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Encabezar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to head, lead”.
Below are all of the conjugations for encabezar 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 head, lead |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | encabezar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está encabezando) and past continuous (estaba encabezando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. heading).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he encabezado and hubiera encabezado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have headed).
| Gerundio / Gerund | encabezando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | encabezado |
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 head” or “they head”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | encabezo |
| Tú | encabezas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | encabeza |
| Nosotros / as | encabezamos |
| Vosotros / as | encabezáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | encabezan |
| Vos | encabezás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I headed” or “she headed” 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 | encabecé | I headed |
| Tú | encabezaste | You headed |
| Él / Ella / Usted | encabezó | He / she / you headed |
| Nosotros / as | encabezamos | We headed |
| Vosotros / as | encabezasteis | You headed |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | encabezaron | They / you headed |
| Vos | encabezaste | You headed |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was heading” or “she was heading” 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 | encabezaba | I was heading |
| Tú | encabezabas | You were heading |
| Él / Ella / Usted | encabezaba | He was / she was / you were heading |
| Nosotros / as | encabezábamos | We were heading |
| Vosotros / as | encabezabais | You were heading |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | encabezaban | They / you were heading |
| Vos | encabezabas | You were heading |
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 headed” and “she has headed”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he encabezado | I have headed |
| Tú | has encabezado | You have headed |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha encabezado | He has / she has / you have headed |
| Nosotros / as | hemos encabezado | We have headed |
| Vosotros / as | habéis encabezado | You have headed |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han encabezado | They / you have headed |
| Vos | has encabezado | You have headed |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would head” or “she would head”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | encabezaría | I would head |
| Tú | encabezarías | You would head |
| Él / Ella / Usted | encabezaría | He / she / you would head |
| Nosotros / as | encabezaríamos | We would head |
| Vosotros / as | encabezaríais | You would head |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | encabezarían | They / you would head |
| Vos | encabezarías | You would head |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will head” or “they will head”.
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 encabezar” means “They are going to head”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | encabezaré | I will head |
| Tú | encabezarás | You will head |
| Él / Ella / Usted | encabezará | He / she / you will head |
| Nosotros / as | encabezaremos | We will head |
| Vosotros / as | encabezaréis | You will head |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | encabezarán | They / you will head |
| Vos | encabezarás | You will head |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | encabece |
| Tú | encabeces |
| Él / Ella / Usted | encabece |
| Nosotros / as | encabecemos |
| Vosotros / as | encabecéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | encabecen |
| Vos | encabeces |
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 | encabezara | encabezase |
| Tú | encabezaras | encabezase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | encabezara | encabezase |
| Nosotros / as | encabezáramos | encabezásemos |
| Vosotros / as | encabezarais | encabezaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | encabezaran | encabezasen |
| Vos | encabezaras | encabezase |
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 | encabezare |
| Tú | encabezares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | encabezare |
| Nosotros / as | encabezáremos |
| Vosotros / as | encabezareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | encabezaren |
| Vos | encabezares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “head!” and “don’t head!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | encabeza | no encabeces |
| Él / Ella / Usted | encabece | no encabece |
| Nosotros / as | encabecemos | no encabecemos |
| Vosotros / as | encabezad | no encabecéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | encabecen | no encabecen |
| Vos | encabezá | no encabeces |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya encabezado |
| Tú | hayas encabezado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya encabezado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos encabezado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis encabezado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan encabezado |
| Vos | hayas encabezado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera encabezado / hubiese encabezado |
| Tú | hubieras encabezado / hubieses encabezado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera encabezado / hubiese encabezado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos encabezado / hubiésemos encabezado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais encabezado / hubieseis encabezado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran encabezado / hubiesen encabezado |
| Vos | hubieras encabezado / hubieses encabezado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere encabezado |
| Tú | hubieres encabezado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere encabezado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos encabezado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis encabezado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren encabezado |
| Vos | hubieres encabezado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté encabezando |
| Tú | estés encabezando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté encabezando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos encabezando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis encabezando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén encabezando |
| Vos | estés encabezando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera encabezando / estuviese encabezando |
| Tú | estuvieras encabezando / estuvieses encabezando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera encabezando / estuviese encabezando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos encabezando / estuviésamos encabezando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais encabezando / estuvieseis encabezando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera encabezando / estuviese encabezando |
| Vos | estuvieras encabezando / estuvieses encabezando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere encabezando |
| Tú | estuvieres encabezando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere encabezando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos encabezando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis encabezando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere encabezando |
| Vos | estuvieres encabezando |
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 encabezás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos encabezaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos encabezabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos encabezarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos encabezarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos encabeces |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos encabezaras / Vos encabezase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos encabezá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no encabeces |