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Limpiar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to clean”.
Below are all of the conjugations for limpiar 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 clean |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | limpiar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está limpiando) and past continuous (estaba limpiando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. cleaning).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he limpiado and hubiera limpiado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have cleaned).
| Gerundio / Gerund | limpiando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | limpiado |
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 clean” or “they clean”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | limpio |
| Tú | limpias |
| Él / Ella / Usted | limpia |
| Nosotros / as | limpiamos |
| Vosotros / as | limpiáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | limpian |
| Vos | limpiás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I cleaned” or “she cleaned” 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 | limpié | I cleaned |
| Tú | limpiaste | You cleaned |
| Él / Ella / Usted | limpió | He / she / you cleaned |
| Nosotros / as | limpiamos | We cleaned |
| Vosotros / as | limpiasteis | You cleaned |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | limpiaron | They / you cleaned |
| Vos | limpiaste | You cleaned |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was cleaning” or “she was cleaning” 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 | limpiaba | I was cleaning |
| Tú | limpiabas | You were cleaning |
| Él / Ella / Usted | limpiaba | He was / she was / you were cleaning |
| Nosotros / as | limpiábamos | We were cleaning |
| Vosotros / as | limpiabais | You were cleaning |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | limpiaban | They / you were cleaning |
| Vos | limpiabas | You were cleaning |
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 cleaned” and “she has cleaned”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he limpiado | I have cleaned |
| Tú | has limpiado | You have cleaned |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha limpiado | He has / she has / you have cleaned |
| Nosotros / as | hemos limpiado | We have cleaned |
| Vosotros / as | habéis limpiado | You have cleaned |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han limpiado | They / you have cleaned |
| Vos | has limpiado | You have cleaned |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would clean” or “she would clean”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | limpiaría | I would clean |
| Tú | limpiarías | You would clean |
| Él / Ella / Usted | limpiaría | He / she / you would clean |
| Nosotros / as | limpiaríamos | We would clean |
| Vosotros / as | limpiaríais | You would clean |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | limpiarían | They / you would clean |
| Vos | limpiarías | You would clean |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will clean” or “they will clean”.
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 limpiar” means “They are going to clean”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | limpiaré | I will clean |
| Tú | limpiarás | You will clean |
| Él / Ella / Usted | limpiará | He / she / you will clean |
| Nosotros / as | limpiaremos | We will clean |
| Vosotros / as | limpiaréis | You will clean |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | limpiarán | They / you will clean |
| Vos | limpiarás | You will clean |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | limpie |
| Tú | limpies |
| Él / Ella / Usted | limpie |
| Nosotros / as | limpiemos |
| Vosotros / as | limpiéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | limpien |
| Vos | limpies |
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 | limpiara | limpiase |
| Tú | limpiaras | limpiase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | limpiara | limpiase |
| Nosotros / as | limpiáramos | limpiásemos |
| Vosotros / as | limpiarais | limpiaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | limpiaran | limpiasen |
| Vos | limpiaras | limpiase |
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 | limpiare |
| Tú | limpiares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | limpiare |
| Nosotros / as | limpiáremos |
| Vosotros / as | limpiareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | limpiaren |
| Vos | limpiares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “clean!” and “don’t clean!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | limpia | no limpies |
| Él / Ella / Usted | limpie | no limpie |
| Nosotros / as | limpiemos | no limpiemos |
| Vosotros / as | limpiad | no limpiéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | limpien | no limpien |
| Vos | limpiá | no limpies |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya limpiado |
| Tú | hayas limpiado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya limpiado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos limpiado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis limpiado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan limpiado |
| Vos | hayas limpiado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera limpiado / hubiese limpiado |
| Tú | hubieras limpiado / hubieses limpiado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera limpiado / hubiese limpiado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos limpiado / hubiésemos limpiado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais limpiado / hubieseis limpiado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran limpiado / hubiesen limpiado |
| Vos | hubieras limpiado / hubieses limpiado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere limpiado |
| Tú | hubieres limpiado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere limpiado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos limpiado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis limpiado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren limpiado |
| Vos | hubieres limpiado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté limpiando |
| Tú | estés limpiando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté limpiando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos limpiando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis limpiando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén limpiando |
| Vos | estés limpiando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera limpiando / estuviese limpiando |
| Tú | estuvieras limpiando / estuvieses limpiando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera limpiando / estuviese limpiando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos limpiando / estuviésamos limpiando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais limpiando / estuvieseis limpiando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera limpiando / estuviese limpiando |
| Vos | estuvieras limpiando / estuvieses limpiando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere limpiando |
| Tú | estuvieres limpiando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere limpiando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos limpiando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis limpiando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere limpiando |
| Vos | estuvieres limpiando |
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 limpiás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos limpiaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos limpiabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos limpiarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos limpiarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos limpies |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos limpiaras / Vos limpiase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos limpiá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no limpies |