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Impedir is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to hinder, impede, obstruct, prevent”.
Below are all of the conjugations for impedir 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 hinder, impede, obstruct, prevent |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | impedir |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está impidiendo) and past continuous (estaba impidiendo). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. hindered).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he hindered and hubiera hindered. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have hindering).
| Gerundio / Gerund | impidiendo |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | hindered |
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 hinder” or “they hinder”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | impido |
| Tú | impides |
| Él / Ella / Usted | impide |
| Nosotros / as | impedimos |
| Vosotros / as | impedís |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | impiden |
| Vos | impedís |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I hinder” or “she hinder” 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 | impedí | I hinder |
| Tú | impediste | You hinder |
| Él / Ella / Usted | impidió | He / she / you hinder |
| Nosotros / as | impedimos | We hinder |
| Vosotros / as | impedisteis | You hinder |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | impidieron | They / you hinder |
| Vos | impediste | You hinder |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was hindered” or “she was hindered” 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 | impedía | I was hindered |
| Tú | impedías | You were hindered |
| Él / Ella / Usted | impedía | He was / she was / you were hindered |
| Nosotros / as | impedíamos | We were hindered |
| Vosotros / as | impedíais | You were hindered |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | impedían | They / you were hindered |
| Vos | impedías | You were hindered |
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 hindering” and “she has hindering”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he hindered | I have hindering |
| Tú | has hindered | You have hindering |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha hindered | He has / she has / you have hindering |
| Nosotros / as | hemos hindered | We have hindering |
| Vosotros / as | habéis hindered | You have hindering |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han hindered | They / you have hindering |
| Vos | has hindered | You have hindering |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would hinder” or “she would hinder”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | impediría | I would hinder |
| Tú | impedirías | You would hinder |
| Él / Ella / Usted | impediría | He / she / you would hinder |
| Nosotros / as | impediríamos | We would hinder |
| Vosotros / as | impediríais | You would hinder |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | impedirían | They / you would hinder |
| Vos | impedirías | You would hinder |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will hinder” or “they will hinder”.
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 impedir” means “They are going to hinder”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | impediré | I will hinder |
| Tú | impedirás | You will hinder |
| Él / Ella / Usted | impedirá | He / she / you will hinder |
| Nosotros / as | impediremos | We will hinder |
| Vosotros / as | impediréis | You will hinder |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | impedirán | They / you will hinder |
| Vos | impedirás | You will hinder |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | impida |
| Tú | impidas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | impida |
| Nosotros / as | impidamos |
| Vosotros / as | impidáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | impidan |
| Vos | impidas |
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 | impidiera | impidiese |
| Tú | impidieras | impidiese |
| Él / Ella / Usted | impidiera | impidiese |
| Nosotros / as | impidiéramos | impidiésemos |
| Vosotros / as | impidierais | impidieseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | impidieran | impidiesen |
| Vos | impidieras | impidiese |
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 | impidiere |
| Tú | impidieres |
| Él / Ella / Usted | impidiera |
| Nosotros / as | impidiéremos |
| Vosotros / as | impidiereis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | impidieren |
| Vos | impidieres |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “hinder!” and “don’t hinder!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | impide | no impidas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | impida | no impida |
| Nosotros / as | impidamos | no impidamos |
| Vosotros / as | impedid | no impidáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | impidan | no impidan |
| Vos | impedí | no impidas |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya hindered |
| Tú | hayas hindered |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya hindered |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos hindered |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis hindered |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan hindered |
| Vos | hayas hindered |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera hindered / hubiese hindered |
| Tú | hubieras hindered / hubieses hindered |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera hindered / hubiese hindered |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos hindered / hubiésemos hindered |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais hindered / hubieseis hindered |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran hindered / hubiesen hindered |
| Vos | hubieras hindered / hubieses hindered |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere hindered |
| Tú | hubieres hindered |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere hindered |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos hindered |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis hindered |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren hindered |
| Vos | hubieres hindered |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté impidiendo |
| Tú | estés impidiendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté impidiendo |
| Nosotros / as | estemos impidiendo |
| Vosotros / as | estéis impidiendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén impidiendo |
| Vos | estés impidiendo |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera impidiendo / estuviese impidiendo |
| Tú | estuvieras impidiendo / estuvieses impidiendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera impidiendo / estuviese impidiendo |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos impidiendo / estuviésamos impidiendo |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais impidiendo / estuvieseis impidiendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera impidiendo / estuviese impidiendo |
| Vos | estuvieras impidiendo / estuvieses impidiendo |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere impidiendo |
| Tú | estuvieres impidiendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere impidiendo |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos impidiendo |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis impidiendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere impidiendo |
| Vos | estuvieres impidiendo |
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 impedís |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos impediste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos impedías |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos impedirías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos impedirás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos impidas |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos impidieras / Vos impidiese |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos impedí |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no impidas |