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Incumplir is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to fail, break a promise”.
Below are all of the conjugations for incumplir 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, break a promise |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | incumplir |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está incumpliendo) and past continuous (estaba incumpliendo). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. breaking a promise).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he incumplido and hubiera incumplido. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have broken a promise).
| Gerundio / Gerund | incumpliendo |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | incumplido |
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 break a promise” or “they break a promise”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | incumplo |
| Tú | incumples |
| Él / Ella / Usted | incumple |
| Nosotros / as | incumplimos |
| Vosotros / as | incumplís |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | incumplen |
| Vos | incumplís |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I broke a promise” or “she broke a promise” 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 | incumplí | I broke a promise |
| Tú | incumpliste | You broke a promise |
| Él / Ella / Usted | incumplió | He / she / you broke a promise |
| Nosotros / as | incumplimos | We broke a promise |
| Vosotros / as | incumplisteis | You broke a promise |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | incumplieron | They / you broke a promise |
| Vos | incumpliste | You broke a promise |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was breaking a promise” or “she was breaking a promise” 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 | incumplía | I was breaking a promise |
| Tú | incumplías | You were breaking a promise |
| Él / Ella / Usted | incumplía | He was / she was / you were breaking a promise |
| Nosotros / as | incumplíamos | We were breaking a promise |
| Vosotros / as | incumplíais | You were breaking a promise |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | incumplían | They / you were breaking a promise |
| Vos | incumplías | You were breaking a promise |
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 broken a promise” and “she has broken a promise”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he incumplido | I have broken a promise |
| Tú | has incumplido | You have broken a promise |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha incumplido | He has / she has / you have broken a promise |
| Nosotros / as | hemos incumplido | We have broken a promise |
| Vosotros / as | habéis incumplido | You have broken a promise |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han incumplido | They / you have broken a promise |
| Vos | has incumplido | You have broken a promise |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would break a promise” or “she would break a promise”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | incumpliría | I would break a promise |
| Tú | incumplirías | You would break a promise |
| Él / Ella / Usted | incumpliría | He / she / you would break a promise |
| Nosotros / as | incumpliríamos | We would break a promise |
| Vosotros / as | incumpliríais | You would break a promise |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | incumplirían | They / you would break a promise |
| Vos | incumplirías | You would break a promise |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will break a promise” or “they will break a promise”.
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 incumplir” means “They are going to break a promise”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | incumpliré | I will break a promise |
| Tú | incumplirás | You will break a promise |
| Él / Ella / Usted | incumplirá | He / she / you will break a promise |
| Nosotros / as | incumpliremos | We will break a promise |
| Vosotros / as | incumpliréis | You will break a promise |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | incumplirán | They / you will break a promise |
| Vos | incumplirás | You will break a promise |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | incumpla |
| Tú | incumplas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | incumpla |
| Nosotros / as | incumplamos |
| Vosotros / as | incumpláis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | incumplan |
| Vos | incumplas |
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 | incumpliera | incumpliese |
| Tú | incumplieras | incumpliese |
| Él / Ella / Usted | incumpliera | incumpliese |
| Nosotros / as | incumpliéramos | incumpliésemos |
| Vosotros / as | incumplierais | incumplieseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | incumplieran | incumpliesen |
| Vos | incumplieras | incumpliese |
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 | incumpliere |
| Tú | incumplieres |
| Él / Ella / Usted | incumpliera |
| Nosotros / as | incumpliéremos |
| Vosotros / as | incumpliereis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | incumplieren |
| Vos | incumplieres |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “break a promise!” and “don’t break a promise!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | incumple | no incumplas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | incumpla | no incumpla |
| Nosotros / as | incumplamos | no incumplamos |
| Vosotros / as | incumplid | no incumpláis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | incumplan | no incumplan |
| Vos | incumplí | no incumplas |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya incumplido |
| Tú | hayas incumplido |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya incumplido |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos incumplido |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis incumplido |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan incumplido |
| Vos | hayas incumplido |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera incumplido / hubiese incumplido |
| Tú | hubieras incumplido / hubieses incumplido |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera incumplido / hubiese incumplido |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos incumplido / hubiésemos incumplido |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais incumplido / hubieseis incumplido |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran incumplido / hubiesen incumplido |
| Vos | hubieras incumplido / hubieses incumplido |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere incumplido |
| Tú | hubieres incumplido |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere incumplido |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos incumplido |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis incumplido |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren incumplido |
| Vos | hubieres incumplido |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté incumpliendo |
| Tú | estés incumpliendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté incumpliendo |
| Nosotros / as | estemos incumpliendo |
| Vosotros / as | estéis incumpliendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén incumpliendo |
| Vos | estés incumpliendo |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera incumpliendo / estuviese incumpliendo |
| Tú | estuvieras incumpliendo / estuvieses incumpliendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera incumpliendo / estuviese incumpliendo |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos incumpliendo / estuviésamos incumpliendo |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais incumpliendo / estuvieseis incumpliendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera incumpliendo / estuviese incumpliendo |
| Vos | estuvieras incumpliendo / estuvieses incumpliendo |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere incumpliendo |
| Tú | estuvieres incumpliendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere incumpliendo |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos incumpliendo |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis incumpliendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere incumpliendo |
| Vos | estuvieres incumpliendo |
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 incumplís |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos incumpliste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos incumplías |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos incumplirías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos incumplirás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos incumplas |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos incumplieras / Vos incumpliese |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos incumplí |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no incumplas |