cocinar means: to cook
Click to see all conjugation charts of cocinar in every tense

In this Spanish conjugation lesson we will see how to conjugate the verb cocinar in the Presente tense of the Indicativo mood. It means we will see step by step how to create and translate forms of each grammatical person.

This lesson is specifically about the cocinar verb conjugation. For an overview of Simple Tenses conjugation have a look at the Simple Tenses Conjugation Chart.

You may also see the Video Presentation on how to conjugate verbs in Presente. It’s embedded below, but using the above link you can find more detailed information on conjugation in this tense as well as explanation of exceptions and special cases.

How to translate Presente to English

Notice that the phrases in English provided below next to each conjugation are not direct translations from Spanish to English. They are usually the closest general equivalents. The example differences are:

• In Spanish conjugation, there is the form usted in the third person singular. But this person does not translate to the English third person singular. It translates to the so called formal you and uses the inflected form which is most often represented as he/she/it in English conjugation charts.
• Similar situation happens in the third person plural, where ustedes translates to the English plural formal you but uses the form which corresponds to the they form in English.
• Tenses are used differently in Spanish and English, so the actual translation should always take into account the context and focus on translating the meaning, not just words.
• In both languages each verb may have multiple meanings and not every meaning translates directly to the other language. Here also, the context and focusing on the particular meaning helps to create the most accurate translation.

The Spanish Presente de Indicativo tense translates to one of the following:

• The English Present tense, for instance:
  vosotros cocináis

  (plural) you cook
• The English Present Progressive (or Present Continuous) tense, for instance:
  ahora tú cocinas

  you are cooking now
  
  Note though, that the Spanish equivalent of the Present Progressive also exists and is in common use – that’s Presente Progresivo (also called Presente Continuo).

Note the timeline

The ability to properly locate the desired position on the timeline is an important skill for the right choice of tenses. So pay attention to the timeline in our lessons and visualize it while speaking, listening, writing and reading. After a bit practice you will be able to select the right tense to use much easier.

Step by step instructions

Presente belongs to the simple tenses group, which means that all of its conjugated forms are one word long. There are also compound (compuesto) tenses in the Spanish language, where each inflected verb form consists of two words.The verb cocinar has a completely regular conjugation in the Presente tense of the Indicativo mood. It means that this verb follows the basic rules for its conjugation group (-ar) without spelling corrections or exceptions. The basis for this conjugation is the stem of the verb, so we start by splitting the infinitive into a stem and an ending. It’s very easy to do. Just remove two letters from the end of the infinitive form and you have the ending — one of -ar, -er or -ir. What’s left is the stem. So in case of our verb:

• the stem is: cocin-
• and the ending is: -ar

Use the stem cocin- in each person as the basis for conjugation, the common prefix that each of the forms begins with. Next, add to this regular stem the endings specific to each person. Analyze the image showing all six endings. Note the colors and shapes of the letters. It will help you find patterns and make it easier to remember these endings.Each grammatical person has a specific ending in each of the three conjugation groups -ar, -er, -ir. Add the regular ending -o for the first person singular to create cocino:

• yo cocino – I cook

Again add the regular ending -as for the second person singular to create cocinas:

• tú cocinas – you cook

Again add the regular ending -a for the third person singular to create cocina:

• él cocina – he cooks
• ella cocina – she cooks
• usted cocina – (formal) you cook

Again add the regular ending -amos for the first person plural to create cocinamos:

• nosotros cocinamos – we cook
• nosotras cocinamos – (feminine) we cook

And as before add the regular ending -áis for the second person plural to create cocináis:

• vosotros cocináis – (plural) you cook
• vosotras cocináis – (feminine, plural) you cook

And similarly add the regular ending -an for the third person plural to create cocinan:

• ellos cocinan – they cook
• ellas cocinan – (feminine) they cook
• ustedes cocinan – (formal, plural) you cook

That’s it! The conjugation is now done. Put together, the conjugation chart looks like this:

yo	cocino	I cook
tú	cocinas	you cook
él/ella/usted	cocina	he/she/it cooks
nosotros/nosotras	cocinamos	we cook
vosotros/vosotras	cocináis	you cook
ellos/ellas/ustedes	cocinan	they cook

Click to see all conjugation charts of cocinar in every tense
But do not end your session yet – it’s important to repeat and practice the material in order to remember it. Check below for next steps.

Next Steps to Perfection To practice this conjugation and test yourself check this Conjugation Exercise or the Memory Game To see other conjugation lessons for this verb choose another tense: PretéritoImperfectoCondicionalFuturoPretérito Perfecto CompuestoPretérito PluscuamperfectoFuturo PerfectoCondicional PerfectoPretérito Perfecto Compuesto (subjuntivo)Pretérito Pluscuamperfecto A (subjuntivo)Pretérito Pluscuamperfecto B (subjuntivo)Futuro Perfecto (subjuntivo)  For exercises and examples related to cocinar visit our Exercise section To see conjugation charts in all tenses for cocinar visit the Conjugator To explore other learning materials visit the Study section

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