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Cavar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to dig, delve into”.
Below are all of the conjugations for cavar 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 dig, delve into |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | cavar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está cavando) and past continuous (estaba cavando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. digging).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he cavado and hubiera cavado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have dug).
| Gerundio / Gerund | cavando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | cavado |
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 dig” or “they dig”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | cavo |
| Tú | cavas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cava |
| Nosotros / as | cavamos |
| Vosotros / as | caváis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cavan |
| Vos | cavás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I dug” or “she dug” 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 | cavé | I dug |
| Tú | cavaste | You dug |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cavó | He / she / you dug |
| Nosotros / as | cavamos | We dug |
| Vosotros / as | cavasteis | You dug |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cavaron | They / you dug |
| Vos | cavaste | You dug |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was digging” or “she was digging” 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 | cavaba | I was digging |
| Tú | cavabas | You were digging |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cavaba | He was / she was / you were digging |
| Nosotros / as | cavábamos | We were digging |
| Vosotros / as | cavabais | You were digging |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cavaban | They / you were digging |
| Vos | cavabas | You were digging |
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 dug” and “she has dug”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he cavado | I have dug |
| Tú | has cavado | You have dug |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha cavado | He has / she has / you have dug |
| Nosotros / as | hemos cavado | We have dug |
| Vosotros / as | habéis cavado | You have dug |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han cavado | They / you have dug |
| Vos | has cavado | You have dug |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would dig” or “she would dig”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | cavaría | I would dig |
| Tú | cavarías | You would dig |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cavaría | He / she / you would dig |
| Nosotros / as | cavaríamos | We would dig |
| Vosotros / as | cavaríais | You would dig |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cavarían | They / you would dig |
| Vos | cavarías | You would dig |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will dig” or “they will dig”.
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 cavar” means “They are going to dig”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | cavaré | I will dig |
| Tú | cavarás | You will dig |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cavará | He / she / you will dig |
| Nosotros / as | cavaremos | We will dig |
| Vosotros / as | cavaréis | You will dig |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cavarán | They / you will dig |
| Vos | cavarás | You will dig |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | cave |
| Tú | caves |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cave |
| Nosotros / as | cavemos |
| Vosotros / as | cavéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | caven |
| Vos | caves |
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 | cavara | cavase |
| Tú | cavaras | cavase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cavara | cavase |
| Nosotros / as | caváramos | cavásemos |
| Vosotros / as | cavarais | cavaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cavaran | cavasen |
| Vos | cavaras | cavase |
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 | cavare |
| Tú | cavares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cavare |
| Nosotros / as | caváremos |
| Vosotros / as | cavareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cavaren |
| Vos | cavares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “dig!” and “don’t dig!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | cava | no caves |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cave | no cave |
| Nosotros / as | cavemos | no cavemos |
| Vosotros / as | cavad | no cavéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | caven | no caven |
| Vos | cavá | no caves |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya cavado |
| Tú | hayas cavado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya cavado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos cavado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis cavado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan cavado |
| Vos | hayas cavado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera cavado / hubiese cavado |
| Tú | hubieras cavado / hubieses cavado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera cavado / hubiese cavado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos cavado / hubiésemos cavado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais cavado / hubieseis cavado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran cavado / hubiesen cavado |
| Vos | hubieras cavado / hubieses cavado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere cavado |
| Tú | hubieres cavado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere cavado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos cavado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis cavado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren cavado |
| Vos | hubieres cavado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté cavando |
| Tú | estés cavando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté cavando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos cavando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis cavando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén cavando |
| Vos | estés cavando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera cavando / estuviese cavando |
| Tú | estuvieras cavando / estuvieses cavando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera cavando / estuviese cavando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos cavando / estuviésamos cavando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais cavando / estuvieseis cavando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera cavando / estuviese cavando |
| Vos | estuvieras cavando / estuvieses cavando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere cavando |
| Tú | estuvieres cavando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere cavando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos cavando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis cavando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere cavando |
| Vos | estuvieres cavando |
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 cavás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos cavaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos cavabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos cavarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos cavarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos caves |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos cavaras / Vos cavase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos cavá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no caves |