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Madrugar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to get up early, be ahead”.
Below are all of the conjugations for madrugar 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 get up early, be ahead |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | madrugar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está madrugando) and past continuous (estaba madrugando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. getting up early).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he madrugado and hubiera madrugado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have gotten up early).
| Gerundio / Gerund | madrugando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | madrugado |
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 get up early” or “they get up early”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | madrugo |
| Tú | madrugas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | madruga |
| Nosotros / as | madrugamos |
| Vosotros / as | madrugáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | madrugan |
| Vos |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I got up early” or “she got up early” 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 | madrugué | I got up early |
| Tú | madrugaste | You got up early |
| Él / Ella / Usted | madrugó | He / she / you got up early |
| Nosotros / as | madrugamos | We got up early |
| Vosotros / as | madrugasteis | You got up early |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | madrugaron | They / you got up early |
| Vos | madrugaste | You got up early |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was getting up early” or “she was getting up early” 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 | madrugaba | I was getting up early |
| Tú | madrugabas | You were getting up early |
| Él / Ella / Usted | madrugaba | He was / she was / you were getting up early |
| Nosotros / as | madrugábamos | We were getting up early |
| Vosotros / as | madrugabais | You were getting up early |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | madrugaban | They / you were getting up early |
| Vos | madrugabas | You were getting up early |
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 gotten up early” and “she has gotten up early”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he madrugado | I have gotten up early |
| Tú | has madrugado | You have gotten up early |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha madrugado | He has / she has / you have gotten up early |
| Nosotros / as | hemos madrugado | We have gotten up early |
| Vosotros / as | habéis madrugado | You have gotten up early |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han madrugado | They / you have gotten up early |
| Vos | has madrugado | You have gotten up early |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would get up early” or “she would get up early”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | madrugaría | I would get up early |
| Tú | madrugarías | You would get up early |
| Él / Ella / Usted | madrugaría | He / she / you would get up early |
| Nosotros / as | madrugaríamos | We would get up early |
| Vosotros / as | madrugaríais | You would get up early |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | madrugarían | They / you would get up early |
| Vos | madrugarías | You would get up early |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will get up early” or “they will get up early”.
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 madrugar” means “They are going to get up early”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | madrugaré | I will get up early |
| Tú | madrugarás | You will get up early |
| Él / Ella / Usted | madrugará | He / she / you will get up early |
| Nosotros / as | madrugaremos | We will get up early |
| Vosotros / as | madrugaréis | You will get up early |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | madrugarán | They / you will get up early |
| Vos | madrugarás | You will get up early |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | madrugue |
| Tú | madrugues |
| Él / Ella / Usted | madrugue |
| Nosotros / as | madruguemos |
| Vosotros / as | madruguéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | madruguen |
| Vos | madrugues |
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 | madrugara | madrugase |
| Tú | madrugaras | madrugase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | madrugara | madrugase |
| Nosotros / as | madrugáramos | madrugásemos |
| Vosotros / as | madrugarais | madrugaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | madrugaran | madrugasen |
| Vos | madrugaras | madrugase |
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 | madrugare |
| Tú | madrugares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | madrugare |
| Nosotros / as | madrugáremos |
| Vosotros / as | madrugareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | madrugaren |
| Vos | madrugares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “get up early!” and “don’t get up early!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | madruga | no madrugues |
| Él / Ella / Usted | madrugue | no madrugue |
| Nosotros / as | madruguemos | no madruguemos |
| Vosotros / as | madrugad | no madruguéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | madruguen | no madruguen |
| Vos | no madrugues |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya madrugado |
| Tú | hayas madrugado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya madrugado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos madrugado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis madrugado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan madrugado |
| Vos | hayas madrugado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera madrugado / hubiese madrugado |
| Tú | hubieras madrugado / hubieses madrugado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera madrugado / hubiese madrugado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos madrugado / hubiésemos madrugado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais madrugado / hubieseis madrugado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran madrugado / hubiesen madrugado |
| Vos | hubieras madrugado / hubieses madrugado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere madrugado |
| Tú | hubieres madrugado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere madrugado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos madrugado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis madrugado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren madrugado |
| Vos | hubieres madrugado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté madrugando |
| Tú | estés madrugando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté madrugando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos madrugando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis madrugando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén madrugando |
| Vos | estés madrugando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera madrugando / estuviese madrugando |
| Tú | estuvieras madrugando / estuvieses madrugando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera madrugando / estuviese madrugando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos madrugando / estuviésamos madrugando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais madrugando / estuvieseis madrugando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera madrugando / estuviese madrugando |
| Vos | estuvieras madrugando / estuvieses madrugando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere madrugando |
| Tú | estuvieres madrugando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere madrugando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos madrugando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis madrugando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere madrugando |
| Vos | estuvieres madrugando |
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 |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos madrugaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos madrugabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos madrugarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos madrugarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos madrugues |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos madrugaras / Vos madrugase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no madrugues |