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Iniciar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to initiate, begin, start”.
Below are all of the conjugations for iniciar 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 initiate, begin, start |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | iniciar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está iniciando) and past continuous (estaba iniciando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. initiating).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he iniciado and hubiera iniciado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have initiated).
| Gerundio / Gerund | iniciando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | iniciado |
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 initiate” or “they initiate”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | inicio |
| Tú | inicias |
| Él / Ella / Usted | inicia |
| Nosotros / as | iniciamos |
| Vosotros / as | iniciáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | inician |
| Vos | iniciás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I initiated” or “she initiated” 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 | inicié | I initiated |
| Tú | iniciaste | You initiated |
| Él / Ella / Usted | inició | He / she / you initiated |
| Nosotros / as | iniciamos | We initiated |
| Vosotros / as | iniciasteis | You initiated |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | iniciaron | They / you initiated |
| Vos | iniciaste | You initiated |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was initiating” or “she was initiating” 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 | iniciaba | I was initiating |
| Tú | iniciabas | You were initiating |
| Él / Ella / Usted | iniciaba | He was / she was / you were initiating |
| Nosotros / as | iniciábamos | We were initiating |
| Vosotros / as | iniciabais | You were initiating |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | iniciaban | They / you were initiating |
| Vos | iniciabas | You were initiating |
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 initiated” and “she has initiated”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he iniciado | I have initiated |
| Tú | has iniciado | You have initiated |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha iniciado | He has / she has / you have initiated |
| Nosotros / as | hemos iniciado | We have initiated |
| Vosotros / as | habéis iniciado | You have initiated |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han iniciado | They / you have initiated |
| Vos | has iniciado | You have initiated |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would initiate” or “she would initiate”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | iniciaría | I would initiate |
| Tú | iniciarías | You would initiate |
| Él / Ella / Usted | iniciaría | He / she / you would initiate |
| Nosotros / as | iniciaríamos | We would initiate |
| Vosotros / as | iniciaríais | You would initiate |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | iniciarían | They / you would initiate |
| Vos | iniciarías | You would initiate |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will initiate” or “they will initiate”.
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 iniciar” means “They are going to initiate”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | iniciaré | I will initiate |
| Tú | iniciarás | You will initiate |
| Él / Ella / Usted | iniciará | He / she / you will initiate |
| Nosotros / as | iniciaremos | We will initiate |
| Vosotros / as | iniciaréis | You will initiate |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | iniciarán | They / you will initiate |
| Vos | iniciarás | You will initiate |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | inicie |
| Tú | inicies |
| Él / Ella / Usted | inicie |
| Nosotros / as | iniciemos |
| Vosotros / as | iniciéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | inicien |
| Vos | inicies |
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 | iniciara | iniciase |
| Tú | iniciaras | iniciase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | iniciara | iniciase |
| Nosotros / as | iniciáramos | iniciásemos |
| Vosotros / as | iniciarais | iniciaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | iniciaran | iniciasen |
| Vos | iniciaras | iniciase |
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 | iniciare |
| Tú | iniciares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | iniciare |
| Nosotros / as | iniciáremos |
| Vosotros / as | iniciareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | iniciaren |
| Vos | iniciares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “initiate!” and “don’t initiate!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | inicia | no inicies |
| Él / Ella / Usted | inicie | no inicie |
| Nosotros / as | iniciemos | no iniciemos |
| Vosotros / as | iniciad | no iniciéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | inicien | no inicien |
| Vos | iniciá | no inicies |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya iniciado |
| Tú | hayas iniciado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya iniciado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos iniciado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis iniciado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan iniciado |
| Vos | hayas iniciado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera iniciado / hubiese iniciado |
| Tú | hubieras iniciado / hubieses iniciado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera iniciado / hubiese iniciado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos iniciado / hubiésemos iniciado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais iniciado / hubieseis iniciado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran iniciado / hubiesen iniciado |
| Vos | hubieras iniciado / hubieses iniciado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere iniciado |
| Tú | hubieres iniciado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere iniciado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos iniciado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis iniciado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren iniciado |
| Vos | hubieres iniciado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté iniciando |
| Tú | estés iniciando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté iniciando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos iniciando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis iniciando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén iniciando |
| Vos | estés iniciando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera iniciando / estuviese iniciando |
| Tú | estuvieras iniciando / estuvieses iniciando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera iniciando / estuviese iniciando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos iniciando / estuviésamos iniciando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais iniciando / estuvieseis iniciando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera iniciando / estuviese iniciando |
| Vos | estuvieras iniciando / estuvieses iniciando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere iniciando |
| Tú | estuvieres iniciando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere iniciando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos iniciando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis iniciando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere iniciando |
| Vos | estuvieres iniciando |
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 iniciás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos iniciaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos iniciabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos iniciarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos iniciarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos inicies |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos iniciaras / Vos iniciase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos iniciá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no inicies |