gastar means: to spend, to use up, to wear out
Click to see all conjugation charts of gastar in every tense

In this conjugation lesson we will see how to inflect the verb gastar 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 gastar verb conjugation. For an overview of Simple Tenses conjugation see our 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 see more detailed information on conjugation in this tense and explanation of special cases and exceptions.

How to translate Presente to English

Note 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 example:
  vosotros gastáis

  (plural) you spend
• The English Present Progressive (a.k.a. Present Continuous) tense, for example:
  ahora yo gasto

  I am spending now
  
  Note however, that the Spanish equivalent of the Present Progressive also exists and is in common use – that’s Presente Progresivo (or Presente Continuo).

Note the timeline

The ability to accurately locate the intended position on the timeline is a crucial skill for the right use of tenses. So note the timeline in our lessons and visualize it while listening, speaking, reading or writing. After a bit practice you’ll be capable of selecting 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 Spanish language, where each inflected form consists of two words.The verb gastar has an entirely regular conjugation in the Presente tense of the Indicativo mood. It means that this verb simply follows the basic rules for its conjugation group (-ar) without spelling corrections or exceptions. The basis for the conjugation in this tense is the stem of the verb, so we begin by splitting the infinitive into a stem and an ending. It’s very easy to do. Simply remove two letters from the end of the infinitive and you have the ending — one of -ar, -er or -ir. What’s left is the stem. So in case of the verb gastar it’s easy to see that:

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

Use the stem gast- in each person as the basis for conjugations, the common prefix that each of the forms begins with. Next, add to this regular stem the endings specific to each person. Check out the image showing all the endings. Note the shapes and colors of the letters. They are arranged to 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 gasto:

• yo gasto – I spend

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

• tú gastas – you spend

Like previously add the regular ending -a for the third person singular to create gasta:

• él gasta – he spends
• ella gasta – she spends
• usted gasta – (formal) you spend

As before add the regular ending -amos for the first person plural to create gastamos:

• nosotros gastamos – we spend
• nosotras gastamos – (feminine) we spend

Also as in the previous case add the regular ending -áis for the second person plural to create gastáis:

• vosotros gastáis – (plural) you spend
• vosotras gastáis – (feminine, plural) you spend

And once more add the regular ending -an for the third person plural to create gastan:

• ellos gastan – they spend
• ellas gastan – (feminine) they spend
• ustedes gastan – (formal, plural) you spend

¡Ya está! The conjugation is now done. The final result looks as follows:

yo	gasto	I spend
tú	gastas	you spend
él/ella/usted	gasta	he/she/it spends
nosotros/nosotras	gastamos	we spend
vosotros/vosotras	gastáis	you spend
ellos/ellas/ustedes	gastan	they spend

Click to see all conjugation charts of gastar 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 your skills try 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 gastar visit our Exercise section To see conjugation charts in all tenses for gastar visit the Conjugator To explore other learning materials visit the Study section

---