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Abusar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to abuse, misuse, mistreat”.
Below are all of the conjugations for abusar 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 abuse, misuse, mistreat |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | abusar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está abusando) and past continuous (estaba abusando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. abusing).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he abusado and hubiera abusado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have abused).
| Gerundio / Gerund | abusando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | abusado |
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 abuse” or “they abuse”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | abuso |
| Tú | abusas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | abusa |
| Nosotros / as | abusamos |
| Vosotros / as | abusáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | abusan |
| Vos | abusás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I abused” or “she abused” 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 | abusé | I abused |
| Tú | abusaste | You abused |
| Él / Ella / Usted | abusó | He / she / you abused |
| Nosotros / as | abusamos | We abused |
| Vosotros / as | abusasteis | You abused |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | abusaron | They / you abused |
| Vos | abusaste | You abused |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was abusing” or “she was abusing” 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 | abusaba | I was abusing |
| Tú | abusabas | You were abusing |
| Él / Ella / Usted | abusaba | He was / she was / you were abusing |
| Nosotros / as | abusábamos | We were abusing |
| Vosotros / as | abusabais | You were abusing |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | abusaban | They / you were abusing |
| Vos | abusabas | You were abusing |
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 abused” and “she has abused”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he abusado | I have abused |
| Tú | has abusado | You have abused |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha abusado | He has / she has / you have abused |
| Nosotros / as | hemos abusado | We have abused |
| Vosotros / as | habéis abusado | You have abused |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han abusado | They / you have abused |
| Vos | has abusado | You have abused |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would abuse” or “she would abuse”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | abusaría | I would abuse |
| Tú | abusarías | You would abuse |
| Él / Ella / Usted | abusaría | He / she / you would abuse |
| Nosotros / as | abusaríamos | We would abuse |
| Vosotros / as | abusaríais | You would abuse |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | abusarían | They / you would abuse |
| Vos | abusarías | You would abuse |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will abuse” or “they will abuse”.
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 abusar” means “They are going to abuse”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | abusaré | I will abuse |
| Tú | abusarás | You will abuse |
| Él / Ella / Usted | abusará | He / she / you will abuse |
| Nosotros / as | abusaremos | We will abuse |
| Vosotros / as | abusaréis | You will abuse |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | abusarán | They / you will abuse |
| Vos | abusarás | You will abuse |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | abuse |
| Tú | abuses |
| Él / Ella / Usted | abuse |
| Nosotros / as | abusemos |
| Vosotros / as | abuséis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | abusen |
| Vos | abuses |
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 | abusara | abusase |
| Tú | abusaras | abusase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | abusara | abusase |
| Nosotros / as | abusáramos | abusásemos |
| Vosotros / as | abusarais | abusaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | abusaran | abusasen |
| Vos | abusaras | abusase |
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 | abusare |
| Tú | abusares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | abusare |
| Nosotros / as | abusáremos |
| Vosotros / as | abusareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | abusaren |
| Vos | abusares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “abuse!” and “don’t abuse!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | abusa | no abuses |
| Él / Ella / Usted | abuse | no abuse |
| Nosotros / as | abusemos | no abusemos |
| Vosotros / as | abusad | no abuséis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | abusen | no abusen |
| Vos | abusá | no abuses |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya abusado |
| Tú | hayas abusado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya abusado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos abusado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis abusado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan abusado |
| Vos | hayas abusado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera abusado / hubiese abusado |
| Tú | hubieras abusado / hubieses abusado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera abusado / hubiese abusado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos abusado / hubiésemos abusado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais abusado / hubieseis abusado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran abusado / hubiesen abusado |
| Vos | hubieras abusado / hubieses abusado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere abusado |
| Tú | hubieres abusado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere abusado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos abusado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis abusado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren abusado |
| Vos | hubieres abusado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté abusando |
| Tú | estés abusando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté abusando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos abusando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis abusando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén abusando |
| Vos | estés abusando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera abusando / estuviese abusando |
| Tú | estuvieras abusando / estuvieses abusando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera abusando / estuviese abusando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos abusando / estuviésamos abusando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais abusando / estuvieseis abusando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera abusando / estuviese abusando |
| Vos | estuvieras abusando / estuvieses abusando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere abusando |
| Tú | estuvieres abusando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere abusando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos abusando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis abusando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere abusando |
| Vos | estuvieres abusando |
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 abusás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos abusaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos abusabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos abusarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos abusarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos abuses |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos abusaras / Vos abusase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos abusá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no abuses |