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Frenar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to brake, restrain, hold back”.
Below are all of the conjugations for frenar 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 brake, restrain, hold back |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | frenar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está frenando) and past continuous (estaba frenando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. braked).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he braked and hubiera braked. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have braking).
| Gerundio / Gerund | frenando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | braked |
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 brake” or “they brake”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | freno |
| Tú | frenas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | frena |
| Nosotros / as | frenamos |
| Vosotros / as | frenáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | frenan |
| Vos | frenás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I brake” or “she brake” 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 | frené | I brake |
| Tú | frenaste | You brake |
| Él / Ella / Usted | frenó | He / she / you brake |
| Nosotros / as | frenamos | We brake |
| Vosotros / as | frenasteis | You brake |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | frenaron | They / you brake |
| Vos | frenaste | You brake |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was braked” or “she was braked” 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 | frenaba | I was braked |
| Tú | frenabas | You were braked |
| Él / Ella / Usted | frenaba | He was / she was / you were braked |
| Nosotros / as | frenábamos | We were braked |
| Vosotros / as | frenabais | You were braked |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | frenaban | They / you were braked |
| Vos | frenabas | You were braked |
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 braking” and “she has braking”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he braked | I have braking |
| Tú | has braked | You have braking |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha braked | He has / she has / you have braking |
| Nosotros / as | hemos braked | We have braking |
| Vosotros / as | habéis braked | You have braking |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han braked | They / you have braking |
| Vos | has braked | You have braking |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would brake” or “she would brake”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | frenaría | I would brake |
| Tú | frenarías | You would brake |
| Él / Ella / Usted | frenaría | He / she / you would brake |
| Nosotros / as | frenaríamos | We would brake |
| Vosotros / as | frenaríais | You would brake |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | frenarían | They / you would brake |
| Vos | frenarías | You would brake |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will brake” or “they will brake”.
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 frenar” means “They are going to brake”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | frenaré | I will brake |
| Tú | frenarás | You will brake |
| Él / Ella / Usted | frenará | He / she / you will brake |
| Nosotros / as | frenaremos | We will brake |
| Vosotros / as | frenaréis | You will brake |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | frenarán | They / you will brake |
| Vos | frenarás | You will brake |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | frene |
| Tú | frenes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | frene |
| Nosotros / as | frenemos |
| Vosotros / as | frenéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | frenen |
| Vos | frenes |
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 | frenara | frenase |
| Tú | frenaras | frenase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | frenara | frenase |
| Nosotros / as | frenáramos | frenásemos |
| Vosotros / as | frenarais | frenaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | frenaran | frenasen |
| Vos | frenaras | frenase |
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 | frenare |
| Tú | frenares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | frenare |
| Nosotros / as | frenáremos |
| Vosotros / as | frenareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | frenaren |
| Vos | frenares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “brake!” and “don’t brake!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | frena | no frenes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | frene | no frene |
| Nosotros / as | frenemos | no frenemos |
| Vosotros / as | frenad | no frenéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | frenen | no frenen |
| Vos | frená | no frenes |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya braked |
| Tú | hayas braked |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya braked |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos braked |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis braked |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan braked |
| Vos | hayas braked |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera braked / hubiese braked |
| Tú | hubieras braked / hubieses braked |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera braked / hubiese braked |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos braked / hubiésemos braked |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais braked / hubieseis braked |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran braked / hubiesen braked |
| Vos | hubieras braked / hubieses braked |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere braked |
| Tú | hubieres braked |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere braked |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos braked |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis braked |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren braked |
| Vos | hubieres braked |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté frenando |
| Tú | estés frenando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté frenando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos frenando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis frenando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén frenando |
| Vos | estés frenando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera frenando / estuviese frenando |
| Tú | estuvieras frenando / estuvieses frenando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera frenando / estuviese frenando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos frenando / estuviésamos frenando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais frenando / estuvieseis frenando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera frenando / estuviese frenando |
| Vos | estuvieras frenando / estuvieses frenando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere frenando |
| Tú | estuvieres frenando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere frenando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos frenando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis frenando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere frenando |
| Vos | estuvieres frenando |
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 frenás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos frenaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos frenabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos frenarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos frenarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos frenes |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos frenaras / Vos frenase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos frená |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no frenes |