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Confesar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to confess, acknowledge”.
Below are all of the conjugations for confesar 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 confess, acknowledge |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | confesar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está confesando) and past continuous (estaba confesando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. confessing).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he confesado and hubiera confesado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have confessed).
| Gerundio / Gerund | confesando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | confesado |
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 confess” or “they confess”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | confieso |
| Tú | confiesas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | confiesa |
| Nosotros / as | confesamos |
| Vosotros / as | confesáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | confiesan |
| Vos | confesás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I confessed” or “she confessed” 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 | confesé | I confessed |
| Tú | confesaste | You confessed |
| Él / Ella / Usted | confesó | He / she / you confessed |
| Nosotros / as | confesamos | We confessed |
| Vosotros / as | confesasteis | You confessed |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | confesaron | They / you confessed |
| Vos | confesaste | You confessed |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was confessing” or “she was confessing” 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 | confesaba | I was confessing |
| Tú | confesabas | You were confessing |
| Él / Ella / Usted | confesaba | He was / she was / you were confessing |
| Nosotros / as | confesábamos | We were confessing |
| Vosotros / as | confesabais | You were confessing |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | confesaban | They / you were confessing |
| Vos | confesabas | You were confessing |
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 confessed” and “she has confessed”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he confesado | I have confessed |
| Tú | has confesado | You have confessed |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha confesado | He has / she has / you have confessed |
| Nosotros / as | hemos confesado | We have confessed |
| Vosotros / as | habéis confesado | You have confessed |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han confesado | They / you have confessed |
| Vos | has confesado | You have confessed |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would confess” or “she would confess”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | confesaría | I would confess |
| Tú | confesarías | You would confess |
| Él / Ella / Usted | confesaría | He / she / you would confess |
| Nosotros / as | confesaríamos | We would confess |
| Vosotros / as | confesaríais | You would confess |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | confesarían | They / you would confess |
| Vos | confesarías | You would confess |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will confess” or “they will confess”.
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 confesar” means “They are going to confess”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | confesaré | I will confess |
| Tú | confesarás | You will confess |
| Él / Ella / Usted | confesará | He / she / you will confess |
| Nosotros / as | confesaremos | We will confess |
| Vosotros / as | confesaréis | You will confess |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | confesarán | They / you will confess |
| Vos | confesarás | You will confess |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | confiese |
| Tú | confieses |
| Él / Ella / Usted | confiese |
| Nosotros / as | confesemos |
| Vosotros / as | confeséis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | confiesen |
| Vos | confieses |
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 | confesara | confesase |
| Tú | confesaras | confesase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | confesara | confesase |
| Nosotros / as | confesáramos | confesásemos |
| Vosotros / as | confesarais | confesaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | confesaran | confesasen |
| Vos | confesaras | confesase |
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 | confesare |
| Tú | confesares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | confesare |
| Nosotros / as | confesáremos |
| Vosotros / as | confesareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | confesaren |
| Vos | confesares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “confess!” and “don’t confess!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | confiesa | no confieses |
| Él / Ella / Usted | confiese | no confiese |
| Nosotros / as | confesemos | no confesemos |
| Vosotros / as | confesad | no confeséis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | confiesen | no confiesen |
| Vos | confesá | no confieses |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya confesado |
| Tú | hayas confesado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya confesado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos confesado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis confesado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan confesado |
| Vos | hayas confesado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera confesado / hubiese confesado |
| Tú | hubieras confesado / hubieses confesado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera confesado / hubiese confesado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos confesado / hubiésemos confesado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais confesado / hubieseis confesado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran confesado / hubiesen confesado |
| Vos | hubieras confesado / hubieses confesado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere confesado |
| Tú | hubieres confesado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere confesado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos confesado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis confesado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren confesado |
| Vos | hubieres confesado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté confesando |
| Tú | estés confesando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté confesando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos confesando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis confesando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén confesando |
| Vos | estés confesando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera confesando / estuviese confesando |
| Tú | estuvieras confesando / estuvieses confesando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera confesando / estuviese confesando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos confesando / estuviésamos confesando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais confesando / estuvieseis confesando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera confesando / estuviese confesando |
| Vos | estuvieras confesando / estuvieses confesando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere confesando |
| Tú | estuvieres confesando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere confesando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos confesando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis confesando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere confesando |
| Vos | estuvieres confesando |
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 confesás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos confesaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos confesabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos confesarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos confesarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos confieses |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos confesaras / Vos confesase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos confesá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no confieses |