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Jugar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to play”.
Below are all of the conjugations for jugar 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 play |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | jugar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está juegando) and past continuous (estaba juegando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. playing).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he juegado and hubiera juegado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have played).
| Gerundio / Gerund | juegando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | juegado |
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 play” or “they play”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | juego |
| Tú | juegas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | juega |
| Nosotros / as | jugamos |
| Vosotros / as | jugáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | juegan |
| Vos | jugás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I played” or “she played” 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 | jugué | I played |
| Tú | jugaste | You played |
| Él / Ella / Usted | jugó | He / she / you played |
| Nosotros / as | jugamos | We played |
| Vosotros / as | jugasteis | You played |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | jugaron | They / you played |
| Vos | jugaste | You played |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was playing” or “she was playing” 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 | jugaba | I was playing |
| Tú | jugabas | You were playing |
| Él / Ella / Usted | jugaba | He was / she was / you were playing |
| Nosotros / as | jugábamos | We were playing |
| Vosotros / as | jugabais | You were playing |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | jugaban | They / you were playing |
| Vos | jugabas | You were playing |
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 played” and “she has played”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he juegado | I have played |
| Tú | has juegado | You have played |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha juegado | He has / she has / you have played |
| Nosotros / as | hemos juegado | We have played |
| Vosotros / as | habéis juegado | You have played |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han juegado | They / you have played |
| Vos | has juegado | You have played |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would play” or “she would play”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | jugaría | I would play |
| Tú | jugarías | You would play |
| Él / Ella / Usted | jugaría | He / she / you would play |
| Nosotros / as | jugaríamos | We would play |
| Vosotros / as | jugaríais | You would play |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | jugarían | They / you would play |
| Vos | jugarías | You would play |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will play” or “they will play”.
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 jugar” means “They are going to play”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | jugaré | I will play |
| Tú | jugarás | You will play |
| Él / Ella / Usted | jugará | He / she / you will play |
| Nosotros / as | jugaremos | We will play |
| Vosotros / as | jugaréis | You will play |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | jugarán | They / you will play |
| Vos | jugarás | You will play |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | juegue |
| Tú | juegues |
| Él / Ella / Usted | juegue |
| Nosotros / as | juguemos |
| Vosotros / as | juguéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | jueguen |
| Vos | juegues |
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 | jugara | jugase |
| Tú | jugaras | jugase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | jugara | jugase |
| Nosotros / as | jugáramos | jugásemos |
| Vosotros / as | jugarais | jugaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | jugaran | jugasen |
| Vos | jugaras | jugase |
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 | jugare |
| Tú | jugares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | jugare |
| Nosotros / as | jugáremos |
| Vosotros / as | jugareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | jugaren |
| Vos | jugares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “play!” and “don’t play!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | juega | no juegues |
| Él / Ella / Usted | juegue | no juegue |
| Nosotros / as | juguemos | no juguemos |
| Vosotros / as | jugad | no juguéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | jueguen | no jueguen |
| Vos | jugá | no juegues |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya juegado |
| Tú | hayas juegado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya juegado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos juegado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis juegado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan juegado |
| Vos | hayas juegado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera juegado / hubiese juegado |
| Tú | hubieras juegado / hubieses juegado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera juegado / hubiese juegado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos juegado / hubiésemos juegado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais juegado / hubieseis juegado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran juegado / hubiesen juegado |
| Vos | hubieras juegado / hubieses juegado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere juegado |
| Tú | hubieres juegado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere juegado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos juegado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis juegado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren juegado |
| Vos | hubieres juegado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté juegando |
| Tú | estés juegando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté juegando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos juegando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis juegando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén juegando |
| Vos | estés juegando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera juegando / estuviese juegando |
| Tú | estuvieras juegando / estuvieses juegando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera juegando / estuviese juegando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos juegando / estuviésamos juegando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais juegando / estuvieseis juegando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera juegando / estuviese juegando |
| Vos | estuvieras juegando / estuvieses juegando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere juegando |
| Tú | estuvieres juegando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere juegando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos juegando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis juegando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere juegando |
| Vos | estuvieres juegando |
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 jugás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos jugaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos jugabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos jugarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos jugarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos juegues |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos jugaras / Vos jugase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos jugá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no juegues |
