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Guisar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to cook, stew”.
Below are all of the conjugations for guisar 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 cook, stew |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | guisar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está guisando) and past continuous (estaba guisando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. cooked).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he cooked and hubiera cooked. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have cooking).
| Gerundio / Gerund | guisando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | cooked |
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 cook” or “they cook”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | guiso |
| Tú | guisas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | guisa |
| Nosotros / as | guisamos |
| Vosotros / as | guisáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | guisan |
| Vos | guisás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I cook” or “she cook” 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 | guisé | I cook |
| Tú | guisaste | You cook |
| Él / Ella / Usted | guisó | He / she / you cook |
| Nosotros / as | guisamos | We cook |
| Vosotros / as | guisasteis | You cook |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | guisaron | They / you cook |
| Vos | guisaste | You cook |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was cooked” or “she was cooked” 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 | guisaba | I was cooked |
| Tú | guisabas | You were cooked |
| Él / Ella / Usted | guisaba | He was / she was / you were cooked |
| Nosotros / as | guisábamos | We were cooked |
| Vosotros / as | guisabais | You were cooked |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | guisaban | They / you were cooked |
| Vos | guisabas | You were cooked |
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 cooking” and “she has cooking”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he cooked | I have cooking |
| Tú | has cooked | You have cooking |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha cooked | He has / she has / you have cooking |
| Nosotros / as | hemos cooked | We have cooking |
| Vosotros / as | habéis cooked | You have cooking |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han cooked | They / you have cooking |
| Vos | has cooked | You have cooking |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would cook” or “she would cook”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | guisaría | I would cook |
| Tú | guisarías | You would cook |
| Él / Ella / Usted | guisaría | He / she / you would cook |
| Nosotros / as | guisaríamos | We would cook |
| Vosotros / as | guisaríais | You would cook |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | guisarían | They / you would cook |
| Vos | guisarías | You would cook |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will cook” or “they will cook”.
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 guisar” means “They are going to cook”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | guisaré | I will cook |
| Tú | guisarás | You will cook |
| Él / Ella / Usted | guisará | He / she / you will cook |
| Nosotros / as | guisaremos | We will cook |
| Vosotros / as | guisaréis | You will cook |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | guisarán | They / you will cook |
| Vos | guisarás | You will cook |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | guise |
| Tú | guises |
| Él / Ella / Usted | guise |
| Nosotros / as | guisemos |
| Vosotros / as | guiséis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | guisen |
| Vos | guises |
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 | guisara | guisase |
| Tú | guisaras | guisase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | guisara | guisase |
| Nosotros / as | guisáramos | guisásemos |
| Vosotros / as | guisarais | guisaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | guisaran | guisasen |
| Vos | guisaras | guisase |
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 | guisare |
| Tú | guisares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | guisare |
| Nosotros / as | guisáremos |
| Vosotros / as | guisareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | guisaren |
| Vos | guisares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “cook!” and “don’t cook!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | guisa | no guises |
| Él / Ella / Usted | guise | no guise |
| Nosotros / as | guisemos | no guisemos |
| Vosotros / as | guisad | no guiséis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | guisen | no guisen |
| Vos | guisá | no guises |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya cooked |
| Tú | hayas cooked |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya cooked |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos cooked |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis cooked |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan cooked |
| Vos | hayas cooked |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera cooked / hubiese cooked |
| Tú | hubieras cooked / hubieses cooked |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera cooked / hubiese cooked |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos cooked / hubiésemos cooked |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais cooked / hubieseis cooked |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran cooked / hubiesen cooked |
| Vos | hubieras cooked / hubieses cooked |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere cooked |
| Tú | hubieres cooked |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere cooked |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos cooked |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis cooked |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren cooked |
| Vos | hubieres cooked |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté guisando |
| Tú | estés guisando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté guisando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos guisando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis guisando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén guisando |
| Vos | estés guisando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera guisando / estuviese guisando |
| Tú | estuvieras guisando / estuvieses guisando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera guisando / estuviese guisando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos guisando / estuviésamos guisando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais guisando / estuvieseis guisando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera guisando / estuviese guisando |
| Vos | estuvieras guisando / estuvieses guisando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere guisando |
| Tú | estuvieres guisando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere guisando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos guisando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis guisando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere guisando |
| Vos | estuvieres guisando |
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 guisás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos guisaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos guisabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos guisarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos guisarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos guises |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos guisaras / Vos guisase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos guisá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no guises |