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Fortalecer is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to fortify, strengthen”.
Below are all of the conjugations for fortalecer 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 fortify, strengthen |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | fortalecer |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está fortaleciendo) and past continuous (estaba fortaleciendo). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. fortified).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he fortified and hubiera fortified. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have fortifying).
| Gerundio / Gerund | fortaleciendo |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | fortified |
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 fortify” or “they fortify”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | fortalezco |
| Tú | fortaleces |
| Él / Ella / Usted | fortalece |
| Nosotros / as | fortalecemos |
| Vosotros / as | fortalecéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | fortalecen |
| Vos | fortalecés |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I fortify” or “she fortify” 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 | fortalecí | I fortify |
| Tú | fortaleciste | You fortify |
| Él / Ella / Usted | fortaleció | He / she / you fortify |
| Nosotros / as | fortalecimos | We fortify |
| Vosotros / as | fortalecisteis | You fortify |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | fortalecieron | They / you fortify |
| Vos | fortaleciste | You fortify |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was fortified” or “she was fortified” 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 | fortalecía | I was fortified |
| Tú | fortalecías | You were fortified |
| Él / Ella / Usted | fortalecía | He was / she was / you were fortified |
| Nosotros / as | fortalecíamos | We were fortified |
| Vosotros / as | fortalecíais | You were fortified |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | fortalecían | They / you were fortified |
| Vos | fortalecías | You were fortified |
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 fortifying” and “she has fortifying”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he fortified | I have fortifying |
| Tú | has fortified | You have fortifying |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha fortified | He has / she has / you have fortifying |
| Nosotros / as | hemos fortified | We have fortifying |
| Vosotros / as | habéis fortified | You have fortifying |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han fortified | They / you have fortifying |
| Vos | has fortified | You have fortifying |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would fortify” or “she would fortify”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | fortalecería | I would fortify |
| Tú | fortalecerías | You would fortify |
| Él / Ella / Usted | fortalecería | He / she / you would fortify |
| Nosotros / as | fortaleceríamos | We would fortify |
| Vosotros / as | fortaleceríais | You would fortify |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | fortalecerían | They / you would fortify |
| Vos | fortalecerías | You would fortify |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will fortify” or “they will fortify”.
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 fortalecer” means “They are going to fortify”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | fortaleceré | I will fortify |
| Tú | fortalecerás | You will fortify |
| Él / Ella / Usted | fortalecerá | He / she / you will fortify |
| Nosotros / as | fortaleceremos | We will fortify |
| Vosotros / as | fortaleceréis | You will fortify |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | fortalecerán | They / you will fortify |
| Vos | fortalecerás | You will fortify |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | fortalezca |
| Tú | fortalezcas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | fortalezca |
| Nosotros / as | fortalezcamos |
| Vosotros / as | fortalezcáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | fortalezcan |
| Vos | fortalezcas |
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 | fortaleciera | fortaleciese |
| Tú | fortalecieras | fortaleciese |
| Él / Ella / Usted | fortaleciera | fortaleciese |
| Nosotros / as | fortaleciéramos | fortaleciésemos |
| Vosotros / as | fortalecierais | fortalecieseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | fortalecieran | fortaleciesen |
| Vos | fortalecieras | fortaleciese |
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 | fortaleciere |
| Tú | fortalecieres |
| Él / Ella / Usted | fortaleciere |
| Nosotros / as | fortaleciéremos |
| Vosotros / as | fortaleciereis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | fortalecieren |
| Vos | fortalecieres |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “fortify!” and “don’t fortify!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | fortalece | no fortalezcas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | fortalezca | no fortalezca |
| Nosotros / as | fortalezcamos | no fortalezcamos |
| Vosotros / as | fortaleced | no fortalezcáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | fortalezcan | no fortalezcan |
| Vos | fortalecé | no fortalezcas |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya fortified |
| Tú | hayas fortified |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya fortified |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos fortified |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis fortified |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan fortified |
| Vos | hayas fortified |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera fortified / hubiese fortified |
| Tú | hubieras fortified / hubieses fortified |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera fortified / hubiese fortified |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos fortified / hubiésemos fortified |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais fortified / hubieseis fortified |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran fortified / hubiesen fortified |
| Vos | hubieras fortified / hubieses fortified |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere fortified |
| Tú | hubieres fortified |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere fortified |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos fortified |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis fortified |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren fortified |
| Vos | hubieres fortified |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté fortaleciendo |
| Tú | estés fortaleciendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté fortaleciendo |
| Nosotros / as | estemos fortaleciendo |
| Vosotros / as | estéis fortaleciendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén fortaleciendo |
| Vos | estés fortaleciendo |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera fortaleciendo / estuviese fortaleciendo |
| Tú | estuvieras fortaleciendo / estuvieses fortaleciendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera fortaleciendo / estuviese fortaleciendo |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos fortaleciendo / estuviésamos fortaleciendo |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais fortaleciendo / estuvieseis fortaleciendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera fortaleciendo / estuviese fortaleciendo |
| Vos | estuvieras fortaleciendo / estuvieses fortaleciendo |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere fortaleciendo |
| Tú | estuvieres fortaleciendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere fortaleciendo |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos fortaleciendo |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis fortaleciendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere fortaleciendo |
| Vos | estuvieres fortaleciendo |
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 fortalecés |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos fortaleciste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos fortalecías |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos fortalecerías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos fortalecerás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos fortalezcas |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos fortalecieras / Vos fortaleciese |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos fortalecé |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no fortalezcas |