Everything you need to improve your Spanish
Menu
Everything you need to improve your Spanish
Preguntar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to ask (a question)”.
Below are all of the conjugations for preguntar 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 ask (a question) |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | preguntar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está preguntando) and past continuous (estaba preguntando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. asking).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he preguntado and hubiera preguntado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have asked).
| Gerundio / Gerund | preguntando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | preguntado |
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 ask” or “they ask”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | pregunto |
| Tú | preguntas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | pregunta |
| Nosotros / as | preguntamos |
| Vosotros / as | preguntáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | preguntan |
| Vos | preguntás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I asked” or “she asked” 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 | pregunté | I asked |
| Tú | preguntaste | You asked |
| Él / Ella / Usted | preguntó | He / she / you asked |
| Nosotros / as | preguntamos | We asked |
| Vosotros / as | preguntasteis | You asked |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | preguntaron | They / you asked |
| Vos | preguntaste | You asked |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was asking” or “she was asking” 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 | preguntaba | I was asking |
| Tú | preguntabas | You were asking |
| Él / Ella / Usted | preguntaba | He was / she was / you were asking |
| Nosotros / as | preguntábamos | We were asking |
| Vosotros / as | preguntabais | You were asking |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | preguntaban | They / you were asking |
| Vos | preguntabas | You were asking |
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 asked” and “she has asked”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he preguntado | I have asked |
| Tú | has preguntado | You have asked |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha preguntado | He has / she has / you have asked |
| Nosotros / as | hemos preguntado | We have asked |
| Vosotros / as | habéis preguntado | You have asked |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han preguntado | They / you have asked |
| Vos | has preguntado | You have asked |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would ask” or “she would ask”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | preguntaría | I would ask |
| Tú | preguntarías | You would ask |
| Él / Ella / Usted | preguntaría | He / she / you would ask |
| Nosotros / as | preguntaríamos | We would ask |
| Vosotros / as | preguntaríais | You would ask |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | preguntarían | They / you would ask |
| Vos | preguntarías | You would ask |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will ask” or “they will ask”.
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 preguntar” means “They are going to ask”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | preguntaré | I will ask |
| Tú | preguntarás | You will ask |
| Él / Ella / Usted | preguntará | He / she / you will ask |
| Nosotros / as | preguntaremos | We will ask |
| Vosotros / as | preguntaréis | You will ask |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | preguntarán | They / you will ask |
| Vos | preguntarás | You will ask |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | pregunte |
| Tú | preguntes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | pregunte |
| Nosotros / as | preguntemos |
| Vosotros / as | preguntéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | pregunten |
| Vos | preguntes |
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 | preguntara | preguntase |
| Tú | preguntaras | preguntase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | preguntara | preguntase |
| Nosotros / as | preguntáramos | preguntásemos |
| Vosotros / as | preguntarais | preguntaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | preguntaran | preguntasen |
| Vos | preguntaras | preguntase |
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 | preguntare |
| Tú | preguntares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | preguntare |
| Nosotros / as | preguntáremos |
| Vosotros / as | preguntareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | preguntaren |
| Vos | preguntares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “ask!” and “don’t ask!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | pregunta | no preguntes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | pregunte | no pregunte |
| Nosotros / as | preguntemos | no preguntemos |
| Vosotros / as | preguntad | no preguntéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | pregunten | no pregunten |
| Vos | preguntá | no preguntes |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya preguntado |
| Tú | hayas preguntado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya preguntado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos preguntado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis preguntado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan preguntado |
| Vos | hayas preguntado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera preguntado / hubiese preguntado |
| Tú | hubieras preguntado / hubieses preguntado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera preguntado / hubiese preguntado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos preguntado / hubiésemos preguntado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais preguntado / hubieseis preguntado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran preguntado / hubiesen preguntado |
| Vos | hubieras preguntado / hubieses preguntado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere preguntado |
| Tú | hubieres preguntado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere preguntado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos preguntado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis preguntado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren preguntado |
| Vos | hubieres preguntado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté preguntando |
| Tú | estés preguntando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté preguntando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos preguntando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis preguntando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén preguntando |
| Vos | estés preguntando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera preguntando / estuviese preguntando |
| Tú | estuvieras preguntando / estuvieses preguntando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera preguntando / estuviese preguntando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos preguntando / estuviésamos preguntando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais preguntando / estuvieseis preguntando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera preguntando / estuviese preguntando |
| Vos | estuvieras preguntando / estuvieses preguntando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere preguntando |
| Tú | estuvieres preguntando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere preguntando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos preguntando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis preguntando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere preguntando |
| Vos | estuvieres preguntando |
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 preguntás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos preguntaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos preguntabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos preguntarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos preguntarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos preguntes |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos preguntaras / Vos preguntase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos preguntá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no preguntes |
