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Cenar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to eat dinner, dine”.
Below are all of the conjugations for cenar 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 eat dinner, dine |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | cenar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está cenando) and past continuous (estaba cenando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. eating dinner).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he cenado and hubiera cenado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have eaten dinner).
| Gerundio / Gerund | cenando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | cenado |
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 eat dinner” or “they eat dinner”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | ceno |
| Tú | cenas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cena |
| Nosotros / as | cenamos |
| Vosotros / as | cenáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cenan |
| Vos | cenás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I ate dinner” or “she ate dinner” 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 | cené | I ate dinner |
| Tú | cenaste | You ate dinner |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cenó | He / she / you ate dinner |
| Nosotros / as | cenamos | We ate dinner |
| Vosotros / as | cenasteis | You ate dinner |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cenaron | They / you ate dinner |
| Vos | cenaste | You ate dinner |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was eating dinner” or “she was eating dinner” 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 | cenaba | I was eating dinner |
| Tú | cenabas | You were eating dinner |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cenaba | He was / she was / you were eating dinner |
| Nosotros / as | cenábamos | We were eating dinner |
| Vosotros / as | cenabais | You were eating dinner |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cenaban | They / you were eating dinner |
| Vos | cenabas | You were eating dinner |
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 eaten dinner” and “she has eaten dinner”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he cenado | I have eaten dinner |
| Tú | has cenado | You have eaten dinner |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha cenado | He has / she has / you have eaten dinner |
| Nosotros / as | hemos cenado | We have eaten dinner |
| Vosotros / as | habéis cenado | You have eaten dinner |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han cenado | They / you have eaten dinner |
| Vos | has cenado | You have eaten dinner |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would eat dinner” or “she would eat dinner”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | cenaría | I would eat dinner |
| Tú | cenarías | You would eat dinner |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cenaría | He / she / you would eat dinner |
| Nosotros / as | cenaríamos | We would eat dinner |
| Vosotros / as | cenaríais | You would eat dinner |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cenarían | They / you would eat dinner |
| Vos | cenarías | You would eat dinner |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will eat dinner” or “they will eat dinner”.
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 cenar” means “They are going to eat dinner”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | cenaré | I will eat dinner |
| Tú | cenarás | You will eat dinner |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cenará | He / she / you will eat dinner |
| Nosotros / as | cenaremos | We will eat dinner |
| Vosotros / as | cenaréis | You will eat dinner |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cenarán | They / you will eat dinner |
| Vos | cenarás | You will eat dinner |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | cene |
| Tú | cenes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cene |
| Nosotros / as | cenemos |
| Vosotros / as | cenéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cenen |
| Vos | cenes |
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 | cenara | cenase |
| Tú | cenaras | cenase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cenara | cenase |
| Nosotros / as | cenáramos | cenásemos |
| Vosotros / as | cenarais | cenaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cenaran | cenasen |
| Vos | cenaras | cenase |
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 | cenare |
| Tú | cenares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cenare |
| Nosotros / as | cenáremos |
| Vosotros / as | cenareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cenaren |
| Vos | cenares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “eat dinner!” and “don’t eat dinner!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | cena | no cenes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cene | no cene |
| Nosotros / as | cenemos | no cenemos |
| Vosotros / as | cenad | no cenéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cenen | no cenen |
| Vos | cená | no cenes |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya cenado |
| Tú | hayas cenado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya cenado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos cenado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis cenado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan cenado |
| Vos | hayas cenado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera cenado / hubiese cenado |
| Tú | hubieras cenado / hubieses cenado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera cenado / hubiese cenado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos cenado / hubiésemos cenado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais cenado / hubieseis cenado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran cenado / hubiesen cenado |
| Vos | hubieras cenado / hubieses cenado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere cenado |
| Tú | hubieres cenado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere cenado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos cenado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis cenado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren cenado |
| Vos | hubieres cenado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté cenando |
| Tú | estés cenando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté cenando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos cenando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis cenando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén cenando |
| Vos | estés cenando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera cenando / estuviese cenando |
| Tú | estuvieras cenando / estuvieses cenando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera cenando / estuviese cenando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos cenando / estuviésamos cenando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais cenando / estuvieseis cenando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera cenando / estuviese cenando |
| Vos | estuvieras cenando / estuvieses cenando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere cenando |
| Tú | estuvieres cenando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere cenando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos cenando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis cenando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere cenando |
| Vos | estuvieres cenando |
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 cenás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos cenaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos cenabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos cenarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos cenarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos cenes |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos cenaras / Vos cenase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos cená |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no cenes |