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Contestar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to answer, reply”.
Below are all of the conjugations for contestar 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 answer, reply |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | contestar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está contestando) and past continuous (estaba contestando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. answering).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he contestado and hubiera contestado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have answered).
| Gerundio / Gerund | contestando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | contestado |
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 answer” or “they answer”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | contesto |
| Tú | contestas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | contesta |
| Nosotros / as | contestamos |
| Vosotros / as | contestáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | contestan |
| Vos | contestás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I answered” or “she answered” 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 | contesté | I answered |
| Tú | contestaste | You answered |
| Él / Ella / Usted | contestó | He / she / you answered |
| Nosotros / as | contestamos | We answered |
| Vosotros / as | contestasteis | You answered |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | contestaron | They / you answered |
| Vos | contestaste | You answered |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was answering” or “she was answering” 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 | contestaba | I was answering |
| Tú | contestabas | You were answering |
| Él / Ella / Usted | contestaba | He was / she was / you were answering |
| Nosotros / as | contestábamos | We were answering |
| Vosotros / as | contestabais | You were answering |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | contestaban | They / you were answering |
| Vos | contestabas | You were answering |
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 answered” and “she has answered”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he contestado | I have answered |
| Tú | has contestado | You have answered |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha contestado | He has / she has / you have answered |
| Nosotros / as | hemos contestado | We have answered |
| Vosotros / as | habéis contestado | You have answered |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han contestado | They / you have answered |
| Vos | has contestado | You have answered |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would answer” or “she would answer”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | contestaría | I would answer |
| Tú | contestarías | You would answer |
| Él / Ella / Usted | contestaría | He / she / you would answer |
| Nosotros / as | contestaríamos | We would answer |
| Vosotros / as | contestaríais | You would answer |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | contestarían | They / you would answer |
| Vos | contestarías | You would answer |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will answer” or “they will answer”.
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 contestar” means “They are going to answer”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | contestaré | I will answer |
| Tú | contestarás | You will answer |
| Él / Ella / Usted | contestará | He / she / you will answer |
| Nosotros / as | contestaremos | We will answer |
| Vosotros / as | contestaréis | You will answer |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | contestarán | They / you will answer |
| Vos | contestarás | You will answer |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | conteste |
| Tú | contestes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | conteste |
| Nosotros / as | contestemos |
| Vosotros / as | contestéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | contesten |
| Vos | contestes |
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 | contestara | contestase |
| Tú | contestaras | contestase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | contestara | contestase |
| Nosotros / as | contestáramos | contestásemos |
| Vosotros / as | contestarais | contestaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | contestaran | contestasen |
| Vos | contestaras | contestase |
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 | contestare |
| Tú | contestares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | contestare |
| Nosotros / as | contestáremos |
| Vosotros / as | contestareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | contestaren |
| Vos | contestares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “answer!” and “don’t answer!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | contesta | no contestes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | conteste | no conteste |
| Nosotros / as | contestemos | no contestemos |
| Vosotros / as | contestad | no contestéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | contesten | no contesten |
| Vos | contestá | no contestes |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya contestado |
| Tú | hayas contestado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya contestado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos contestado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis contestado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan contestado |
| Vos | hayas contestado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera contestado / hubiese contestado |
| Tú | hubieras contestado / hubieses contestado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera contestado / hubiese contestado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos contestado / hubiésemos contestado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais contestado / hubieseis contestado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran contestado / hubiesen contestado |
| Vos | hubieras contestado / hubieses contestado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere contestado |
| Tú | hubieres contestado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere contestado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos contestado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis contestado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren contestado |
| Vos | hubieres contestado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté contestando |
| Tú | estés contestando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté contestando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos contestando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis contestando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén contestando |
| Vos | estés contestando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera contestando / estuviese contestando |
| Tú | estuvieras contestando / estuvieses contestando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera contestando / estuviese contestando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos contestando / estuviésamos contestando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais contestando / estuvieseis contestando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera contestando / estuviese contestando |
| Vos | estuvieras contestando / estuvieses contestando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere contestando |
| Tú | estuvieres contestando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere contestando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos contestando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis contestando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere contestando |
| Vos | estuvieres contestando |
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 contestás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos contestaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos contestabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos contestarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos contestarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos contestes |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos contestaras / Vos contestase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos contestá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no contestes |