struck / hubiésemos struck |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais struck / hubieseis struck |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran struck / hubiesen struck |
| Vos | hubieras struck / hubieses struck |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere struck |
| Tú | hubieres struck |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere struck |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos struck |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis struck |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren struck |
| Vos | hubieres struck |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté golpeando |
| Tú | estés golpeando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté golpeando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos golpeando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis golpeando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén golpeando |
| Vos | estés golpeando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera golpeando / estuviese golpeando |
| Tú | estuvieras golpeando / estuvieses golpeando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera golpeando / estuviese golpeando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos golpeando / estuviésamos golpeando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais golpeando / estuvieseis golpeando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera golpeando / estuviese golpeando |
| Vos | estuvieras golpeando / estuvieses golpeando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere golpeando |
| Tú | estuvieres golpeando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere golpeando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos golpeando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis golpeando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere golpeando |
| Vos | estuvieres golpeando |
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 golpeás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos golpeaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos golpeabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos golpearías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos golpearás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos golpees |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos golpearas / Vos golpease |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos golpeá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no golpees |