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Emular is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to emulate, rival”.
Below are all of the conjugations for emular 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 emulate, rival |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | emular |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está emulando) and past continuous (estaba emulando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. emulating).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he emulado and hubiera emulado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have emulated).
| Gerundio / Gerund | emulando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | emulado |
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 emulate” or “they emulate”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | emulo |
| Tú | emulas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | emula |
| Nosotros / as | emulamos |
| Vosotros / as | emuláis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | emulan |
| Vos | emulás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I emulated” or “she emulated” 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 | emulé | I emulated |
| Tú | emulaste | You emulated |
| Él / Ella / Usted | emuló | He / she / you emulated |
| Nosotros / as | emulamos | We emulated |
| Vosotros / as | emulasteis | You emulated |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | emularon | They / you emulated |
| Vos | emulaste | You emulated |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was emulating” or “she was emulating” 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 | emulaba | I was emulating |
| Tú | emulabas | You were emulating |
| Él / Ella / Usted | emulaba | He was / she was / you were emulating |
| Nosotros / as | emulábamos | We were emulating |
| Vosotros / as | emulabais | You were emulating |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | emulaban | They / you were emulating |
| Vos | emulabas | You were emulating |
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 emulated” and “she has emulated”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he emulado | I have emulated |
| Tú | has emulado | You have emulated |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha emulado | He has / she has / you have emulated |
| Nosotros / as | hemos emulado | We have emulated |
| Vosotros / as | habéis emulado | You have emulated |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han emulado | They / you have emulated |
| Vos | has emulado | You have emulated |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would emulate” or “she would emulate”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | emularía | I would emulate |
| Tú | emularías | You would emulate |
| Él / Ella / Usted | emularía | He / she / you would emulate |
| Nosotros / as | emularíamos | We would emulate |
| Vosotros / as | emularíais | You would emulate |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | emularían | They / you would emulate |
| Vos | emularías | You would emulate |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will emulate” or “they will emulate”.
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 emular” means “They are going to emulate”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | emularé | I will emulate |
| Tú | emularás | You will emulate |
| Él / Ella / Usted | emulará | He / she / you will emulate |
| Nosotros / as | emularemos | We will emulate |
| Vosotros / as | emularéis | You will emulate |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | emularán | They / you will emulate |
| Vos | emularás | You will emulate |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | emule |
| Tú | emules |
| Él / Ella / Usted | emule |
| Nosotros / as | emulemos |
| Vosotros / as | emuléis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | emulen |
| Vos | emules |
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 | emulara | emulase |
| Tú | emularas | emulase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | emulara | emulase |
| Nosotros / as | emuláramos | emulásemos |
| Vosotros / as | emularais | emulaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | emularan | emulasen |
| Vos | emularas | emulase |
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 | emulare |
| Tú | emulares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | emulare |
| Nosotros / as | emuláremos |
| Vosotros / as | emulareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | emularen |
| Vos | emulares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “emulate!” and “don’t emulate!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | emula | no emules |
| Él / Ella / Usted | emule | no emule |
| Nosotros / as | emulemos | no emulemos |
| Vosotros / as | emulad | no emuléis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | emulen | no emulen |
| Vos | emulá | no emules |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya emulado |
| Tú | hayas emulado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya emulado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos emulado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis emulado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan emulado |
| Vos | hayas emulado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera emulado / hubiese emulado |
| Tú | hubieras emulado / hubieses emulado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera emulado / hubiese emulado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos emulado / hubiésemos emulado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais emulado / hubieseis emulado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran emulado / hubiesen emulado |
| Vos | hubieras emulado / hubieses emulado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere emulado |
| Tú | hubieres emulado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere emulado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos emulado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis emulado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren emulado |
| Vos | hubieres emulado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté emulando |
| Tú | estés emulando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté emulando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos emulando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis emulando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén emulando |
| Vos | estés emulando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera emulando / estuviese emulando |
| Tú | estuvieras emulando / estuvieses emulando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera emulando / estuviese emulando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos emulando / estuviésamos emulando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais emulando / estuvieseis emulando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera emulando / estuviese emulando |
| Vos | estuvieras emulando / estuvieses emulando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere emulando |
| Tú | estuvieres emulando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere emulando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos emulando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis emulando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere emulando |
| Vos | estuvieres emulando |
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 emulás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos emulaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos emulabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos emularías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos emularás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos emules |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos emularas / Vos emulase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos emulá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no emules |