colar Imperfect Subjunctive Conjugation
colar — to strain
The imperfect subjunctive of colar is regular: colara, colaras, colara, coláramos, colarais, colaran.
colar Imperfect Subjunctive Forms
When to Use the Imperfect Subjunctive
Use this for hypotheticals or past requests, such as 'If I strained the sauce, it would be better' or 'He asked me to strain it.'
Notes on colar in the Imperfect Subjunctive
This tense is regular for colar. It uses the 'colar-' stem from the preterite third-person plural.
Example Sentences
Si colaras la salsa, quedaría más suave.
If you strained the sauce, it would be smoother.
tú
Me pidió que colara el jugo.
He asked me to strain the juice.
yo
Common Mistakes
Mistake: Using 'cuelara'.
Correct: colara
Why: Stem changes like o > ue never occur in the imperfect subjunctive for -ar verbs.
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Related Tenses
Present
yo: cuelo
Colar changes its stem from 'o' to 'ue' in the present tense, except for nosotros and vosotros.
Preterite
yo: colé
Colar is completely regular in the preterite: colé, colaste, coló, colamos, colasteis, colaron.
Imperfect
yo: colaba
Colar is regular in the imperfect: colaba, colabas, colaba, colábamos, colabais, colaban.
Future
yo: colaré
The future of colar is regular: colaré, colarás, colará, colaremos, colaréis, colarán.
Conditional
yo: colaría
The conditional of colar is regular: colaría, colarías, colaría, colaríamos, colaríais, colarían.
Present Subjunctive
yo: cuele
The present subjunctive of colar follows the o > ue stem change: cuele, cueles, cuele, colemos, coléis, cuelen.
Affirmative Imperative
yo: cuela
The imperative uses 'cuela' (tú) and 'cuele' (usted), following the stem change.
Negative Imperative
yo: no cueles
The negative imperative uses the present subjunctive forms: no cueles, no cuele, no colemos, no coléis, no cuelen.