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Justificar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to justify”.
Below are all of the conjugations for justificar 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 justify |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | justificar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está justificando) and past continuous (estaba justificando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. justifying).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he justificado and hubiera justificado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have justified).
| Gerundio / Gerund | justificando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | justificado |
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 justify” or “they justify”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | justifico |
| Tú | justificas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | justifica |
| Nosotros / as | justificamos |
| Vosotros / as | justificáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | justifican |
| Vos | justificás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I justified” or “she justified” 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 | justifiqué | I justified |
| Tú | justificaste | You justified |
| Él / Ella / Usted | justificó | He / she / you justified |
| Nosotros / as | justificamos | We justified |
| Vosotros / as | justificasteis | You justified |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | justificaron | They / you justified |
| Vos | justificaste | You justified |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was justifying” or “she was justifying” 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 | justificaba | I was justifying |
| Tú | justificabas | You were justifying |
| Él / Ella / Usted | justificaba | He was / she was / you were justifying |
| Nosotros / as | justificábamos | We were justifying |
| Vosotros / as | justificabais | You were justifying |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | justificaban | They / you were justifying |
| Vos | justificabas | You were justifying |
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 justified” and “she has justified”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he justificado | I have justified |
| Tú | has justificado | You have justified |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha justificado | He has / she has / you have justified |
| Nosotros / as | hemos justificado | We have justified |
| Vosotros / as | habéis justificado | You have justified |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han justificado | They / you have justified |
| Vos | has justificado | You have justified |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would justify” or “she would justify”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | justificaría | I would justify |
| Tú | justificarías | You would justify |
| Él / Ella / Usted | justificaría | He / she / you would justify |
| Nosotros / as | justificaríamos | We would justify |
| Vosotros / as | justificaríais | You would justify |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | justificarían | They / you would justify |
| Vos | justificarías | You would justify |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will justify” or “they will justify”.
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 justificar” means “They are going to justify”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | justificaré | I will justify |
| Tú | justificarás | You will justify |
| Él / Ella / Usted | justificará | He / she / you will justify |
| Nosotros / as | justificaremos | We will justify |
| Vosotros / as | justificaréis | You will justify |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | justificarán | They / you will justify |
| Vos | justificarás | You will justify |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | justifique |
| Tú | justifiques |
| Él / Ella / Usted | justifique |
| Nosotros / as | justifiquemos |
| Vosotros / as | justifiquéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | justifiquen |
| Vos | justifiques |
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 | justificara | justificase |
| Tú | justificaras | justificase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | justificara | justificase |
| Nosotros / as | justificáramos | justificásemos |
| Vosotros / as | justificarais | justificaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | justificaran | justificasen |
| Vos | justificaras | justificase |
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 | justificare |
| Tú | justificares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | justificare |
| Nosotros / as | justificáremos |
| Vosotros / as | justificareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | justificaren |
| Vos | justificares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “justify!” and “don’t justify!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | justifica | no justifiques |
| Él / Ella / Usted | justifique | no justifique |
| Nosotros / as | justifiquemos | no justifiquemos |
| Vosotros / as | justificad | no justifiquéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | justifiquen | no justifiquen |
| Vos | justificá | no justifiques |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya justificado |
| Tú | hayas justificado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya justificado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos justificado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis justificado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan justificado |
| Vos | hayas justificado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera justificado / hubiese justificado |
| Tú | hubieras justificado / hubieses justificado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera justificado / hubiese justificado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos justificado / hubiésemos justificado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais justificado / hubieseis justificado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran justificado / hubiesen justificado |
| Vos | hubieras justificado / hubieses justificado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere justificado |
| Tú | hubieres justificado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere justificado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos justificado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis justificado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren justificado |
| Vos | hubieres justificado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté justificando |
| Tú | estés justificando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté justificando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos justificando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis justificando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén justificando |
| Vos | estés justificando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera justificando / estuviese justificando |
| Tú | estuvieras justificando / estuvieses justificando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera justificando / estuviese justificando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos justificando / estuviésamos justificando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais justificando / estuvieseis justificando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera justificando / estuviese justificando |
| Vos | estuvieras justificando / estuvieses justificando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere justificando |
| Tú | estuvieres justificando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere justificando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos justificando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis justificando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere justificando |
| Vos | estuvieres justificando |
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 justificás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos justificaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos justificabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos justificarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos justificarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos justifiques |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos justificaras / Vos justificase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos justificá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no justifiques |