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Masticar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to chew, crunch, masticate, munch”.
Below are all of the conjugations for masticar 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 chew, crunch, masticate, munch |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | masticar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está masticando) and past continuous (estaba masticando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. chewing).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he masticado and hubiera masticado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have chewed).
| Gerundio / Gerund | masticando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | masticado |
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 chew” or “they chew”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | mastico |
| Tú | masticas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | mastica |
| Nosotros / as | masticamos |
| Vosotros / as | masticáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | mastican |
| Vos |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I chewed” or “she chewed” 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 | mastiqué | I chewed |
| Tú | masticaste | You chewed |
| Él / Ella / Usted | masticó | He / she / you chewed |
| Nosotros / as | masticamos | We chewed |
| Vosotros / as | masticasteis | You chewed |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | masticaron | They / you chewed |
| Vos | masticaste | You chewed |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was chewing” or “she was chewing” 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 | masticaba | I was chewing |
| Tú | masticabas | You were chewing |
| Él / Ella / Usted | masticaba | He was / she was / you were chewing |
| Nosotros / as | masticábamos | We were chewing |
| Vosotros / as | masticabais | You were chewing |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | masticaban | They / you were chewing |
| Vos | masticabas | You were chewing |
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 chewed” and “she has chewed”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he masticado | I have chewed |
| Tú | has masticado | You have chewed |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha masticado | He has / she has / you have chewed |
| Nosotros / as | hemos masticado | We have chewed |
| Vosotros / as | habéis masticado | You have chewed |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han masticado | They / you have chewed |
| Vos | has masticado | You have chewed |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would chew” or “she would chew”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | masticaría | I would chew |
| Tú | masticarías | You would chew |
| Él / Ella / Usted | masticaría | He / she / you would chew |
| Nosotros / as | masticaríamos | We would chew |
| Vosotros / as | masticaríais | You would chew |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | masticarían | They / you would chew |
| Vos | masticarías | You would chew |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will chew” or “they will chew”.
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 masticar” means “They are going to chew”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | masticaré | I will chew |
| Tú | masticarás | You will chew |
| Él / Ella / Usted | masticará | He / she / you will chew |
| Nosotros / as | masticaremos | We will chew |
| Vosotros / as | masticaréis | You will chew |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | masticarán | They / you will chew |
| Vos | masticarás | You will chew |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | mastique |
| Tú | mastiques |
| Él / Ella / Usted | mastique |
| Nosotros / as | mastiquemos |
| Vosotros / as | mastiquéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | mastiquen |
| Vos | mastiques |
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 | masticara | masticase |
| Tú | masticaras | masticase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | masticara | masticase |
| Nosotros / as | masticáramos | masticásemos |
| Vosotros / as | masticarais | masticaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | masticaran | masticasen |
| Vos | masticaras | masticase |
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 | masticare |
| Tú | masticares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | masticare |
| Nosotros / as | masticáremos |
| Vosotros / as | masticareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | masticaren |
| Vos | masticares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “chew!” and “don’t chew!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | mastica | no mastiques |
| Él / Ella / Usted | mastique | no mastique |
| Nosotros / as | mastiquemos | no mastiquemos |
| Vosotros / as | masticad | no mastiquéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | mastiquen | no mastiquen |
| Vos | no mastiques |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya masticado |
| Tú | hayas masticado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya masticado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos masticado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis masticado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan masticado |
| Vos | hayas masticado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera masticado / hubiese masticado |
| Tú | hubieras masticado / hubieses masticado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera masticado / hubiese masticado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos masticado / hubiésemos masticado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais masticado / hubieseis masticado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran masticado / hubiesen masticado |
| Vos | hubieras masticado / hubieses masticado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere masticado |
| Tú | hubieres masticado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere masticado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos masticado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis masticado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren masticado |
| Vos | hubieres masticado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté masticando |
| Tú | estés masticando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté masticando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos masticando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis masticando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén masticando |
| Vos | estés masticando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera masticando / estuviese masticando |
| Tú | estuvieras masticando / estuvieses masticando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera masticando / estuviese masticando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos masticando / estuviésamos masticando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais masticando / estuvieseis masticando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera masticando / estuviese masticando |
| Vos | estuvieras masticando / estuvieses masticando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere masticando |
| Tú | estuvieres masticando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere masticando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos masticando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis masticando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere masticando |
| Vos | estuvieres masticando |
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 masticaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos masticabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos masticarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos masticarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos mastiques |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos masticaras / Vos masticase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no mastiques |