Everything you need to improve your Spanish
Menu
Everything you need to improve your Spanish
Recordar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to remember”.
Below are all of the conjugations for recordar 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 remember |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | recordar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está recordando) and past continuous (estaba recordando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. remembering).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he recordado and hubiera recordado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have remembered).
| Gerundio / Gerund | recordando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | recordado |
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 remember” or “they remember”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | recuerdo |
| Tú | recuerdas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | recuerda |
| Nosotros / as | recordamos |
| Vosotros / as | recordáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | recuerdan |
| Vos | recordás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I remembered” or “she remembered” 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 | recordé | I remembered |
| Tú | recordaste | You remembered |
| Él / Ella / Usted | recordó | He / she / you remembered |
| Nosotros / as | recordamos | We remembered |
| Vosotros / as | recordasteis | You remembered |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | recordaron | They / you remembered |
| Vos | recordaste | You remembered |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was remembering” or “she was remembering” 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 | recordaba | I was remembering |
| Tú | recordabas | You were remembering |
| Él / Ella / Usted | recordaba | He was / she was / you were remembering |
| Nosotros / as | recordábamos | We were remembering |
| Vosotros / as | recordabais | You were remembering |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | recordaban | They / you were remembering |
| Vos | recordabas | You were remembering |
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 remembered” and “she has remembered”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he recordado | I have remembered |
| Tú | has recordado | You have remembered |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha recordado | He has / she has / you have remembered |
| Nosotros / as | hemos recordado | We have remembered |
| Vosotros / as | habéis recordado | You have remembered |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han recordado | They / you have remembered |
| Vos | has recordado | You have remembered |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would remember” or “she would remember”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | recordaría | I would remember |
| Tú | recordarías | You would remember |
| Él / Ella / Usted | recordaría | He / she / you would remember |
| Nosotros / as | recordaríamos | We would remember |
| Vosotros / as | recordaríais | You would remember |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | recordarían | They / you would remember |
| Vos | recordarías | You would remember |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will remember” or “they will remember”.
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 recordar” means “They are going to remember”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | recordaré | I will remember |
| Tú | recordarás | You will remember |
| Él / Ella / Usted | recordará | He / she / you will remember |
| Nosotros / as | recordaremos | We will remember |
| Vosotros / as | recordaréis | You will remember |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | recordarán | They / you will remember |
| Vos | recordarás | You will remember |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | recuerde |
| Tú | recuerdes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | recuerde |
| Nosotros / as | recordemos |
| Vosotros / as | recordéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | recuerden |
| Vos | recuerdes |
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 | recordara | recordase |
| Tú | recordaras | recordase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | recordara | recordase |
| Nosotros / as | recordáramos | recordásemos |
| Vosotros / as | recordarais | recordaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | recordaran | recordasen |
| Vos | recordaras | recordase |
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 | recordare |
| Tú | recordares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | recordare |
| Nosotros / as | recordáremos |
| Vosotros / as | recordareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | recordaren |
| Vos | recordares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “remember!” and “don’t remember!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | recuerda | no recuerdes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | recuerde | no recuerde |
| Nosotros / as | recordemos | no recordemos |
| Vosotros / as | recordad | no recordéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | recuerden | no recuerden |
| Vos | recordá | no recuerdes |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya recordado |
| Tú | hayas recordado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya recordado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos recordado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis recordado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan recordado |
| Vos | hayas recordado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera recordado / hubiese recordado |
| Tú | hubieras recordado / hubieses recordado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera recordado / hubiese recordado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos recordado / hubiésemos recordado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais recordado / hubieseis recordado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran recordado / hubiesen recordado |
| Vos | hubieras recordado / hubieses recordado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere recordado |
| Tú | hubieres recordado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere recordado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos recordado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis recordado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren recordado |
| Vos | hubieres recordado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté recordando |
| Tú | estés recordando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté recordando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos recordando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis recordando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén recordando |
| Vos | estés recordando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera recordando / estuviese recordando |
| Tú | estuvieras recordando / estuvieses recordando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera recordando / estuviese recordando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos recordando / estuviésamos recordando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais recordando / estuvieseis recordando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera recordando / estuviese recordando |
| Vos | estuvieras recordando / estuvieses recordando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere recordando |
| Tú | estuvieres recordando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere recordando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos recordando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis recordando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere recordando |
| Vos | estuvieres recordando |
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 recordás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos recordaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos recordabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos recordarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos recordarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos recuerdes |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos recordaras / Vos recordase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos recordá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no recuerdes |
