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Charlar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to chat, converse”.
Below are all of the conjugations for charlar 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 chat, converse |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | charlar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está charlando) and past continuous (estaba charlando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. chatting).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he charlado and hubiera charlado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have chatted).
| Gerundio / Gerund | charlando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | charlado |
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 chat” or “they chat”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | charlo |
| Tú | charlas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | charla |
| Nosotros / as | charlamos |
| Vosotros / as | charláis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | charlan |
| Vos | charlás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I chatted” or “she chatted” 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 | charlé | I chatted |
| Tú | charlaste | You chatted |
| Él / Ella / Usted | charló | He / she / you chatted |
| Nosotros / as | charlamos | We chatted |
| Vosotros / as | charlasteis | You chatted |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | charlaron | They / you chatted |
| Vos | charlaste | You chatted |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was chatting” or “she was chatting” 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 | charlaba | I was chatting |
| Tú | charlabas | You were chatting |
| Él / Ella / Usted | charlaba | He was / she was / you were chatting |
| Nosotros / as | charlábamos | We were chatting |
| Vosotros / as | charlabais | You were chatting |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | charlaban | They / you were chatting |
| Vos | charlabas | You were chatting |
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 chatted” and “she has chatted”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he charlado | I have chatted |
| Tú | has charlado | You have chatted |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha charlado | He has / she has / you have chatted |
| Nosotros / as | hemos charlado | We have chatted |
| Vosotros / as | habéis charlado | You have chatted |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han charlado | They / you have chatted |
| Vos | has charlado | You have chatted |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would chat” or “she would chat”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | charlaría | I would chat |
| Tú | charlarías | You would chat |
| Él / Ella / Usted | charlaría | He / she / you would chat |
| Nosotros / as | charlaríamos | We would chat |
| Vosotros / as | charlaríais | You would chat |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | charlarían | They / you would chat |
| Vos | charlarías | You would chat |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will chat” or “they will chat”.
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 charlar” means “They are going to chat”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | charlaré | I will chat |
| Tú | charlarás | You will chat |
| Él / Ella / Usted | charlará | He / she / you will chat |
| Nosotros / as | charlaremos | We will chat |
| Vosotros / as | charlaréis | You will chat |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | charlarán | They / you will chat |
| Vos | charlarás | You will chat |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | charle |
| Tú | charles |
| Él / Ella / Usted | charle |
| Nosotros / as | charlemos |
| Vosotros / as | charléis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | charlen |
| Vos | charles |
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 | charlara | charlase |
| Tú | charlaras | charlase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | charlara | charlase |
| Nosotros / as | charláramos | charlásemos |
| Vosotros / as | charlarais | charlaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | charlaran | charlasen |
| Vos | charlaras | charlase |
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 | charlare |
| Tú | charlares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | charlare |
| Nosotros / as | charláremos |
| Vosotros / as | charlareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | charlaren |
| Vos | charlares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “chat!” and “don’t chat!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | charla | no charles |
| Él / Ella / Usted | charle | no charle |
| Nosotros / as | charlemos | no charlemos |
| Vosotros / as | charlad | no charléis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | charlen | no charlen |
| Vos | charlá | no charles |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya charlado |
| Tú | hayas charlado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya charlado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos charlado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis charlado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan charlado |
| Vos | hayas charlado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera charlado / hubiese charlado |
| Tú | hubieras charlado / hubieses charlado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera charlado / hubiese charlado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos charlado / hubiésemos charlado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais charlado / hubieseis charlado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran charlado / hubiesen charlado |
| Vos | hubieras charlado / hubieses charlado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere charlado |
| Tú | hubieres charlado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere charlado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos charlado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis charlado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren charlado |
| Vos | hubieres charlado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté charlando |
| Tú | estés charlando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté charlando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos charlando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis charlando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén charlando |
| Vos | estés charlando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera charlando / estuviese charlando |
| Tú | estuvieras charlando / estuvieses charlando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera charlando / estuviese charlando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos charlando / estuviésamos charlando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais charlando / estuvieseis charlando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera charlando / estuviese charlando |
| Vos | estuvieras charlando / estuvieses charlando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere charlando |
| Tú | estuvieres charlando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere charlando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos charlando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis charlando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere charlando |
| Vos | estuvieres charlando |
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 charlás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos charlaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos charlabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos charlarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos charlarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos charles |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos charlaras / Vos charlase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos charlá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no charles |