Everything you need to improve your Spanish
Menu
Everything you need to improve your Spanish
Estropear is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to spoil, ruin”.
Below are all of the conjugations for estropear 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 spoil, ruin |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | estropear |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está estropeando) and past continuous (estaba estropeando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. spoiling).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he estropeado and hubiera estropeado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have spoiled).
| Gerundio / Gerund | estropeando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | estropeado |
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 spoil” or “they spoil”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estropeo |
| Tú | estropeas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estropea |
| Nosotros / as | estropeamos |
| Vosotros / as | estropeáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estropean |
| Vos | estropeás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I spoiled” or “she spoiled” 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 | estropeé | I spoiled |
| Tú | estropeaste | You spoiled |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estropeó | He / she / you spoiled |
| Nosotros / as | estropeamos | We spoiled |
| Vosotros / as | estropeasteis | You spoiled |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estropearon | They / you spoiled |
| Vos | estropeaste | You spoiled |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was spoiling” or “she was spoiling” 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 | estropeaba | I was spoiling |
| Tú | estropeabas | You were spoiling |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estropeaba | He was / she was / you were spoiling |
| Nosotros / as | estropeábamos | We were spoiling |
| Vosotros / as | estropeabais | You were spoiling |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estropeaban | They / you were spoiling |
| Vos | estropeabas | You were spoiling |
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 spoiled” and “she has spoiled”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he estropeado | I have spoiled |
| Tú | has estropeado | You have spoiled |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha estropeado | He has / she has / you have spoiled |
| Nosotros / as | hemos estropeado | We have spoiled |
| Vosotros / as | habéis estropeado | You have spoiled |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han estropeado | They / you have spoiled |
| Vos | has estropeado | You have spoiled |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would spoil” or “she would spoil”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | estropearía | I would spoil |
| Tú | estropearías | You would spoil |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estropearía | He / she / you would spoil |
| Nosotros / as | estropearíamos | We would spoil |
| Vosotros / as | estropearíais | You would spoil |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estropearían | They / you would spoil |
| Vos | estropearías | You would spoil |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will spoil” or “they will spoil”.
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 estropear” means “They are going to spoil”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | estropearé | I will spoil |
| Tú | estropearás | You will spoil |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estropeará | He / she / you will spoil |
| Nosotros / as | estropearemos | We will spoil |
| Vosotros / as | estropearéis | You will spoil |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estropearán | They / you will spoil |
| Vos | estropearás | You will spoil |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estropee |
| Tú | estropees |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estropee |
| Nosotros / as | estropeemos |
| Vosotros / as | estropeéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estropeen |
| Vos | estropees |
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 | estropeara | estropease |
| Tú | estropearas | estropease |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estropeara | estropease |
| Nosotros / as | estropeáramos | estropeásemos |
| Vosotros / as | estropearais | estropeaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estropearan | estropeasen |
| Vos | estropearas | estropease |
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 | estropeare |
| Tú | estropeares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estropeare |
| Nosotros / as | estropeáremos |
| Vosotros / as | estropeareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estropearen |
| Vos | estropeares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “spoil!” and “don’t spoil!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | estropea | no estropees |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estropee | no estropee |
| Nosotros / as | estropeemos | no estropeemos |
| Vosotros / as | estropead | no estropeéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estropeen | no estropeen |
| Vos | estropeá | no estropees |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya estropeado |
| Tú | hayas estropeado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya estropeado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos estropeado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis estropeado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan estropeado |
| Vos | hayas estropeado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera estropeado / hubiese estropeado |
| Tú | hubieras estropeado / hubieses estropeado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera estropeado / hubiese estropeado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos estropeado / hubiésemos estropeado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais estropeado / hubieseis estropeado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran estropeado / hubiesen estropeado |
| Vos | hubieras estropeado / hubieses estropeado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere estropeado |
| Tú | hubieres estropeado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere estropeado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos estropeado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis estropeado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren estropeado |
| Vos | hubieres estropeado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté estropeando |
| Tú | estés estropeando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté estropeando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos estropeando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis estropeando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén estropeando |
| Vos | estés estropeando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera estropeando / estuviese estropeando |
| Tú | estuvieras estropeando / estuvieses estropeando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera estropeando / estuviese estropeando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos estropeando / estuviésamos estropeando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais estropeando / estuvieseis estropeando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera estropeando / estuviese estropeando |
| Vos | estuvieras estropeando / estuvieses estropeando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere estropeando |
| Tú | estuvieres estropeando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere estropeando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos estropeando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis estropeando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere estropeando |
| Vos | estuvieres estropeando |
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 estropeás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos estropeaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos estropeabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos estropearías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos estropearás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos estropees |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos estropearas / Vos estropease |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos estropeá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no estropees |