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Hincarse is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to kneel down”.
It’s a reflexive verb, which means the subject performs the action upon themselves – e.g. “I wake myself”.
Reflexive verbs always carry a reflexive pronoun – me, te, se, nos or os – which is often placed before the conjugated verb (e.g. me hinco) or after the infinitive (e.g. Él tiene que hincarse).
Below are all of the conjugations for hincarse 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 kneel down |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | hincarse |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está hincándose) and past continuous (estaba hincándose). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. knelt down).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he knelt down and hubiera knelt down. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have kneeling down).
| Gerundio / Gerund | hincándose |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | knelt down |
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 kneel down” or “they kneel down”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | me hinco |
| Tú | te hincas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | se hinca |
| Nosotros / as | nos hincamos |
| Vosotros / as | os hincáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | se hincan |
| Vos | hincás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I kneel down” or “she kneel down” 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 | me hinqué | I kneel down |
| Tú | te hincaste | You kneel down |
| Él / Ella / Usted | se hincó | He / she / you kneel down |
| Nosotros / as | nos hincamos | We kneel down |
| Vosotros / as | os hincasteis | You kneel down |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | se hincaron | They / you kneel down |
| Vos | te hincaste | You kneel down |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was knelt down” or “she was knelt down” 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 | me hincaba | I was knelt down |
| Tú | te hincabas | You were knelt down |
| Él / Ella / Usted | se hincaba | He was / she was / you were knelt down |
| Nosotros / as | nos hincábamos | We were knelt down |
| Vosotros / as | os hincabais | You were knelt down |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | se hincaban | They / you were knelt down |
| Vos | te hincabas | You were knelt down |
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 kneeling down” and “she has kneeling down”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | me he knelt down | I have kneeling down |
| Tú | te has knelt down | You have kneeling down |
| Él / Ella / Usted | se ha knelt down | He has / she has / you have kneeling down |
| Nosotros / as | nos hemos knelt down | We have kneeling down |
| Vosotros / as | os habéis knelt down | You have kneeling down |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | se han knelt down | They / you have kneeling down |
| Vos | te has knelt down | You have kneeling down |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would kneel down” or “she would kneel down”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | me hincaría | I would kneel down |
| Tú | te hincarías | You would kneel down |
| Él / Ella / Usted | se hincaría | He / she / you would kneel down |
| Nosotros / as | nos hincaríamos | We would kneel down |
| Vosotros / as | os hincaríais | You would kneel down |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | se hincarían | They / you would kneel down |
| Vos | te hincarías | You would kneel down |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will kneel down” or “they will kneel down”.
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 hincarse” means “They are going to kneel down”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | me hincaré | I will kneel down |
| Tú | te hincarás | You will kneel down |
| Él / Ella / Usted | se hincará | He / she / you will kneel down |
| Nosotros / as | nos hincaremos | We will kneel down |
| Vosotros / as | os hincaréis | You will kneel down |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | se hincarán | They / you will kneel down |
| Vos | te hincarás | You will kneel down |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | me hinque |
| Tú | te hinques |
| Él / Ella / Usted | se hinque |
| Nosotros / as | nos hinquemos |
| Vosotros / as | os hinquéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | se hinquen |
| Vos | te hinques |
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 | me hincara | me hincase |
| Tú | te hincaras | me hincase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | se hincara | se hincase |
| Nosotros / as | nos hincáramos | nos hincásemos |
| Vosotros / as | os hincarais | os hincaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | se hincaran | se hincasen |
| Vos | te hincaras | me hincase |
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 | me hincare |
| Tú | te hincares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | se hincare |
| Nosotros / as | nos hincáremos |
| Vosotros / as | os hincareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | se hincaren |
| Vos | te hincares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “kneel down!” and “don’t kneel down!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | híncate | no te hinques |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hínquese | no se hinque |
| Nosotros / as | hinquémonos | no nos hinquemos |
| Vosotros / as | hincaos | no os hinquéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hínquense | no se hinquen |
| Vos | hincá | no te hinques |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya knelt down |
| Tú | hayas knelt down |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya knelt down |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos knelt down |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis knelt down |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan knelt down |
| Vos | hayas knelt down |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera knelt down / hubiese knelt down |
| Tú | hubieras knelt down / hubieses knelt down |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera knelt down / hubiese knelt down |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos knelt down / hubiésemos knelt down |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais knelt down / hubieseis knelt down |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran knelt down / hubiesen knelt down |
| Vos | hubieras knelt down / hubieses knelt down |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere knelt down |
| Tú | hubieres knelt down |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere knelt down |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos knelt down |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis knelt down |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren knelt down |
| Vos | hubieres knelt down |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté hincándose |
| Tú | estés hincándose |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté hincándose |
| Nosotros / as | estemos hincándose |
| Vosotros / as | estéis hincándose |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén hincándose |
| Vos | estés hincándose |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera hincándose / estuviese hincándose |
| Tú | estuvieras hincándose / estuvieses hincándose |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera hincándose / estuviese hincándose |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos hincándose / estuviésamos hincándose |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais hincándose / estuvieseis hincándose |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera hincándose / estuviese hincándose |
| Vos | estuvieras hincándose / estuvieses hincándose |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere hincándose |
| Tú | estuvieres hincándose |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere hincándose |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos hincándose |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis hincándose |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere hincándose |
| Vos | estuvieres hincándose |
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 hincás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos te hincaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos te hincabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos te hincarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos te hincarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos te hinques |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos te hincaras / Vos me hincase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos hincá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no te hinques |