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Marchar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to pace, stride, go on”.
Below are all of the conjugations for marchar 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 pace, stride, go on |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | marchar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está marchando) and past continuous (estaba marchando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. pacing).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he marchado and hubiera marchado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have paced).
| Gerundio / Gerund | marchando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | marchado |
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 pace” or “they pace”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | marcho |
| Tú | marchas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | marcha |
| Nosotros / as | marchamos |
| Vosotros / as | marcháis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | marchan |
| Vos |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I paced” or “she paced” 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 | marché | I paced |
| Tú | marchaste | You paced |
| Él / Ella / Usted | marchó | He / she / you paced |
| Nosotros / as | marchamos | We paced |
| Vosotros / as | marchasteis | You paced |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | marcharon | They / you paced |
| Vos | marchaste | You paced |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was pacing” or “she was pacing” 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 | marchaba | I was pacing |
| Tú | marchabas | You were pacing |
| Él / Ella / Usted | marchaba | He was / she was / you were pacing |
| Nosotros / as | marchábamos | We were pacing |
| Vosotros / as | marchabais | You were pacing |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | marchaban | They / you were pacing |
| Vos | marchabas | You were pacing |
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 paced” and “she has paced”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he marchado | I have paced |
| Tú | has marchado | You have paced |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha marchado | He has / she has / you have paced |
| Nosotros / as | hemos marchado | We have paced |
| Vosotros / as | habéis marchado | You have paced |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han marchado | They / you have paced |
| Vos | has marchado | You have paced |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would pace” or “she would pace”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | marcharía | I would pace |
| Tú | marcharías | You would pace |
| Él / Ella / Usted | marcharía | He / she / you would pace |
| Nosotros / as | marcharíamos | We would pace |
| Vosotros / as | marcharíais | You would pace |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | marcharían | They / you would pace |
| Vos | marcharías | You would pace |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will pace” or “they will pace”.
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 marchar” means “They are going to pace”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | marcharé | I will pace |
| Tú | marcharás | You will pace |
| Él / Ella / Usted | marchará | He / she / you will pace |
| Nosotros / as | marcharemos | We will pace |
| Vosotros / as | marcharéis | You will pace |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | marcharán | They / you will pace |
| Vos | marcharás | You will pace |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | marche |
| Tú | marches |
| Él / Ella / Usted | marche |
| Nosotros / as | marchemos |
| Vosotros / as | marchéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | marchen |
| Vos | marches |
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 | marchara | marchase |
| Tú | marcharas | marchase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | marchara | marchase |
| Nosotros / as | marcháramos | marchásemos |
| Vosotros / as | marcharais | marchaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | marcharan | marchasen |
| Vos | marcharas | marchase |
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 | marchare |
| Tú | marchares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | marchare |
| Nosotros / as | marcháremos |
| Vosotros / as | marchareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | marcharen |
| Vos | marchares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “pace!” and “don’t pace!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | marcha | no marches |
| Él / Ella / Usted | marche | no marche |
| Nosotros / as | marchemos | no marchemos |
| Vosotros / as | marchad | no marchéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | marchen | no marchen |
| Vos | no marches |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya marchado |
| Tú | hayas marchado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya marchado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos marchado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis marchado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan marchado |
| Vos | hayas marchado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera marchado / hubiese marchado |
| Tú | hubieras marchado / hubieses marchado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera marchado / hubiese marchado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos marchado / hubiésemos marchado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais marchado / hubieseis marchado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran marchado / hubiesen marchado |
| Vos | hubieras marchado / hubieses marchado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere marchado |
| Tú | hubieres marchado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere marchado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos marchado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis marchado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren marchado |
| Vos | hubieres marchado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté marchando |
| Tú | estés marchando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté marchando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos marchando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis marchando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén marchando |
| Vos | estés marchando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera marchando / estuviese marchando |
| Tú | estuvieras marchando / estuvieses marchando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera marchando / estuviese marchando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos marchando / estuviésamos marchando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais marchando / estuvieseis marchando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera marchando / estuviese marchando |
| Vos | estuvieras marchando / estuvieses marchando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere marchando |
| Tú | estuvieres marchando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere marchando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos marchando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis marchando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere marchando |
| Vos | estuvieres marchando |
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 marchaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos marchabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos marcharías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos marcharás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos marches |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos marcharas / Vos marchase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no marches |