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Bailar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to dance”.
Below are all of the conjugations for bailar 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 dance |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | bailar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está bailando) and past continuous (estaba bailando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. dancing).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he bailado and hubiera bailado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have danced).
| Gerundio / Gerund | bailando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | bailado |
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 dance” or “they dance”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | bailo |
| Tú | bailas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | baila |
| Nosotros / as | bailamos |
| Vosotros / as | bailáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | bailan |
| Vos | bailás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I danced” or “she danced” 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 | bailé | I danced |
| Tú | bailaste | You danced |
| Él / Ella / Usted | bailó | He / she / you danced |
| Nosotros / as | bailamos | We danced |
| Vosotros / as | bailasteis | You danced |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | bailaron | They / you danced |
| Vos | bailaste | You danced |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was dancing” or “she was dancing” 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 | bailaba | I was dancing |
| Tú | bailabas | You were dancing |
| Él / Ella / Usted | bailaba | He was / she was / you were dancing |
| Nosotros / as | bailábamos | We were dancing |
| Vosotros / as | bailabais | You were dancing |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | bailaban | They / you were dancing |
| Vos | bailabas | You were dancing |
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 danced” and “she has danced”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he bailado | I have danced |
| Tú | has bailado | You have danced |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha bailado | He has / she has / you have danced |
| Nosotros / as | hemos bailado | We have danced |
| Vosotros / as | habéis bailado | You have danced |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han bailado | They / you have danced |
| Vos | has bailado | You have danced |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would dance” or “she would dance”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | bailaría | I would dance |
| Tú | bailarías | You would dance |
| Él / Ella / Usted | bailaría | He / she / you would dance |
| Nosotros / as | bailaríamos | We would dance |
| Vosotros / as | bailaríais | You would dance |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | bailarían | They / you would dance |
| Vos | bailarías | You would dance |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will dance” or “they will dance”.
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 bailar” means “They are going to dance”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | bailaré | I will dance |
| Tú | bailarás | You will dance |
| Él / Ella / Usted | bailará | He / she / you will dance |
| Nosotros / as | bailaremos | We will dance |
| Vosotros / as | bailaréis | You will dance |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | bailarán | They / you will dance |
| Vos | bailarás | You will dance |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | baile |
| Tú | bailes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | baile |
| Nosotros / as | bailemos |
| Vosotros / as | bailéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | bailen |
| Vos | bailes |
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 | bailara | bailase |
| Tú | bailaras | bailase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | bailara | bailase |
| Nosotros / as | bailáramos | bailásemos |
| Vosotros / as | bailarais | bailaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | bailaran | bailasen |
| Vos | bailaras | bailase |
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 | bailare |
| Tú | bailares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | bailare |
| Nosotros / as | bailáremos |
| Vosotros / as | bailareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | bailaren |
| Vos | bailares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “dance!” and “don’t dance!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | baila | no bailes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | baile | no baile |
| Nosotros / as | bailemos | no bailemos |
| Vosotros / as | bailad | no bailéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | bailen | no bailen |
| Vos | bailá | no bailes |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya bailado |
| Tú | hayas bailado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya bailado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos bailado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis bailado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan bailado |
| Vos | hayas bailado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera bailado / hubiese bailado |
| Tú | hubieras bailado / hubieses bailado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera bailado / hubiese bailado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos bailado / hubiésemos bailado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais bailado / hubieseis bailado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran bailado / hubiesen bailado |
| Vos | hubieras bailado / hubieses bailado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere bailado |
| Tú | hubieres bailado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere bailado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos bailado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis bailado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren bailado |
| Vos | hubieres bailado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté bailando |
| Tú | estés bailando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté bailando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos bailando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis bailando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén bailando |
| Vos | estés bailando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera bailando / estuviese bailando |
| Tú | estuvieras bailando / estuvieses bailando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera bailando / estuviese bailando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos bailando / estuviésamos bailando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais bailando / estuvieseis bailando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera bailando / estuviese bailando |
| Vos | estuvieras bailando / estuvieses bailando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere bailando |
| Tú | estuvieres bailando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere bailando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos bailando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis bailando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere bailando |
| Vos | estuvieres bailando |
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 bailás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos bailaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos bailabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos bailarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos bailarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos bailes |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos bailaras / Vos bailase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos bailá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no bailes |