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Everything you need to improve your Spanish​
Poner is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to put”.
Below are all of the conjugations for poner 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 | Â to put |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | Â poner |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está poniendo) and past continuous (estaba poniendo). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. putting).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he puesto and hubiera puesto. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have put).
| Gerundio / Gerund | Â poniendo |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | Â puesto |
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 put” or “they put”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | pongo |
| Tú | pones |
| Él / Ella / Usted | pone |
| Nosotros / as | ponemos |
| Vosotros / as | ponéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | ponen |
| Vos | ponés |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I put” or “she put” 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 | puse | I put |
| Tú | pusiste | You put |
| Él / Ella / Usted | puso | He / she / you put |
| Nosotros / as | pusimos | We put |
| Vosotros / as | pusisteis | You put |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | pusieron | They / you put |
| Vos | pusiste | You put |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was putting” or “she was putting” 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 | ponÃa | I was putting |
| Tú | ponÃas | You were putting |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ponÃa | He was / she was / you were putting |
| Nosotros / as | ponÃamos | We were putting |
| Vosotros / as | ponÃais | You were putting |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | ponÃan | They / you were putting |
| Vos | ponÃas | You were putting |
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 put” and “she has put”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he puesto | I have put |
| Tú | has puesto | You have put |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha puesto | He has / she has / you have put |
| Nosotros / as | hemos puesto | We have put |
| Vosotros / as | habéis puesto | You have put |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han puesto | They / you have put |
| Vos | has puesto | You have put |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would put” or “she would put”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | pondrÃa | I would put |
| Tú | pondrÃas | You would put |
| Él / Ella / Usted | pondrÃa | He / she / you would put |
| Nosotros / as | pondrÃamos | We would put |
| Vosotros / as | pondrÃais | You would put |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | pondrÃan | They / you would put |
| Vos | pondrÃas | You would put |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will put” or “they will put”.
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 poner” means “They are going to put”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | pondré | I will put |
| Tú | pondrás | You will put |
| Él / Ella / Usted | pondrá | He / she / you will put |
| Nosotros / as | pondremos | We will put |
| Vosotros / as | pondréis | You will put |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | pondrán | They / you will put |
| Vos | pondrás | You will put |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | ponga |
| Tú | pongas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ponga |
| Nosotros / as | pongamos |
| Vosotros / as | pongáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | pongan |
| Vos | pongas |
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 | pusiera | pusiese |
| Tú | pusieras | pusiese |
| Él / Ella / Usted | pusiera | pusiese |
| Nosotros / as | pusiéramos | pusiésemos |
| Vosotros / as | pusierais | pusieseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | pusieran | pusiesen |
| Vos | pusieras | pusiese |
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 | pusiere |
| Tú | pusieres |
| Él / Ella / Usted | pusiere |
| Nosotros / as | pusiéremos |
| Vosotros / as | pusiereis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | pusieren |
| Vos | pusieres |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “put!” and “don’t put!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | pon | no pongas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ponga | no ponga |
| Nosotros / as | pongamos | no pongamos |
| Vosotros / as | poned | no pongáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | pongan | no pongan |
| Vos | poné | no pongas |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya puesto |
| Tú | hayas puesto |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya puesto |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos puesto |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis puesto |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan puesto |
| Vos | hayas puesto |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera puesto / hubiese puesto |
| Tú | hubieras puesto / hubieses puesto |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera puesto / hubiese puesto |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos puesto / hubiésemos puesto |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais puesto / hubieseis puesto |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran puesto / hubiesen puesto |
| Vos | hubieras puesto / hubieses puesto |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere puesto |
| Tú | hubieres puesto |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere puesto |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos puesto |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis puesto |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren puesto |
| Vos | hubieres puesto |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté poniendo |
| Tú | estés poniendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté poniendo |
| Nosotros / as | estemos poniendo |
| Vosotros / as | estéis poniendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén poniendo |
| Vos | estés poniendo |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera poniendo / estuviese poniendo |
| Tú | estuvieras poniendo / estuvieses poniendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera poniendo / estuviese poniendo |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos poniendo / estuviésamos poniendo |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais poniendo / estuvieseis poniendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera poniendo / estuviese poniendo |
| Vos | estuvieras poniendo / estuvieses poniendo |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere poniendo |
| Tú | estuvieres poniendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere poniendo |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos poniendo |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis poniendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere poniendo |
| Vos | estuvieres poniendo |
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 ponés |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos pusiste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos ponÃas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos pondrÃas |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos pondrás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos pongas |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos pusieras / Vos pusiese |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos poné |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no pongas |
