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Blanquear is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to whiten, bleach”.
Below are all of the conjugations for blanquear 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 whiten, bleach |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | blanquear |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está blanqueando) and past continuous (estaba blanqueando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. whitening).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he blanqueado and hubiera blanqueado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have whitened).
| Gerundio / Gerund | blanqueando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | blanqueado |
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 whiten” or “they whiten”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | blanqueo |
| Tú | blanqueas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | blanquea |
| Nosotros / as | blanqueamos |
| Vosotros / as | blanqueáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | blanquean |
| Vos | blanqueás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I whitened” or “she whitened” 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 | blanqueé | I whitened |
| Tú | blanqueaste | You whitened |
| Él / Ella / Usted | blanqueó | He / she / you whitened |
| Nosotros / as | blanqueamos | We whitened |
| Vosotros / as | blanqueasteis | You whitened |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | blanquearon | They / you whitened |
| Vos | blanqueaste | You whitened |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was whitening” or “she was whitening” 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 | blanqueaba | I was whitening |
| Tú | blanqueabas | You were whitening |
| Él / Ella / Usted | blanqueaba | He was / she was / you were whitening |
| Nosotros / as | blanqueábamos | We were whitening |
| Vosotros / as | blanqueabais | You were whitening |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | blanqueaban | They / you were whitening |
| Vos | blanqueabas | You were whitening |
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 whitened” and “she has whitened”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he blanqueado | I have whitened |
| Tú | has blanqueado | You have whitened |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha blanqueado | He has / she has / you have whitened |
| Nosotros / as | hemos blanqueado | We have whitened |
| Vosotros / as | habéis blanqueado | You have whitened |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han blanqueado | They / you have whitened |
| Vos | has blanqueado | You have whitened |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would whiten” or “she would whiten”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | blanquearía | I would whiten |
| Tú | blanquearías | You would whiten |
| Él / Ella / Usted | blanquearía | He / she / you would whiten |
| Nosotros / as | blanquearíamos | We would whiten |
| Vosotros / as | blanquearíais | You would whiten |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | blanquearían | They / you would whiten |
| Vos | blanquearías | You would whiten |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will whiten” or “they will whiten”.
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 blanquear” means “They are going to whiten”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | blanquearé | I will whiten |
| Tú | blanquearás | You will whiten |
| Él / Ella / Usted | blanqueará | He / she / you will whiten |
| Nosotros / as | blanquearemos | We will whiten |
| Vosotros / as | blanquearéis | You will whiten |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | blanquearán | They / you will whiten |
| Vos | blanquearás | You will whiten |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | blanquee |
| Tú | blanquees |
| Él / Ella / Usted | blanquee |
| Nosotros / as | blanqueemos |
| Vosotros / as | blanqueéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | blanqueen |
| Vos | blanquees |
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 | blanqueara | blanquease |
| Tú | blanquearas | blanquease |
| Él / Ella / Usted | blanqueara | blanquease |
| Nosotros / as | blanqueáramos | blanqueásemos |
| Vosotros / as | blanquearais | blanqueaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | blanquearan | blanqueasen |
| Vos | blanquearas | blanquease |
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 | blanqueare |
| Tú | blanqueares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | blanqueare |
| Nosotros / as | blanqueáremos |
| Vosotros / as | blanqueareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | blanquearen |
| Vos | blanqueares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “whiten!” and “don’t whiten!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | blanquea | no blanquees |
| Él / Ella / Usted | blanquee | no blanquee |
| Nosotros / as | blanqueemos | no blanqueemos |
| Vosotros / as | blanquead | no blanqueéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | blanqueen | no blanqueen |
| Vos | blanqueá | no blanquees |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya blanqueado |
| Tú | hayas blanqueado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya blanqueado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos blanqueado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis blanqueado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan blanqueado |
| Vos | hayas blanqueado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera blanqueado / hubiese blanqueado |
| Tú | hubieras blanqueado / hubieses blanqueado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera blanqueado / hubiese blanqueado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos blanqueado / hubiésemos blanqueado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais blanqueado / hubieseis blanqueado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran blanqueado / hubiesen blanqueado |
| Vos | hubieras blanqueado / hubieses blanqueado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere blanqueado |
| Tú | hubieres blanqueado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere blanqueado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos blanqueado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis blanqueado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren blanqueado |
| Vos | hubieres blanqueado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté blanqueando |
| Tú | estés blanqueando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté blanqueando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos blanqueando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis blanqueando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén blanqueando |
| Vos | estés blanqueando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera blanqueando / estuviese blanqueando |
| Tú | estuvieras blanqueando / estuvieses blanqueando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera blanqueando / estuviese blanqueando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos blanqueando / estuviésamos blanqueando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais blanqueando / estuvieseis blanqueando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera blanqueando / estuviese blanqueando |
| Vos | estuvieras blanqueando / estuvieses blanqueando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere blanqueando |
| Tú | estuvieres blanqueando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere blanqueando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos blanqueando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis blanqueando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere blanqueando |
| Vos | estuvieres blanqueando |
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 blanqueás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos blanqueaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos blanqueabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos blanquearías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos blanquearás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos blanquees |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos blanquearas / Vos blanquease |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos blanqueá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no blanquees |