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Espantar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to frighten”.
Below are all of the conjugations for espantar 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 frighten |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | espantar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está espantando) and past continuous (estaba espantando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. frightening).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he espantado and hubiera espantado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have frightened).
| Gerundio / Gerund | espantando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | espantado |
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 frighten” or “they frighten”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | espanto |
| Tú | espantas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | espanta |
| Nosotros / as | espantamos |
| Vosotros / as | espantáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | espantan |
| Vos | espantás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I frightened” or “she frightened” 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 | espanté | I frightened |
| Tú | espantaste | You frightened |
| Él / Ella / Usted | espantó | He / she / you frightened |
| Nosotros / as | espantamos | We frightened |
| Vosotros / as | espantasteis | You frightened |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | espantaron | They / you frightened |
| Vos | espantaste | You frightened |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was frightening” or “she was frightening” 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 | espantaba | I was frightening |
| Tú | espantabas | You were frightening |
| Él / Ella / Usted | espantaba | He was / she was / you were frightening |
| Nosotros / as | espantábamos | We were frightening |
| Vosotros / as | espantabais | You were frightening |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | espantaban | They / you were frightening |
| Vos | espantabas | You were frightening |
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 frightened” and “she has frightened”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he espantado | I have frightened |
| Tú | has espantado | You have frightened |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha espantado | He has / she has / you have frightened |
| Nosotros / as | hemos espantado | We have frightened |
| Vosotros / as | habéis espantado | You have frightened |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han espantado | They / you have frightened |
| Vos | has espantado | You have frightened |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would frighten” or “she would frighten”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | espantaría | I would frighten |
| Tú | espantarías | You would frighten |
| Él / Ella / Usted | espantaría | He / she / you would frighten |
| Nosotros / as | espantaríamos | We would frighten |
| Vosotros / as | espantaríais | You would frighten |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | espantarían | They / you would frighten |
| Vos | espantarías | You would frighten |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will frighten” or “they will frighten”.
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 espantar” means “They are going to frighten”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | espantaré | I will frighten |
| Tú | espantarás | You will frighten |
| Él / Ella / Usted | espantará | He / she / you will frighten |
| Nosotros / as | espantaremos | We will frighten |
| Vosotros / as | espantaréis | You will frighten |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | espantarán | They / you will frighten |
| Vos | espantarás | You will frighten |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | espante |
| Tú | espantes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | espante |
| Nosotros / as | espantemos |
| Vosotros / as | espantéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | espanten |
| Vos | espantes |
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 | espantara | espantase |
| Tú | espantaras | espantase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | espantara | espantase |
| Nosotros / as | espantáramos | espantásemos |
| Vosotros / as | espantarais | espantaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | espantaran | espantasen |
| Vos | espantaras | espantase |
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 | espantare |
| Tú | espantares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | espantare |
| Nosotros / as | espantáremos |
| Vosotros / as | espantareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | espantaren |
| Vos | espantares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “frighten!” and “don’t frighten!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | espanta | no espantes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | espante | no espante |
| Nosotros / as | espantemos | no espantemos |
| Vosotros / as | espantad | no espantéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | espanten | no espanten |
| Vos | espantá | no espantes |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya espantado |
| Tú | hayas espantado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya espantado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos espantado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis espantado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan espantado |
| Vos | hayas espantado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera espantado / hubiese espantado |
| Tú | hubieras espantado / hubieses espantado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera espantado / hubiese espantado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos espantado / hubiésemos espantado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais espantado / hubieseis espantado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran espantado / hubiesen espantado |
| Vos | hubieras espantado / hubieses espantado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere espantado |
| Tú | hubieres espantado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere espantado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos espantado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis espantado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren espantado |
| Vos | hubieres espantado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté espantando |
| Tú | estés espantando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté espantando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos espantando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis espantando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén espantando |
| Vos | estés espantando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera espantando / estuviese espantando |
| Tú | estuvieras espantando / estuvieses espantando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera espantando / estuviese espantando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos espantando / estuviésamos espantando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais espantando / estuvieseis espantando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera espantando / estuviese espantando |
| Vos | estuvieras espantando / estuvieses espantando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere espantando |
| Tú | estuvieres espantando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere espantando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos espantando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis espantando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere espantando |
| Vos | estuvieres espantando |
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 espantás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos espantaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos espantabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos espantarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos espantarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos espantes |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos espantaras / Vos espantase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos espantá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no espantes |