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Alentar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to encourage, cheer up, comfort”.
Below are all of the conjugations for alentar 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 encourage, cheer up, comfort |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | alentar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está alentando) and past continuous (estaba alentando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. encouraging).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he alentado and hubiera alentado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have encouraged).
| Gerundio / Gerund | alentando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | alentado |
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 encourage” or “they encourage”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | aliento |
| Tú | alientas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | alienta |
| Nosotros / as | alentamos |
| Vosotros / as | alentáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | alientan |
| Vos | alentás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I encouraged” or “she encouraged” 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 | alenté | I encouraged |
| Tú | alentaste | You encouraged |
| Él / Ella / Usted | alentó | He / she / you encouraged |
| Nosotros / as | alentamos | We encouraged |
| Vosotros / as | alentasteis | You encouraged |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | alentaron | They / you encouraged |
| Vos | alentaste | You encouraged |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was encouraging” or “she was encouraging” 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 | alentaba | I was encouraging |
| Tú | alentabas | You were encouraging |
| Él / Ella / Usted | alentaba | He was / she was / you were encouraging |
| Nosotros / as | alentábamos | We were encouraging |
| Vosotros / as | alentabais | You were encouraging |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | alentaban | They / you were encouraging |
| Vos | alentabas | You were encouraging |
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 encouraged” and “she has encouraged”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he alentado | I have encouraged |
| Tú | has alentado | You have encouraged |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha alentado | He has / she has / you have encouraged |
| Nosotros / as | hemos alentado | We have encouraged |
| Vosotros / as | habéis alentado | You have encouraged |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han alentado | They / you have encouraged |
| Vos | has alentado | You have encouraged |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would encourage” or “she would encourage”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | alentaría | I would encourage |
| Tú | alentarías | You would encourage |
| Él / Ella / Usted | alentaría | He / she / you would encourage |
| Nosotros / as | alentaríamos | We would encourage |
| Vosotros / as | alentaríais | You would encourage |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | alentarían | They / you would encourage |
| Vos | alentarías | You would encourage |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will encourage” or “they will encourage”.
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 alentar” means “They are going to encourage”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | alentaré | I will encourage |
| Tú | alentarás | You will encourage |
| Él / Ella / Usted | alentará | He / she / you will encourage |
| Nosotros / as | alentaremos | We will encourage |
| Vosotros / as | alentaréis | You will encourage |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | alentarán | They / you will encourage |
| Vos | alentarás | You will encourage |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | aliente |
| Tú | alientes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | aliente |
| Nosotros / as | alentemos |
| Vosotros / as | alentéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | alienten |
| Vos | alientes |
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 | alentara | alentase |
| Tú | alentaras | alentase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | alentara | alentase |
| Nosotros / as | alentáramos | alentásemos |
| Vosotros / as | alentarais | alentaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | alentaran | alentasen |
| Vos | alentaras | alentase |
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 | alentare |
| Tú | alentares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | alentare |
| Nosotros / as | alentáremos |
| Vosotros / as | alentareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | alentaren |
| Vos | alentares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “encourage!” and “don’t encourage!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | alienta | no alientes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | aliente | no aliente |
| Nosotros / as | alentemos | no alentemos |
| Vosotros / as | alentad | no alentéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | alienten | no alienten |
| Vos | alentá | no alientes |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya alentado |
| Tú | hayas alentado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya alentado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos alentado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis alentado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan alentado |
| Vos | hayas alentado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera alentado / hubiese alentado |
| Tú | hubieras alentado / hubieses alentado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera alentado / hubiese alentado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos alentado / hubiésemos alentado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais alentado / hubieseis alentado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran alentado / hubiesen alentado |
| Vos | hubieras alentado / hubieses alentado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere alentado |
| Tú | hubieres alentado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere alentado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos alentado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis alentado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren alentado |
| Vos | hubieres alentado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté alentando |
| Tú | estés alentando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté alentando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos alentando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis alentando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén alentando |
| Vos | estés alentando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera alentando / estuviese alentando |
| Tú | estuvieras alentando / estuvieses alentando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera alentando / estuviese alentando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos alentando / estuviésamos alentando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais alentando / estuvieseis alentando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera alentando / estuviese alentando |
| Vos | estuvieras alentando / estuvieses alentando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere alentando |
| Tú | estuvieres alentando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere alentando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos alentando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis alentando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere alentando |
| Vos | estuvieres alentando |
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 alentás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos alentaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos alentabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos alentarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos alentarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos alientes |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos alentaras / Vos alentase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos alentá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no alientes |