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Emparejar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to match, pair off”.
Below are all of the conjugations for emparejar 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 match, pair off |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | emparejar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está emparejando) and past continuous (estaba emparejando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. matching).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he emparejado and hubiera emparejado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have matched).
| Gerundio / Gerund | emparejando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | emparejado |
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 match” or “they match”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | emparejo |
| Tú | emparejas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | empareja |
| Nosotros / as | emparejamos |
| Vosotros / as | emparejáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | emparejan |
| Vos | emparejás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I matched” or “she matched” 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 | emparejé | I matched |
| Tú | emparejaste | You matched |
| Él / Ella / Usted | emparejó | He / she / you matched |
| Nosotros / as | emparejamos | We matched |
| Vosotros / as | emparejasteis | You matched |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | emparejaron | They / you matched |
| Vos | emparejaste | You matched |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was matching” or “she was matching” 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 | emparejaba | I was matching |
| Tú | emparejabas | You were matching |
| Él / Ella / Usted | emparejaba | He was / she was / you were matching |
| Nosotros / as | emparejábamos | We were matching |
| Vosotros / as | emparejabais | You were matching |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | emparejaban | They / you were matching |
| Vos | emparejabas | You were matching |
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 matched” and “she has matched”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he emparejado | I have matched |
| Tú | has emparejado | You have matched |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha emparejado | He has / she has / you have matched |
| Nosotros / as | hemos emparejado | We have matched |
| Vosotros / as | habéis emparejado | You have matched |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han emparejado | They / you have matched |
| Vos | has emparejado | You have matched |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would match” or “she would match”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | emparejaría | I would match |
| Tú | emparejarías | You would match |
| Él / Ella / Usted | emparejaría | He / she / you would match |
| Nosotros / as | emparejaríamos | We would match |
| Vosotros / as | emparejaríais | You would match |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | emparejarían | They / you would match |
| Vos | emparejarías | You would match |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will match” or “they will match”.
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 emparejar” means “They are going to match”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | emparejaré | I will match |
| Tú | emparejarás | You will match |
| Él / Ella / Usted | emparejará | He / she / you will match |
| Nosotros / as | emparejaremos | We will match |
| Vosotros / as | emparejaréis | You will match |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | emparejarán | They / you will match |
| Vos | emparejarás | You will match |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | empareje |
| Tú | emparejes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | empareje |
| Nosotros / as | emparejemos |
| Vosotros / as | emparejéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | emparejen |
| Vos | emparejes |
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 | emparejara | emparejase |
| Tú | emparejaras | emparejase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | emparejara | emparejase |
| Nosotros / as | emparejáramos | emparejásemos |
| Vosotros / as | emparejarais | emparejaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | emparejaran | emparejasen |
| Vos | emparejaras | emparejase |
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 | emparejare |
| Tú | emparejares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | emparejare |
| Nosotros / as | emparejáremos |
| Vosotros / as | emparejareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | emparejaren |
| Vos | emparejares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “match!” and “don’t match!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | empareja | no emparejes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | empareje | no empareje |
| Nosotros / as | emparejemos | no emparejemos |
| Vosotros / as | emparejad | no emparejéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | emparejen | no emparejen |
| Vos | emparejá | no emparejes |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya emparejado |
| Tú | hayas emparejado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya emparejado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos emparejado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis emparejado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan emparejado |
| Vos | hayas emparejado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera emparejado / hubiese emparejado |
| Tú | hubieras emparejado / hubieses emparejado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera emparejado / hubiese emparejado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos emparejado / hubiésemos emparejado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais emparejado / hubieseis emparejado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran emparejado / hubiesen emparejado |
| Vos | hubieras emparejado / hubieses emparejado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere emparejado |
| Tú | hubieres emparejado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere emparejado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos emparejado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis emparejado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren emparejado |
| Vos | hubieres emparejado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté emparejando |
| Tú | estés emparejando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté emparejando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos emparejando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis emparejando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén emparejando |
| Vos | estés emparejando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera emparejando / estuviese emparejando |
| Tú | estuvieras emparejando / estuvieses emparejando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera emparejando / estuviese emparejando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos emparejando / estuviésamos emparejando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais emparejando / estuvieseis emparejando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera emparejando / estuviese emparejando |
| Vos | estuvieras emparejando / estuvieses emparejando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere emparejando |
| Tú | estuvieres emparejando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere emparejando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos emparejando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis emparejando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere emparejando |
| Vos | estuvieres emparejando |
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 emparejás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos emparejaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos emparejabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos emparejarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos emparejarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos emparejes |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos emparejaras / Vos emparejase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos emparejá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no emparejes |