Voseo affects fewer forms than learners often expect. Apart from the present indicative and affirmative commands (covered on their own pages), the rest of the verb system looks almost exactly like it does for tú. If you already know the tú conjugations, you already know the vos ones for most tenses.
The Basic Principle
Outside the present indicative and affirmative imperative, vos takes the same verb forms as tú in the standard Rioplatense / Central American voseo. The only thing that changes is the subject pronoun.
This means you can write and speak voseo fluently without learning a second set of conjugation tables.
| Tense | With tú | With vos |
|---|---|---|
| Preterite | hablaste | hablaste |
| Imperfect | hablabas | hablabas |
| Future | hablarás | hablarás |
| Conditional | hablarías | hablarías |
| Present subjunctive | hables | hables |
| Imperfect subjunctive | hablaras | hablaras |
| Present perfect | has hablado | has hablado |
Vos hablaste con ella ayer, ¿no?
You spoke with her yesterday, right?
Si vos quisieras, podríamos ir juntos.
If you wanted to, we could go together.
Preterite: A Small Quirk
One thing you will hear in casual speech — especially in Argentina, Uruguay, and parts of Central America — is the addition of an extra -s on the preterite: hablastes, comistes, vivistes. This is considered non-standard and is corrected in schools, but it is extremely common in everyday spoken Spanish and appears in song lyrics, dialogue, and informal writing.
In careful or written voseo, stick with the standard forms: hablaste, comiste, viviste.
¿Vos ya comiste?
Have you eaten yet? (standard)
Present Subjunctive and Negative Commands
Because negative commands in most voseo regions use the tú form, and the tú form is identical to the present subjunctive, negative commands naturally follow the subjunctive you already know.
No quiero que vos hables así.
I don't want you to talk like that.
In some Central American varieties you will see voseo-specific subjunctive forms like hablés, comás, vivás, especially in informal writing. These are regional but widely understood.
The Chilean Exception
Chile is the one major region where voseo has spread beyond the present indicative into other tenses. Chilean voseo verbal affects several tenses, especially in casual speech:
| Tense | "Standard" form | Chilean form |
|---|---|---|
| Present (-ar) | hablas | hablái |
| Present (-er) | comes | comís |
| Present (-ir) | vives | vivís |
| Future | hablarás | hablarís |
| Conditional | hablarías | hablaríai |
| Imperfect | hablabas | hablabai |
These forms are usually used with the pronoun tú (not vos): tú hablái, tú cachái, tú querís. Using them sounds casual and distinctively Chilean; in more formal or written contexts, Chileans use the standard tú forms.
¿Tú querís ir al cine?
Do you want to go to the movies? (Chile)
Overall Summary
For a learner, the practical picture looks like this:
- Present indicative: learn the vos endings (-ás, -és, -ís).
- Affirmative commands: infinitive minus r with an accent.
- Everything else: use the same forms as tú.
- Chile: a special case that you can mostly just recognize, not produce, unless you live there.
Related Topics
- Voseo: Where Vos Is UsedB1 — A tour of the countries and regions where vos replaces or competes with tú as the informal second-person pronoun.
- Voseo: Present TenseB1 — How to conjugate regular -ar, -er, and -ir verbs with vos in the present indicative.
- Voseo: CommandsB2 — How to form affirmative and negative commands with vos, including the small set of irregulars.