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Cumplir is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to celebrate”.
Below are all of the conjugations for cumplir 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 celebrate |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | cumplir |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está cumpliendo) and past continuous (estaba cumpliendo). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. celebrating).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he cumplido and hubiera cumplido. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have celebrated).
| Gerundio / Gerund | cumpliendo |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | cumplido |
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 celebrate” or “they celebrate”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | cumplo |
| Tú | cumples |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cumple |
| Nosotros / as | cumplimos |
| Vosotros / as | cumplís |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cumplen |
| Vos | cumplís |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I celebrated” or “she celebrated” 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 | cumplí | I celebrated |
| Tú | cumpliste | You celebrated |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cumplió | He / she / you celebrated |
| Nosotros / as | cumplimos | We celebrated |
| Vosotros / as | cumplisteis | You celebrated |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cumplieron | They / you celebrated |
| Vos | cumpliste | You celebrated |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was celebrating” or “she was celebrating” 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 | cumplía | I was celebrating |
| Tú | cumplías | You were celebrating |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cumplía | He was / she was / you were celebrating |
| Nosotros / as | cumplíamos | We were celebrating |
| Vosotros / as | cumplíais | You were celebrating |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cumplían | They / you were celebrating |
| Vos | cumplías | You were celebrating |
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 celebrated” and “she has celebrated”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he cumplido | I have celebrated |
| Tú | has cumplido | You have celebrated |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha cumplido | He has / she has / you have celebrated |
| Nosotros / as | hemos cumplido | We have celebrated |
| Vosotros / as | habéis cumplido | You have celebrated |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han cumplido | They / you have celebrated |
| Vos | has cumplido | You have celebrated |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would celebrate” or “she would celebrate”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | cumpliría | I would celebrate |
| Tú | cumplirías | You would celebrate |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cumpliría | He / she / you would celebrate |
| Nosotros / as | cumpliríamos | We would celebrate |
| Vosotros / as | cumpliríais | You would celebrate |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cumplirían | They / you would celebrate |
| Vos | cumplirías | You would celebrate |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will celebrate” or “they will celebrate”.
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 cumplir” means “They are going to celebrate”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | cumpliré | I will celebrate |
| Tú | cumplirás | You will celebrate |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cumplirá | He / she / you will celebrate |
| Nosotros / as | cumpliremos | We will celebrate |
| Vosotros / as | cumpliréis | You will celebrate |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cumplirán | They / you will celebrate |
| Vos | cumplirás | You will celebrate |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | cumpla |
| Tú | cumplas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cumpla |
| Nosotros / as | cumplamos |
| Vosotros / as | cumpláis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cumplan |
| Vos | cumplas |
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 | cumpliera | cumpliese |
| Tú | cumplieras | cumpliese |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cumpliera | cumpliese |
| Nosotros / as | cumpliéramos | cumpliésemos |
| Vosotros / as | cumplierais | cumplieseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cumplieran | cumpliesen |
| Vos | cumplieras | cumpliese |
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 | cumpliere |
| Tú | cumplieres |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cumpliera |
| Nosotros / as | cumpliéremos |
| Vosotros / as | cumpliereis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cumplieren |
| Vos | cumplieres |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “celebrate!” and “don’t celebrate!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | cumple | no cumplas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | cumpla | no cumpla |
| Nosotros / as | cumplamos | no cumplamos |
| Vosotros / as | cumplid | no cumpláis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | cumplan | no cumplan |
| Vos | cumplí | no cumplas |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya cumplido |
| Tú | hayas cumplido |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya cumplido |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos cumplido |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis cumplido |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan cumplido |
| Vos | hayas cumplido |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera cumplido / hubiese cumplido |
| Tú | hubieras cumplido / hubieses cumplido |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera cumplido / hubiese cumplido |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos cumplido / hubiésemos cumplido |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais cumplido / hubieseis cumplido |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran cumplido / hubiesen cumplido |
| Vos | hubieras cumplido / hubieses cumplido |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere cumplido |
| Tú | hubieres cumplido |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere cumplido |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos cumplido |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis cumplido |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren cumplido |
| Vos | hubieres cumplido |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté cumpliendo |
| Tú | estés cumpliendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté cumpliendo |
| Nosotros / as | estemos cumpliendo |
| Vosotros / as | estéis cumpliendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén cumpliendo |
| Vos | estés cumpliendo |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera cumpliendo / estuviese cumpliendo |
| Tú | estuvieras cumpliendo / estuvieses cumpliendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera cumpliendo / estuviese cumpliendo |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos cumpliendo / estuviésamos cumpliendo |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais cumpliendo / estuvieseis cumpliendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera cumpliendo / estuviese cumpliendo |
| Vos | estuvieras cumpliendo / estuvieses cumpliendo |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere cumpliendo |
| Tú | estuvieres cumpliendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere cumpliendo |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos cumpliendo |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis cumpliendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere cumpliendo |
| Vos | estuvieres cumpliendo |
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 cumplís |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos cumpliste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos cumplías |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos cumplirías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos cumplirás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos cumplas |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos cumplieras / Vos cumpliese |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos cumplí |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no cumplas |
