Everything you need to improve your Spanish
Menu
Everything you need to improve your Spanish
Licitar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to bid for, auction”.
Below are all of the conjugations for licitar 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 bid for, auction |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | licitar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está licitando) and past continuous (estaba licitando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. bidding for).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he licitado and hubiera licitado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have bid for).
| Gerundio / Gerund | licitando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | licitado |
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 bid for” or “they bid for”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | licito |
| Tú | licitas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | licita |
| Nosotros / as | licitamos |
| Vosotros / as | licitáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | licitan |
| Vos | licitás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I bid for” or “she bid for” 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 | licité | I bid for |
| Tú | licitaste | You bid for |
| Él / Ella / Usted | licitó | He / she / you bid for |
| Nosotros / as | licitamos | We bid for |
| Vosotros / as | licitasteis | You bid for |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | licitaron | They / you bid for |
| Vos | licitaste | You bid for |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was bidding for” or “she was bidding for” 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 | licitaba | I was bidding for |
| Tú | licitabas | You were bidding for |
| Él / Ella / Usted | licitaba | He was / she was / you were bidding for |
| Nosotros / as | licitábamos | We were bidding for |
| Vosotros / as | licitabais | You were bidding for |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | licitaban | They / you were bidding for |
| Vos | licitabas | You were bidding for |
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 bid for” and “she has bid for”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he licitado | I have bid for |
| Tú | has licitado | You have bid for |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha licitado | He has / she has / you have bid for |
| Nosotros / as | hemos licitado | We have bid for |
| Vosotros / as | habéis licitado | You have bid for |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han licitado | They / you have bid for |
| Vos | has licitado | You have bid for |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would bid for” or “she would bid for”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | licitaría | I would bid for |
| Tú | licitarías | You would bid for |
| Él / Ella / Usted | licitaría | He / she / you would bid for |
| Nosotros / as | licitaríamos | We would bid for |
| Vosotros / as | licitaríais | You would bid for |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | licitarían | They / you would bid for |
| Vos | licitarías | You would bid for |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will bid for” or “they will bid for”.
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 licitar” means “They are going to bid for”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | licitaré | I will bid for |
| Tú | licitarás | You will bid for |
| Él / Ella / Usted | licitará | He / she / you will bid for |
| Nosotros / as | licitaremos | We will bid for |
| Vosotros / as | licitaréis | You will bid for |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | licitarán | They / you will bid for |
| Vos | licitarás | You will bid for |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | licite |
| Tú | licites |
| Él / Ella / Usted | licite |
| Nosotros / as | licitemos |
| Vosotros / as | licitéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | liciten |
| Vos | licites |
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 | licitara | licitase |
| Tú | licitaras | licitase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | licitara | licitase |
| Nosotros / as | licitáramos | licitásemos |
| Vosotros / as | licitarais | licitaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | licitaran | licitasen |
| Vos | licitaras | licitase |
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 | licitare |
| Tú | licitares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | licitare |
| Nosotros / as | licitáremos |
| Vosotros / as | licitareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | licitaren |
| Vos | licitares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “bid for!” and “don’t bid for!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | licita | no licites |
| Él / Ella / Usted | licite | no licite |
| Nosotros / as | licitemos | no licitemos |
| Vosotros / as | licitad | no licitéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | liciten | no liciten |
| Vos | licitá | no licites |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya licitado |
| Tú | hayas licitado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya licitado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos licitado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis licitado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan licitado |
| Vos | hayas licitado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera licitado / hubiese licitado |
| Tú | hubieras licitado / hubieses licitado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera licitado / hubiese licitado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos licitado / hubiésemos licitado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais licitado / hubieseis licitado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran licitado / hubiesen licitado |
| Vos | hubieras licitado / hubieses licitado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere licitado |
| Tú | hubieres licitado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere licitado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos licitado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis licitado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren licitado |
| Vos | hubieres licitado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté licitando |
| Tú | estés licitando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté licitando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos licitando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis licitando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén licitando |
| Vos | estés licitando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera licitando / estuviese licitando |
| Tú | estuvieras licitando / estuvieses licitando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera licitando / estuviese licitando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos licitando / estuviésamos licitando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais licitando / estuvieseis licitando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera licitando / estuviese licitando |
| Vos | estuvieras licitando / estuvieses licitando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere licitando |
| Tú | estuvieres licitando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere licitando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos licitando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis licitando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere licitando |
| Vos | estuvieres licitando |
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 licitás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos licitaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos licitabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos licitarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos licitarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos licites |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos licitaras / Vos licitase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos licitá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no licites |