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Guiar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to guide, lead”.
Below are all of the conjugations for guiar 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 guide, lead |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | guiar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está guiando) and past continuous (estaba guiando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. guided).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he guided and hubiera guided. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have guiding).
| Gerundio / Gerund | guiando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | guided |
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 guide” or “they guide”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | guío |
| Tú | guías |
| Él / Ella / Usted | guía |
| Nosotros / as | guiamos |
| Vosotros / as | guiáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | guían |
| Vos | guías |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I guide” or “she guide” 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 | guié | I guide |
| Tú | guiaste | You guide |
| Él / Ella / Usted | guió | He / she / you guide |
| Nosotros / as | guiamos | We guide |
| Vosotros / as | guiasteis | You guide |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | guiaron | They / you guide |
| Vos | guiaste | You guide |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was guided” or “she was guided” 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 | guiaba | I was guided |
| Tú | guiabas | You were guided |
| Él / Ella / Usted | guiaba | He was / she was / you were guided |
| Nosotros / as | guiábamos | We were guided |
| Vosotros / as | guiabais | You were guided |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | guiaban | They / you were guided |
| Vos | guiabas | You were guided |
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 guiding” and “she has guiding”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he guided | I have guiding |
| Tú | has guided | You have guiding |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha guided | He has / she has / you have guiding |
| Nosotros / as | hemos guided | We have guiding |
| Vosotros / as | habéis guided | You have guiding |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han guided | They / you have guiding |
| Vos | has guided | You have guiding |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would guide” or “she would guide”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | guiaría | I would guide |
| Tú | guiarías | You would guide |
| Él / Ella / Usted | guiaría | He / she / you would guide |
| Nosotros / as | guiaríamos | We would guide |
| Vosotros / as | guiaríais | You would guide |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | guiarían | They / you would guide |
| Vos | guiarías | You would guide |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will guide” or “they will guide”.
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 guiar” means “They are going to guide”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | guiaré | I will guide |
| Tú | guiarás | You will guide |
| Él / Ella / Usted | guiará | He / she / you will guide |
| Nosotros / as | guiaremos | We will guide |
| Vosotros / as | guiaréis | You will guide |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | guiarán | They / you will guide |
| Vos | guiarás | You will guide |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | guíe |
| Tú | guíes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | guíe |
| Nosotros / as | guiemos |
| Vosotros / as | guiéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | guíen |
| Vos | guíes |
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 | guiara | guiase |
| Tú | guiaras | guiase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | guiara | guiase |
| Nosotros / as | guiáramos | guiásemos |
| Vosotros / as | guiarais | guiaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | guiaran | guiasen |
| Vos | guiaras | guiase |
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 | guiare |
| Tú | guiares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | guiare |
| Nosotros / as | guiáremos |
| Vosotros / as | guiareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | guiaren |
| Vos | guiares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “guide!” and “don’t guide!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | guía | no guíes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | guíe | no guíe |
| Nosotros / as | guiemos | no guiemos |
| Vosotros / as | guiad | no guiéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | guíen | no guíen |
| Vos | guí | no guíes |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya guided |
| Tú | hayas guided |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya guided |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos guided |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis guided |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan guided |
| Vos | hayas guided |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera guided / hubiese guided |
| Tú | hubieras guided / hubieses guided |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera guided / hubiese guided |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos guided / hubiésemos guided |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais guided / hubieseis guided |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran guided / hubiesen guided |
| Vos | hubieras guided / hubieses guided |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere guided |
| Tú | hubieres guided |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere guided |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos guided |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis guided |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren guided |
| Vos | hubieres guided |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté guiando |
| Tú | estés guiando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté guiando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos guiando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis guiando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén guiando |
| Vos | estés guiando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera guiando / estuviese guiando |
| Tú | estuvieras guiando / estuvieses guiando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera guiando / estuviese guiando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos guiando / estuviésamos guiando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais guiando / estuvieseis guiando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera guiando / estuviese guiando |
| Vos | estuvieras guiando / estuvieses guiando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere guiando |
| Tú | estuvieres guiando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere guiando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos guiando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis guiando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere guiando |
| Vos | estuvieres guiando |
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 guías |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos guiaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos guiabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos guiarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos guiarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos guíes |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos guiaras / Vos guiase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos guí |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no guíes |