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Impulsar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to drive, impale, to propel”.
Below are all of the conjugations for impulsar 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 drive, impale, to propel |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | impulsar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está impulsando) and past continuous (estaba impulsando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. impaling).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he impulsado and hubiera impulsado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have impaled).
| Gerundio / Gerund | impulsando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | impulsado |
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 impale” or “they impale”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | impulso |
| Tú | impulsas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | impulsa |
| Nosotros / as | impulsamos |
| Vosotros / as | impulsáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | impulsan |
| Vos | impulsás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I impaled” or “she impaled” 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 | impulsé | I impaled |
| Tú | impulsaste | You impaled |
| Él / Ella / Usted | impulsó | He / she / you impaled |
| Nosotros / as | impulsamos | We impaled |
| Vosotros / as | impulsasteis | You impaled |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | impulsaron | They / you impaled |
| Vos | impulsaste | You impaled |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was impaling” or “she was impaling” 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 | impulsaba | I was impaling |
| Tú | impulsabas | You were impaling |
| Él / Ella / Usted | impulsaba | He was / she was / you were impaling |
| Nosotros / as | impulsábamos | We were impaling |
| Vosotros / as | impulsabais | You were impaling |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | impulsaban | They / you were impaling |
| Vos | impulsabas | You were impaling |
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 impaled” and “she has impaled”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he impulsado | I have impaled |
| Tú | has impulsado | You have impaled |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha impulsado | He has / she has / you have impaled |
| Nosotros / as | hemos impulsado | We have impaled |
| Vosotros / as | habéis impulsado | You have impaled |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han impulsado | They / you have impaled |
| Vos | has impulsado | You have impaled |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would impale” or “she would impale”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | impulsaría | I would impale |
| Tú | impulsarías | You would impale |
| Él / Ella / Usted | impulsaría | He / she / you would impale |
| Nosotros / as | impulsaríamos | We would impale |
| Vosotros / as | impulsaríais | You would impale |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | impulsarían | They / you would impale |
| Vos | impulsarías | You would impale |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will impale” or “they will impale”.
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 impulsar” means “They are going to impale”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | impulsaré | I will impale |
| Tú | impulsarás | You will impale |
| Él / Ella / Usted | impulsará | He / she / you will impale |
| Nosotros / as | impulsaremos | We will impale |
| Vosotros / as | impulsaréis | You will impale |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | impulsarán | They / you will impale |
| Vos | impulsarás | You will impale |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | impulse |
| Tú | impulses |
| Él / Ella / Usted | impulse |
| Nosotros / as | impulsemos |
| Vosotros / as | impulséis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | impulsen |
| Vos | impulses |
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 | impulsara | impulsase |
| Tú | impulsaras | impulsase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | impulsara | impulsase |
| Nosotros / as | impulsáramos | impulsásemos |
| Vosotros / as | impulsarais | impulsaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | impulsaran | impulsasen |
| Vos | impulsaras | impulsase |
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 | impulsare |
| Tú | impulsares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | impulsare |
| Nosotros / as | impulsáremos |
| Vosotros / as | impulsareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | impulsaren |
| Vos | impulsares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “impale!” and “don’t impale!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | impulsa | no impulses |
| Él / Ella / Usted | impulse | no impulse |
| Nosotros / as | impulsemos | no impulsemos |
| Vosotros / as | impulsad | no impulséis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | impulsen | no impulsen |
| Vos | impulsá | no impulses |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya impulsado |
| Tú | hayas impulsado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya impulsado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos impulsado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis impulsado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan impulsado |
| Vos | hayas impulsado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera impulsado / hubiese impulsado |
| Tú | hubieras impulsado / hubieses impulsado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera impulsado / hubiese impulsado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos impulsado / hubiésemos impulsado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais impulsado / hubieseis impulsado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran impulsado / hubiesen impulsado |
| Vos | hubieras impulsado / hubieses impulsado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere impulsado |
| Tú | hubieres impulsado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere impulsado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos impulsado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis impulsado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren impulsado |
| Vos | hubieres impulsado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté impulsando |
| Tú | estés impulsando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté impulsando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos impulsando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis impulsando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén impulsando |
| Vos | estés impulsando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera impulsando / estuviese impulsando |
| Tú | estuvieras impulsando / estuvieses impulsando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera impulsando / estuviese impulsando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos impulsando / estuviésamos impulsando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais impulsando / estuvieseis impulsando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera impulsando / estuviese impulsando |
| Vos | estuvieras impulsando / estuvieses impulsando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere impulsando |
| Tú | estuvieres impulsando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere impulsando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos impulsando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis impulsando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere impulsando |
| Vos | estuvieres impulsando |
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 impulsás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos impulsaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos impulsabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos impulsarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos impulsarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos impulses |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos impulsaras / Vos impulsase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos impulsá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no impulses |