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Ensuciar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to stain, make dirty”.
Below are all of the conjugations for ensuciar 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 stain, make dirty |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | ensuciar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está ensuciando) and past continuous (estaba ensuciando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. staining).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he ensuciado and hubiera ensuciado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have stained).
| Gerundio / Gerund | ensuciando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | ensuciado |
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 stain” or “they stain”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | ensucio |
| Tú | ensucias |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ensucia |
| Nosotros / as | ensuciamos |
| Vosotros / as | ensuciáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | ensucian |
| Vos | ensuciás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I stained” or “she stained” 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 | ensucié | I stained |
| Tú | ensuciaste | You stained |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ensució | He / she / you stained |
| Nosotros / as | ensuciamos | We stained |
| Vosotros / as | ensuciasteis | You stained |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | ensuciaron | They / you stained |
| Vos | ensuciaste | You stained |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was staining” or “she was staining” 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 | ensuciaba | I was staining |
| Tú | ensuciabas | You were staining |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ensuciaba | He was / she was / you were staining |
| Nosotros / as | ensuciábamos | We were staining |
| Vosotros / as | ensuciabais | You were staining |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | ensuciaban | They / you were staining |
| Vos | ensuciabas | You were staining |
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 stained” and “she has stained”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he ensuciado | I have stained |
| Tú | has ensuciado | You have stained |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha ensuciado | He has / she has / you have stained |
| Nosotros / as | hemos ensuciado | We have stained |
| Vosotros / as | habéis ensuciado | You have stained |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han ensuciado | They / you have stained |
| Vos | has ensuciado | You have stained |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would stain” or “she would stain”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | ensuciaría | I would stain |
| Tú | ensuciarías | You would stain |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ensuciaría | He / she / you would stain |
| Nosotros / as | ensuciaríamos | We would stain |
| Vosotros / as | ensuciaríais | You would stain |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | ensuciarían | They / you would stain |
| Vos | ensuciarías | You would stain |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will stain” or “they will stain”.
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 ensuciar” means “They are going to stain”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | ensuciaré | I will stain |
| Tú | ensuciarás | You will stain |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ensuciará | He / she / you will stain |
| Nosotros / as | ensuciaremos | We will stain |
| Vosotros / as | ensuciaréis | You will stain |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | ensuciarán | They / you will stain |
| Vos | ensuciarás | You will stain |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | ensucie |
| Tú | ensucies |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ensucie |
| Nosotros / as | ensuciemos |
| Vosotros / as | ensuciéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | ensucien |
| Vos | ensucies |
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 | ensuciara | ensuciase |
| Tú | ensuciaras | ensuciase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ensuciara | ensuciase |
| Nosotros / as | ensuciáramos | ensuciásemos |
| Vosotros / as | ensuciarais | ensuciaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | ensuciaran | ensuciasen |
| Vos | ensuciaras | ensuciase |
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 | ensuciare |
| Tú | ensuciares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ensuciare |
| Nosotros / as | ensuciáremos |
| Vosotros / as | ensuciareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | ensuciaren |
| Vos | ensuciares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “stain!” and “don’t stain!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | ensucia | no ensucies |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ensucie | no ensucie |
| Nosotros / as | ensuciemos | no ensuciemos |
| Vosotros / as | ensuciad | no ensuciéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | ensucien | no ensucien |
| Vos | ensuciá | no ensucies |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya ensuciado |
| Tú | hayas ensuciado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya ensuciado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos ensuciado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis ensuciado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan ensuciado |
| Vos | hayas ensuciado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera ensuciado / hubiese ensuciado |
| Tú | hubieras ensuciado / hubieses ensuciado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera ensuciado / hubiese ensuciado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos ensuciado / hubiésemos ensuciado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais ensuciado / hubieseis ensuciado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran ensuciado / hubiesen ensuciado |
| Vos | hubieras ensuciado / hubieses ensuciado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere ensuciado |
| Tú | hubieres ensuciado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere ensuciado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos ensuciado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis ensuciado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren ensuciado |
| Vos | hubieres ensuciado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté ensuciando |
| Tú | estés ensuciando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté ensuciando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos ensuciando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis ensuciando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén ensuciando |
| Vos | estés ensuciando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera ensuciando / estuviese ensuciando |
| Tú | estuvieras ensuciando / estuvieses ensuciando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera ensuciando / estuviese ensuciando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos ensuciando / estuviésamos ensuciando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais ensuciando / estuvieseis ensuciando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera ensuciando / estuviese ensuciando |
| Vos | estuvieras ensuciando / estuvieses ensuciando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere ensuciando |
| Tú | estuvieres ensuciando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere ensuciando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos ensuciando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis ensuciando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere ensuciando |
| Vos | estuvieres ensuciando |
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 ensuciás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos ensuciaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos ensuciabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos ensuciarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos ensuciarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos ensucies |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos ensuciaras / Vos ensuciase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos ensuciá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no ensucies |