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Fracasar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to fail, be unsuccessful”.
Below are all of the conjugations for fracasar 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 fail, be unsuccessful |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | fracasar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está fracasando) and past continuous (estaba fracasando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. failed).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he failed and hubiera failed. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have failing).
| Gerundio / Gerund | fracasando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | failed |
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 fail” or “they fail”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | fracaso |
| Tú | fracasas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | fracasa |
| Nosotros / as | fracasamos |
| Vosotros / as | fracasáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | fracasan |
| Vos | fracasás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I fail” or “she fail” 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 | fracasé | I fail |
| Tú | fracasaste | You fail |
| Él / Ella / Usted | fracasó | He / she / you fail |
| Nosotros / as | fracasamos | We fail |
| Vosotros / as | fracasasteis | You fail |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | fracasaron | They / you fail |
| Vos | fracasaste | You fail |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was failed” or “she was failed” 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 | fracasaba | I was failed |
| Tú | fracasabas | You were failed |
| Él / Ella / Usted | fracasaba | He was / she was / you were failed |
| Nosotros / as | fracasábamos | We were failed |
| Vosotros / as | fracasabais | You were failed |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | fracasaban | They / you were failed |
| Vos | fracasabas | You were failed |
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 failing” and “she has failing”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he failed | I have failing |
| Tú | has failed | You have failing |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha failed | He has / she has / you have failing |
| Nosotros / as | hemos failed | We have failing |
| Vosotros / as | habéis failed | You have failing |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han failed | They / you have failing |
| Vos | has failed | You have failing |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would fail” or “she would fail”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | fracasaría | I would fail |
| Tú | fracasarías | You would fail |
| Él / Ella / Usted | fracasaría | He / she / you would fail |
| Nosotros / as | fracasaríamos | We would fail |
| Vosotros / as | fracasaríais | You would fail |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | fracasarían | They / you would fail |
| Vos | fracasarías | You would fail |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will fail” or “they will fail”.
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 fracasar” means “They are going to fail”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | fracasaré | I will fail |
| Tú | fracasarás | You will fail |
| Él / Ella / Usted | fracasará | He / she / you will fail |
| Nosotros / as | fracasaremos | We will fail |
| Vosotros / as | fracasaréis | You will fail |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | fracasarán | They / you will fail |
| Vos | fracasarás | You will fail |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | fracase |
| Tú | fracases |
| Él / Ella / Usted | fracase |
| Nosotros / as | fracasemos |
| Vosotros / as | fracaséis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | fracasen |
| Vos | fracases |
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 | fracasara | fracasase |
| Tú | fracasaras | fracasase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | fracasara | fracasase |
| Nosotros / as | fracasáramos | fracasásemos |
| Vosotros / as | fracasarais | fracasaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | fracasaran | fracasasen |
| Vos | fracasaras | fracasase |
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 | fracasare |
| Tú | fracasares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | fracasare |
| Nosotros / as | fracasáremos |
| Vosotros / as | fracasareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | fracasaren |
| Vos | fracasares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “fail!” and “don’t fail!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | fracasa | no fracases |
| Él / Ella / Usted | fracase | no fracase |
| Nosotros / as | fracasemos | no fracasemos |
| Vosotros / as | fracasad | no fracaséis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | fracasen | no fracasen |
| Vos | fracasá | no fracases |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya failed |
| Tú | hayas failed |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya failed |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos failed |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis failed |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan failed |
| Vos | hayas failed |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera failed / hubiese failed |
| Tú | hubieras failed / hubieses failed |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera failed / hubiese failed |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos failed / hubiésemos failed |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais failed / hubieseis failed |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran failed / hubiesen failed |
| Vos | hubieras failed / hubieses failed |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere failed |
| Tú | hubieres failed |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere failed |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos failed |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis failed |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren failed |
| Vos | hubieres failed |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté fracasando |
| Tú | estés fracasando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté fracasando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos fracasando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis fracasando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén fracasando |
| Vos | estés fracasando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera fracasando / estuviese fracasando |
| Tú | estuvieras fracasando / estuvieses fracasando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera fracasando / estuviese fracasando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos fracasando / estuviésamos fracasando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais fracasando / estuvieseis fracasando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera fracasando / estuviese fracasando |
| Vos | estuvieras fracasando / estuvieses fracasando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere fracasando |
| Tú | estuvieres fracasando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere fracasando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos fracasando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis fracasando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere fracasando |
| Vos | estuvieres fracasando |
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 fracasás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos fracasaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos fracasabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos fracasarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos fracasarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos fracases |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos fracasaras / Vos fracasase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos fracasá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no fracases |