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Emboscar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to ambush”.
Below are all of the conjugations for emboscar 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 ambush |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | emboscar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está emboscando) and past continuous (estaba emboscando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. ambushing).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he emboscado and hubiera emboscado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have ambushed).
| Gerundio / Gerund | emboscando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | emboscado |
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 ambush” or “they ambush”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | embosco |
| Tú | emboscas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | embosca |
| Nosotros / as | emboscamos |
| Vosotros / as | emboscáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | emboscan |
| Vos | emboscás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I ambushed” or “she ambushed” 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 | embosqué | I ambushed |
| Tú | emboscaste | You ambushed |
| Él / Ella / Usted | emboscó | He / she / you ambushed |
| Nosotros / as | emboscamos | We ambushed |
| Vosotros / as | emboscasteis | You ambushed |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | emboscaron | They / you ambushed |
| Vos | emboscaste | You ambushed |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was ambushing” or “she was ambushing” 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 | emboscaba | I was ambushing |
| Tú | emboscabas | You were ambushing |
| Él / Ella / Usted | emboscaba | He was / she was / you were ambushing |
| Nosotros / as | emboscábamos | We were ambushing |
| Vosotros / as | emboscabais | You were ambushing |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | emboscaban | They / you were ambushing |
| Vos | emboscabas | You were ambushing |
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 ambushed” and “she has ambushed”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he emboscado | I have ambushed |
| Tú | has emboscado | You have ambushed |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha emboscado | He has / she has / you have ambushed |
| Nosotros / as | hemos emboscado | We have ambushed |
| Vosotros / as | habéis emboscado | You have ambushed |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han emboscado | They / you have ambushed |
| Vos | has emboscado | You have ambushed |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would ambush” or “she would ambush”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | emboscaría | I would ambush |
| Tú | emboscarías | You would ambush |
| Él / Ella / Usted | emboscaría | He / she / you would ambush |
| Nosotros / as | emboscaríamos | We would ambush |
| Vosotros / as | emboscaríais | You would ambush |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | emboscarían | They / you would ambush |
| Vos | emboscarías | You would ambush |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will ambush” or “they will ambush”.
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 emboscar” means “They are going to ambush”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | emboscaré | I will ambush |
| Tú | emboscarás | You will ambush |
| Él / Ella / Usted | emboscará | He / she / you will ambush |
| Nosotros / as | emboscaremos | We will ambush |
| Vosotros / as | emboscaréis | You will ambush |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | emboscarán | They / you will ambush |
| Vos | emboscarás | You will ambush |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | embosque |
| Tú | embosques |
| Él / Ella / Usted | embosque |
| Nosotros / as | embosquemos |
| Vosotros / as | embosquéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | embosquen |
| Vos | embosques |
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 | emboscara | emboscase |
| Tú | emboscaras | emboscase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | emboscara | emboscase |
| Nosotros / as | emboscáramos | emboscásemos |
| Vosotros / as | emboscarais | emboscaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | emboscaran | emboscasen |
| Vos | emboscaras | emboscase |
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 | emboscare |
| Tú | emboscares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | emboscare |
| Nosotros / as | emboscáremos |
| Vosotros / as | emboscareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | emboscaren |
| Vos | emboscares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “ambush!” and “don’t ambush!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | embosca | no embosques |
| Él / Ella / Usted | embosque | no embosque |
| Nosotros / as | embosquemos | no embosquemos |
| Vosotros / as | emboscad | no embosquéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | embosquen | no embosquen |
| Vos | emboscá | no embosques |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya emboscado |
| Tú | hayas emboscado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya emboscado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos emboscado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis emboscado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan emboscado |
| Vos | hayas emboscado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera emboscado / hubiese emboscado |
| Tú | hubieras emboscado / hubieses emboscado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera emboscado / hubiese emboscado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos emboscado / hubiésemos emboscado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais emboscado / hubieseis emboscado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran emboscado / hubiesen emboscado |
| Vos | hubieras emboscado / hubieses emboscado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere emboscado |
| Tú | hubieres emboscado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere emboscado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos emboscado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis emboscado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren emboscado |
| Vos | hubieres emboscado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté emboscando |
| Tú | estés emboscando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté emboscando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos emboscando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis emboscando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén emboscando |
| Vos | estés emboscando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera emboscando / estuviese emboscando |
| Tú | estuvieras emboscando / estuvieses emboscando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera emboscando / estuviese emboscando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos emboscando / estuviésamos emboscando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais emboscando / estuvieseis emboscando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera emboscando / estuviese emboscando |
| Vos | estuvieras emboscando / estuvieses emboscando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere emboscando |
| Tú | estuvieres emboscando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere emboscando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos emboscando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis emboscando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere emboscando |
| Vos | estuvieres emboscando |
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 emboscás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos emboscaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos emboscabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos emboscarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos emboscarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos embosques |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos emboscaras / Vos emboscase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos emboscá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no embosques |