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Embaucar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to deceive, cheat”.
Below are all of the conjugations for embaucar 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 deceive, cheat |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | embaucar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está embaucando) and past continuous (estaba embaucando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. deceiving).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he embaucado and hubiera embaucado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have deceived).
| Gerundio / Gerund | embaucando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | embaucado |
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 deceive” or “they deceive”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | embauco |
| Tú | embaucas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | embauca |
| Nosotros / as | embaucamos |
| Vosotros / as | embaucáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | embaucan |
| Vos | embaucás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I deceived” or “she deceived” 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 | embauqué | I deceived |
| Tú | embaucaste | You deceived |
| Él / Ella / Usted | embaucó | He / she / you deceived |
| Nosotros / as | embaucamos | We deceived |
| Vosotros / as | embaucasteis | You deceived |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | embaucaron | They / you deceived |
| Vos | embaucaste | You deceived |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was deceiving” or “she was deceiving” 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 | embaucaba | I was deceiving |
| Tú | embaucabas | You were deceiving |
| Él / Ella / Usted | embaucaba | He was / she was / you were deceiving |
| Nosotros / as | embaucábamos | We were deceiving |
| Vosotros / as | embaucabais | You were deceiving |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | embaucaban | They / you were deceiving |
| Vos | embaucabas | You were deceiving |
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 deceived” and “she has deceived”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he embaucado | I have deceived |
| Tú | has embaucado | You have deceived |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha embaucado | He has / she has / you have deceived |
| Nosotros / as | hemos embaucado | We have deceived |
| Vosotros / as | habéis embaucado | You have deceived |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han embaucado | They / you have deceived |
| Vos | has embaucado | You have deceived |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would deceive” or “she would deceive”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | embaucaría | I would deceive |
| Tú | embaucarías | You would deceive |
| Él / Ella / Usted | embaucaría | He / she / you would deceive |
| Nosotros / as | embaucaríamos | We would deceive |
| Vosotros / as | embaucaríais | You would deceive |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | embaucarían | They / you would deceive |
| Vos | embaucarías | You would deceive |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will deceive” or “they will deceive”.
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 embaucar” means “They are going to deceive”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | embaucaré | I will deceive |
| Tú | embaucarás | You will deceive |
| Él / Ella / Usted | embaucará | He / she / you will deceive |
| Nosotros / as | embaucaremos | We will deceive |
| Vosotros / as | embaucaréis | You will deceive |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | embaucarán | They / you will deceive |
| Vos | embaucarás | You will deceive |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | embauque |
| Tú | embauques |
| Él / Ella / Usted | embauque |
| Nosotros / as | embauquemos |
| Vosotros / as | embauquéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | embauquen |
| Vos | embauques |
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 | embaucara | embaucase |
| Tú | embaucaras | embaucase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | embaucara | embaucase |
| Nosotros / as | embaucáramos | embaucásemos |
| Vosotros / as | embaucarais | embaucaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | embaucaran | embaucasen |
| Vos | embaucaras | embaucase |
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 | embaucare |
| Tú | embaucares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | embaucare |
| Nosotros / as | embaucáremos |
| Vosotros / as | embaucareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | embaucaren |
| Vos | embaucares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “deceive!” and “don’t deceive!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | embauca | no embauques |
| Él / Ella / Usted | embauque | no embauque |
| Nosotros / as | embauquemos | no embauquemos |
| Vosotros / as | embaucad | no embauquéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | embauquen | no embauquen |
| Vos | embaucá | no embauques |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya embaucado |
| Tú | hayas embaucado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya embaucado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos embaucado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis embaucado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan embaucado |
| Vos | hayas embaucado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera embaucado / hubiese embaucado |
| Tú | hubieras embaucado / hubieses embaucado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera embaucado / hubiese embaucado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos embaucado / hubiésemos embaucado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais embaucado / hubieseis embaucado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran embaucado / hubiesen embaucado |
| Vos | hubieras embaucado / hubieses embaucado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere embaucado |
| Tú | hubieres embaucado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere embaucado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos embaucado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis embaucado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren embaucado |
| Vos | hubieres embaucado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté embaucando |
| Tú | estés embaucando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté embaucando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos embaucando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis embaucando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén embaucando |
| Vos | estés embaucando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera embaucando / estuviese embaucando |
| Tú | estuvieras embaucando / estuvieses embaucando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera embaucando / estuviese embaucando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos embaucando / estuviésamos embaucando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais embaucando / estuvieseis embaucando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera embaucando / estuviese embaucando |
| Vos | estuvieras embaucando / estuvieses embaucando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere embaucando |
| Tú | estuvieres embaucando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere embaucando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos embaucando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis embaucando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere embaucando |
| Vos | estuvieres embaucando |
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 embaucás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos embaucaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos embaucabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos embaucarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos embaucarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos embauques |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos embaucaras / Vos embaucase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos embaucá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no embauques |