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Columpiar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to swing”.
Below are all of the conjugations for columpiar 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 swing |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | columpiar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está columpiando) and past continuous (estaba columpiando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. swinging).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he columpiado and hubiera columpiado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have swung).
| Gerundio / Gerund | columpiando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | columpiado |
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 swing” or “they swing”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | columpio |
| Tú | columpias |
| Él / Ella / Usted | columpia |
| Nosotros / as | columpiamos |
| Vosotros / as | columpiáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | columpian |
| Vos | columpiás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I swung” or “she swung” 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 | columpié | I swung |
| Tú | columpiaste | You swung |
| Él / Ella / Usted | columpió | He / she / you swung |
| Nosotros / as | columpiamos | We swung |
| Vosotros / as | columpiasteis | You swung |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | columpiaron | They / you swung |
| Vos | columpiaste | You swung |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was swinging” or “she was swinging” 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 | columpiaba | I was swinging |
| Tú | columpiabas | You were swinging |
| Él / Ella / Usted | columpiaba | He was / she was / you were swinging |
| Nosotros / as | columpiábamos | We were swinging |
| Vosotros / as | columpiabais | You were swinging |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | columpiaban | They / you were swinging |
| Vos | columpiabas | You were swinging |
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 swung” and “she has swung”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he columpiado | I have swung |
| Tú | has columpiado | You have swung |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha columpiado | He has / she has / you have swung |
| Nosotros / as | hemos columpiado | We have swung |
| Vosotros / as | habéis columpiado | You have swung |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han columpiado | They / you have swung |
| Vos | has columpiado | You have swung |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would swing” or “she would swing”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | columpiaría | I would swing |
| Tú | columpiarías | You would swing |
| Él / Ella / Usted | columpiaría | He / she / you would swing |
| Nosotros / as | columpiaríamos | We would swing |
| Vosotros / as | columpiaríais | You would swing |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | columpiarían | They / you would swing |
| Vos | columpiarías | You would swing |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will swing” or “they will swing”.
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 columpiar” means “They are going to swing”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | columpiaré | I will swing |
| Tú | columpiarás | You will swing |
| Él / Ella / Usted | columpiará | He / she / you will swing |
| Nosotros / as | columpiaremos | We will swing |
| Vosotros / as | columpiaréis | You will swing |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | columpiarán | They / you will swing |
| Vos | columpiarás | You will swing |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | columpie |
| Tú | columpies |
| Él / Ella / Usted | columpie |
| Nosotros / as | columpiemos |
| Vosotros / as | columpiéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | columpien |
| Vos | columpies |
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 | columpiara | columpiase |
| Tú | columpiaras | columpiase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | columpiara | columpiase |
| Nosotros / as | columpiáramos | columpiásemos |
| Vosotros / as | columpiarais | columpiaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | columpiaran | columpiasen |
| Vos | columpiaras | columpiase |
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 | columpiare |
| Tú | columpiares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | columpiare |
| Nosotros / as | columpiáremos |
| Vosotros / as | columpiareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | columpiaren |
| Vos | columpiares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “swing!” and “don’t swing!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | columpia | no columpies |
| Él / Ella / Usted | columpie | no columpie |
| Nosotros / as | columpiemos | no columpiemos |
| Vosotros / as | columpiad | no columpiéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | columpien | no columpien |
| Vos | columpiá | no columpies |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya columpiado |
| Tú | hayas columpiado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya columpiado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos columpiado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis columpiado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan columpiado |
| Vos | hayas columpiado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera columpiado / hubiese columpiado |
| Tú | hubieras columpiado / hubieses columpiado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera columpiado / hubiese columpiado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos columpiado / hubiésemos columpiado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais columpiado / hubieseis columpiado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran columpiado / hubiesen columpiado |
| Vos | hubieras columpiado / hubieses columpiado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere columpiado |
| Tú | hubieres columpiado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere columpiado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos columpiado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis columpiado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren columpiado |
| Vos | hubieres columpiado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté columpiando |
| Tú | estés columpiando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté columpiando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos columpiando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis columpiando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén columpiando |
| Vos | estés columpiando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera columpiando / estuviese columpiando |
| Tú | estuvieras columpiando / estuvieses columpiando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera columpiando / estuviese columpiando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos columpiando / estuviésamos columpiando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais columpiando / estuvieseis columpiando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera columpiando / estuviese columpiando |
| Vos | estuvieras columpiando / estuvieses columpiando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere columpiando |
| Tú | estuvieres columpiando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere columpiando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos columpiando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis columpiando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere columpiando |
| Vos | estuvieres columpiando |
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 columpiás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos columpiaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos columpiabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos columpiarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos columpiarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos columpies |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos columpiaras / Vos columpiase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos columpiá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no columpies |