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Saber is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to know (information)”.
Below are all of the conjugations for saber 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 know (information) |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | saber |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está sabiendo) and past continuous (estaba sabiendo). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. knowing).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he sabido and hubiera sabido. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have known).
| Gerundio / Gerund | sabiendo |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | sabido |
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 know” or “they know”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | sé |
| Tú | sabes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | sabe |
| Nosotros / as | sabemos |
| Vosotros / as | sabéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | saben |
| Vos | sabés |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I knew” or “she knew” 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 | supe | I knew |
| Tú | supiste | You knew |
| Él / Ella / Usted | supo | He / she / you knew |
| Nosotros / as | supimos | We knew |
| Vosotros / as | supisteis | You knew |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | supieron | They / you knew |
| Vos | supiste | You knew |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was knowing” or “she was knowing” 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 | sabía | I was knowing |
| Tú | sabías | You were knowing |
| Él / Ella / Usted | sabía | He was / she was / you were knowing |
| Nosotros / as | sabíamos | We were knowing |
| Vosotros / as | sabíais | You were knowing |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | sabían | They / you were knowing |
| Vos | sabías | You were knowing |
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 known” and “she has known”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he sabido | I have known |
| Tú | has sabido | You have known |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha sabido | He has / she has / you have known |
| Nosotros / as | hemos sabido | We have known |
| Vosotros / as | habéis sabido | You have known |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han sabido | They / you have known |
| Vos | has sabido | You have known |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would know” or “she would know”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | sabría | I would know |
| Tú | sabrías | You would know |
| Él / Ella / Usted | sabría | He / she / you would know |
| Nosotros / as | sabríamos | We would know |
| Vosotros / as | sabríais | You would know |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | sabrían | They / you would know |
| Vos | sabrías | You would know |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will know” or “they will know”.
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 saber” means “They are going to know”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | sabré | I will know |
| Tú | sabrás | You will know |
| Él / Ella / Usted | sabrá | He / she / you will know |
| Nosotros / as | sabremos | We will know |
| Vosotros / as | sabréis | You will know |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | sabrán | They / you will know |
| Vos | sabrás | You will know |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | sepa |
| Tú | sepas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | sepa |
| Nosotros / as | sepamos |
| Vosotros / as | sepáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | sepan |
| Vos | sepas |
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 | supiera | supiese |
| Tú | supieras | supiese |
| Él / Ella / Usted | supiera | supiese |
| Nosotros / as | supiéramos | supiésemos |
| Vosotros / as | supierais | supieseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | supieran | supiesen |
| Vos | supieras | supiese |
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 | supiere |
| Tú | supieres |
| Él / Ella / Usted | supiere |
| Nosotros / as | supiéremos |
| Vosotros / as | supiereis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | supieren |
| Vos | supieres |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “know!” and “don’t know!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | sabe | no sepas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | sepa | no sepa |
| Nosotros / as | sepamos | no sepamos |
| Vosotros / as | sabed | no sepáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | sepan | no sepan |
| Vos | sabé | no sepas |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya sabido |
| Tú | hayas sabido |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya sabido |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos sabido |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis sabido |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan sabido |
| Vos | hayas sabido |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera sabido / hubiese sabido |
| Tú | hubieras sabido / hubieses sabido |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera sabido / hubiese sabido |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos sabido / hubiésemos sabido |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais sabido / hubieseis sabido |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran sabido / hubiesen sabido |
| Vos | hubieras sabido / hubieses sabido |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere sabido |
| Tú | hubieres sabido |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere sabido |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos sabido |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis sabido |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren sabido |
| Vos | hubieres sabido |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté sabiendo |
| Tú | estés sabiendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté sabiendo |
| Nosotros / as | estemos sabiendo |
| Vosotros / as | estéis sabiendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén sabiendo |
| Vos | estés sabiendo |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera sabiendo / estuviese sabiendo |
| Tú | estuvieras sabiendo / estuvieses sabiendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera sabiendo / estuviese sabiendo |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos sabiendo / estuviésamos sabiendo |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais sabiendo / estuvieseis sabiendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera sabiendo / estuviese sabiendo |
| Vos | estuvieras sabiendo / estuvieses sabiendo |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere sabiendo |
| Tú | estuvieres sabiendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere sabiendo |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos sabiendo |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis sabiendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere sabiendo |
| Vos | estuvieres sabiendo |
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 sabés |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos supiste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos sabías |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos sabrías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos sabrás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos sepas |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos supieras / Vos supiese |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos sabé |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no sepas |
