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Mostrar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to show, display”.
Below are all of the conjugations for mostrar 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 show, display |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | mostrar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está mostrando) and past continuous (estaba mostrando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. showing).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he mostrado and hubiera mostrado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have shown).
| Gerundio / Gerund | mostrando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | mostrado |
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 show” or “they show”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | muestro |
| Tú | muestras |
| Él / Ella / Usted | muestra |
| Nosotros / as | mostramos |
| Vosotros / as | mostráis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | muestran |
| Vos |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I showed” or “she showed” 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 | mostré | I showed |
| Tú | mostraste | You showed |
| Él / Ella / Usted | mostró | He / she / you showed |
| Nosotros / as | mostramos | We showed |
| Vosotros / as | mostrasteis | You showed |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | mostraron | They / you showed |
| Vos | mostraste | You showed |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was showing” or “she was showing” 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 | mostraba | I was showing |
| Tú | mostrabas | You were showing |
| Él / Ella / Usted | mostraba | He was / she was / you were showing |
| Nosotros / as | mostrábamos | We were showing |
| Vosotros / as | mostrabais | You were showing |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | mostraban | They / you were showing |
| Vos | mostrabas | You were showing |
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 shown” and “she has shown”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he mostrado | I have shown |
| Tú | has mostrado | You have shown |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha mostrado | He has / she has / you have shown |
| Nosotros / as | hemos mostrado | We have shown |
| Vosotros / as | habéis mostrado | You have shown |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han mostrado | They / you have shown |
| Vos | has mostrado | You have shown |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would show” or “she would show”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | mostraría | I would show |
| Tú | mostrarías | You would show |
| Él / Ella / Usted | mostraría | He / she / you would show |
| Nosotros / as | mostraríamos | We would show |
| Vosotros / as | mostraríais | You would show |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | mostrarían | They / you would show |
| Vos | mostrarías | You would show |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will show” or “they will show”.
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 mostrar” means “They are going to show”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | mostraré | I will show |
| Tú | mostrarás | You will show |
| Él / Ella / Usted | mostrará | He / she / you will show |
| Nosotros / as | mostraremos | We will show |
| Vosotros / as | mostraréis | You will show |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | mostrarán | They / you will show |
| Vos | mostrarás | You will show |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | muestre |
| Tú | muestres |
| Él / Ella / Usted | muestre |
| Nosotros / as | mostremos |
| Vosotros / as | mostréis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | muestren |
| Vos | muestres |
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 | mostrara | mostrase |
| Tú | mostraras | mostrase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | mostrara | mostrase |
| Nosotros / as | mostráramos | mostrásemos |
| Vosotros / as | mostrarais | mostraseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | mostraran | mostrasen |
| Vos | mostraras | mostrase |
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 | mostrare |
| Tú | mostrares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | mostrare |
| Nosotros / as | mostráremos |
| Vosotros / as | mostrareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | mostraren |
| Vos | mostrares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “show!” and “don’t show!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | muestra | no muestres |
| Él / Ella / Usted | muestre | no muestre |
| Nosotros / as | mostremos | no mostremos |
| Vosotros / as | mostrad | no mostréis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | muestren | no muestren |
| Vos | no muestres |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya mostrado |
| Tú | hayas mostrado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya mostrado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos mostrado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis mostrado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan mostrado |
| Vos | hayas mostrado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera mostrado / hubiese mostrado |
| Tú | hubieras mostrado / hubieses mostrado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera mostrado / hubiese mostrado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos mostrado / hubiésemos mostrado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais mostrado / hubieseis mostrado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran mostrado / hubiesen mostrado |
| Vos | hubieras mostrado / hubieses mostrado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere mostrado |
| Tú | hubieres mostrado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere mostrado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos mostrado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis mostrado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren mostrado |
| Vos | hubieres mostrado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté mostrando |
| Tú | estés mostrando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté mostrando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos mostrando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis mostrando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén mostrando |
| Vos | estés mostrando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera mostrando / estuviese mostrando |
| Tú | estuvieras mostrando / estuvieses mostrando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera mostrando / estuviese mostrando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos mostrando / estuviésamos mostrando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais mostrando / estuvieseis mostrando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera mostrando / estuviese mostrando |
| Vos | estuvieras mostrando / estuvieses mostrando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere mostrando |
| Tú | estuvieres mostrando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere mostrando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos mostrando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis mostrando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere mostrando |
| Vos | estuvieres mostrando |
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 mostraste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos mostrabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos mostrarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos mostrarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos muestres |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos mostraras / Vos mostrase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no muestres |