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Embeber is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to absorb, take in”.
Below are all of the conjugations for embeber 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 absorb, take in |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | embeber |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está embebiendo) and past continuous (estaba embebiendo). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. absorbing).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he embebido and hubiera embebido. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have absorbed).
| Gerundio / Gerund | embebiendo |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | embebido |
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 absorb” or “they absorb”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | embebo |
| Tú | embebes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | embebe |
| Nosotros / as | embebemos |
| Vosotros / as | embebéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | embeben |
| Vos | embebés |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I absorbed” or “she absorbed” 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 | embebí | I absorbed |
| Tú | embebiste | You absorbed |
| Él / Ella / Usted | embebió | He / she / you absorbed |
| Nosotros / as | embebimos | We absorbed |
| Vosotros / as | embebisteis | You absorbed |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | embebieron | They / you absorbed |
| Vos | embebiste | You absorbed |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was absorbing” or “she was absorbing” 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 | embebía | I was absorbing |
| Tú | embebías | You were absorbing |
| Él / Ella / Usted | embebía | He was / she was / you were absorbing |
| Nosotros / as | embebíamos | We were absorbing |
| Vosotros / as | embebíais | You were absorbing |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | embebían | They / you were absorbing |
| Vos | embebías | You were absorbing |
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 absorbed” and “she has absorbed”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he embebido | I have absorbed |
| Tú | has embebido | You have absorbed |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha embebido | He has / she has / you have absorbed |
| Nosotros / as | hemos embebido | We have absorbed |
| Vosotros / as | habéis embebido | You have absorbed |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han embebido | They / you have absorbed |
| Vos | has embebido | You have absorbed |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would absorb” or “she would absorb”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | embebería | I would absorb |
| Tú | embeberías | You would absorb |
| Él / Ella / Usted | embebería | He / she / you would absorb |
| Nosotros / as | embeberíamos | We would absorb |
| Vosotros / as | embeberíais | You would absorb |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | embeberían | They / you would absorb |
| Vos | embeberías | You would absorb |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will absorb” or “they will absorb”.
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 embeber” means “They are going to absorb”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | embeberé | I will absorb |
| Tú | embeberás | You will absorb |
| Él / Ella / Usted | embeberá | He / she / you will absorb |
| Nosotros / as | embeberemos | We will absorb |
| Vosotros / as | embeberéis | You will absorb |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | embeberán | They / you will absorb |
| Vos | embeberás | You will absorb |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | embeba |
| Tú | embebas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | embeba |
| Nosotros / as | embebamos |
| Vosotros / as | embebáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | embeban |
| Vos | embebas |
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 | embebiera | embebiese |
| Tú | embebieras | embebiese |
| Él / Ella / Usted | embebiera | embebiese |
| Nosotros / as | embebiéramos | embebiésemos |
| Vosotros / as | embebierais | embebieseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | embebieran | embebiesen |
| Vos | embebieras | embebiese |
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 | embebiere |
| Tú | embebieres |
| Él / Ella / Usted | embebiere |
| Nosotros / as | embebiéremos |
| Vosotros / as | embebiereis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | embebieren |
| Vos | embebieres |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “absorb!” and “don’t absorb!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | embebe | no embebas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | embeba | no embeba |
| Nosotros / as | embebamos | no embebamos |
| Vosotros / as | embebed | no embebáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | embeban | no embeban |
| Vos | embebé | no embebas |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya embebido |
| Tú | hayas embebido |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya embebido |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos embebido |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis embebido |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan embebido |
| Vos | hayas embebido |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera embebido / hubiese embebido |
| Tú | hubieras embebido / hubieses embebido |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera embebido / hubiese embebido |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos embebido / hubiésemos embebido |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais embebido / hubieseis embebido |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran embebido / hubiesen embebido |
| Vos | hubieras embebido / hubieses embebido |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere embebido |
| Tú | hubieres embebido |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere embebido |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos embebido |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis embebido |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren embebido |
| Vos | hubieres embebido |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté embebiendo |
| Tú | estés embebiendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté embebiendo |
| Nosotros / as | estemos embebiendo |
| Vosotros / as | estéis embebiendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén embebiendo |
| Vos | estés embebiendo |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera embebiendo / estuviese embebiendo |
| Tú | estuvieras embebiendo / estuvieses embebiendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera embebiendo / estuviese embebiendo |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos embebiendo / estuviésamos embebiendo |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais embebiendo / estuvieseis embebiendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera embebiendo / estuviese embebiendo |
| Vos | estuvieras embebiendo / estuvieses embebiendo |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere embebiendo |
| Tú | estuvieres embebiendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere embebiendo |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos embebiendo |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis embebiendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere embebiendo |
| Vos | estuvieres embebiendo |
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 embebés |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos embebiste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos embebías |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos embeberías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos embeberás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos embebas |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos embebieras / Vos embebiese |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos embebé |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no embebas |