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Bastar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to suffice, be enough”.
Below are all of the conjugations for bastar 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 suffice, be enough |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | bastar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está bastando) and past continuous (estaba bastando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. sufficing).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he bastado and hubiera bastado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have sufficed).
| Gerundio / Gerund | bastando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | bastado |
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 suffice” or “they suffice”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | basto |
| Tú | bastas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | basta |
| Nosotros / as | bastamos |
| Vosotros / as | bastáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | bastan |
| Vos | bastás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I sufficed” or “she sufficed” 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 | basté | I sufficed |
| Tú | bastaste | You sufficed |
| Él / Ella / Usted | bastó | He / she / you sufficed |
| Nosotros / as | bastamos | We sufficed |
| Vosotros / as | bastasteis | You sufficed |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | bastaron | They / you sufficed |
| Vos | bastaste | You sufficed |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was sufficing” or “she was sufficing” 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 | bastaba | I was sufficing |
| Tú | bastabas | You were sufficing |
| Él / Ella / Usted | bastaba | He was / she was / you were sufficing |
| Nosotros / as | bastábamos | We were sufficing |
| Vosotros / as | bastabais | You were sufficing |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | bastaban | They / you were sufficing |
| Vos | bastabas | You were sufficing |
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 sufficed” and “she has sufficed”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he bastado | I have sufficed |
| Tú | has bastado | You have sufficed |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha bastado | He has / she has / you have sufficed |
| Nosotros / as | hemos bastado | We have sufficed |
| Vosotros / as | habéis bastado | You have sufficed |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han bastado | They / you have sufficed |
| Vos | has bastado | You have sufficed |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would suffice” or “she would suffice”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | bastaría | I would suffice |
| Tú | bastarías | You would suffice |
| Él / Ella / Usted | bastaría | He / she / you would suffice |
| Nosotros / as | bastaríamos | We would suffice |
| Vosotros / as | bastaríais | You would suffice |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | bastarían | They / you would suffice |
| Vos | bastarías | You would suffice |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will suffice” or “they will suffice”.
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 bastar” means “They are going to suffice”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | bastaré | I will suffice |
| Tú | bastarás | You will suffice |
| Él / Ella / Usted | bastará | He / she / you will suffice |
| Nosotros / as | bastaremos | We will suffice |
| Vosotros / as | bastaréis | You will suffice |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | bastarán | They / you will suffice |
| Vos | bastarás | You will suffice |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | baste |
| Tú | bastes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | baste |
| Nosotros / as | bastemos |
| Vosotros / as | bastéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | basten |
| Vos | bastes |
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 | bastara | bastase |
| Tú | bastaras | bastase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | bastara | bastase |
| Nosotros / as | bastáramos | bastásemos |
| Vosotros / as | bastarais | bastaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | bastaran | bastasen |
| Vos | bastaras | bastase |
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 | bastare |
| Tú | bastares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | bastare |
| Nosotros / as | bastáremos |
| Vosotros / as | bastareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | bastaren |
| Vos | bastares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “suffice!” and “don’t suffice!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | basta | no bastes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | baste | no baste |
| Nosotros / as | bastemos | no bastemos |
| Vosotros / as | bastad | no bastéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | basten | no basten |
| Vos | bastá | no bastes |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya bastado |
| Tú | hayas bastado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya bastado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos bastado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis bastado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan bastado |
| Vos | hayas bastado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera bastado / hubiese bastado |
| Tú | hubieras bastado / hubieses bastado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera bastado / hubiese bastado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos bastado / hubiésemos bastado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais bastado / hubieseis bastado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran bastado / hubiesen bastado |
| Vos | hubieras bastado / hubieses bastado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere bastado |
| Tú | hubieres bastado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere bastado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos bastado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis bastado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren bastado |
| Vos | hubieres bastado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté bastando |
| Tú | estés bastando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté bastando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos bastando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis bastando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén bastando |
| Vos | estés bastando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera bastando / estuviese bastando |
| Tú | estuvieras bastando / estuvieses bastando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera bastando / estuviese bastando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos bastando / estuviésamos bastando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais bastando / estuvieseis bastando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera bastando / estuviese bastando |
| Vos | estuvieras bastando / estuvieses bastando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere bastando |
| Tú | estuvieres bastando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere bastando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos bastando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis bastando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere bastando |
| Vos | estuvieres bastando |
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 bastás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos bastaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos bastabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos bastarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos bastarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos bastes |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos bastaras / Vos bastase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos bastá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no bastes |