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Empeorar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to make worse, become worse”.
Below are all of the conjugations for empeorar 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 make worse, become worse |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | empeorar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está empeorando) and past continuous (estaba empeorando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. making worse).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he empeorado and hubiera empeorado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have made worse).
| Gerundio / Gerund | empeorando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | empeorado |
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 make worse” or “they make worse”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | empeoro |
| Tú | empeoras |
| Él / Ella / Usted | empeora |
| Nosotros / as | empeoramos |
| Vosotros / as | empeoráis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | empeoran |
| Vos | empeorás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I made worse” or “she made worse” 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 | empeoré | I made worse |
| Tú | empeoraste | You made worse |
| Él / Ella / Usted | empeoró | He / she / you made worse |
| Nosotros / as | empeoramos | We made worse |
| Vosotros / as | empeorasteis | You made worse |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | empeoraron | They / you made worse |
| Vos | empeoraste | You made worse |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was making worse” or “she was making worse” 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 | empeoraba | I was making worse |
| Tú | empeorabas | You were making worse |
| Él / Ella / Usted | empeoraba | He was / she was / you were making worse |
| Nosotros / as | empeorábamos | We were making worse |
| Vosotros / as | empeorabais | You were making worse |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | empeoraban | They / you were making worse |
| Vos | empeorabas | You were making worse |
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 made worse” and “she has made worse”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he empeorado | I have made worse |
| Tú | has empeorado | You have made worse |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha empeorado | He has / she has / you have made worse |
| Nosotros / as | hemos empeorado | We have made worse |
| Vosotros / as | habéis empeorado | You have made worse |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han empeorado | They / you have made worse |
| Vos | has empeorado | You have made worse |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would make worse” or “she would make worse”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | empeoraría | I would make worse |
| Tú | empeorarías | You would make worse |
| Él / Ella / Usted | empeoraría | He / she / you would make worse |
| Nosotros / as | empeoraríamos | We would make worse |
| Vosotros / as | empeoraríais | You would make worse |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | empeorarían | They / you would make worse |
| Vos | empeorarías | You would make worse |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will make worse” or “they will make worse”.
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 empeorar” means “They are going to make worse”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | empeoraré | I will make worse |
| Tú | empeorarás | You will make worse |
| Él / Ella / Usted | empeorará | He / she / you will make worse |
| Nosotros / as | empeoraremos | We will make worse |
| Vosotros / as | empeoraréis | You will make worse |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | empeorarán | They / you will make worse |
| Vos | empeorarás | You will make worse |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | empeore |
| Tú | empeores |
| Él / Ella / Usted | empeore |
| Nosotros / as | empeoremos |
| Vosotros / as | empeoréis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | empeoren |
| Vos | empeores |
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 | empeorara | empeorase |
| Tú | empeoraras | empeorase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | empeorara | empeorase |
| Nosotros / as | empeoráramos | empeorásemos |
| Vosotros / as | empeorarais | empeoraseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | empeoraran | empeorasen |
| Vos | empeoraras | empeorase |
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 | empeorare |
| Tú | empeorares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | empeorare |
| Nosotros / as | empeoráremos |
| Vosotros / as | empeorareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | empeoraren |
| Vos | empeorares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “make worse!” and “don’t make worse!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | empeora | no empeores |
| Él / Ella / Usted | empeore | no empeore |
| Nosotros / as | empeoremos | no empeoremos |
| Vosotros / as | empeorad | no empeoréis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | empeoren | no empeoren |
| Vos | empeorá | no empeores |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya empeorado |
| Tú | hayas empeorado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya empeorado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos empeorado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis empeorado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan empeorado |
| Vos | hayas empeorado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera empeorado / hubiese empeorado |
| Tú | hubieras empeorado / hubieses empeorado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera empeorado / hubiese empeorado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos empeorado / hubiésemos empeorado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais empeorado / hubieseis empeorado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran empeorado / hubiesen empeorado |
| Vos | hubieras empeorado / hubieses empeorado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere empeorado |
| Tú | hubieres empeorado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere empeorado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos empeorado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis empeorado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren empeorado |
| Vos | hubieres empeorado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté empeorando |
| Tú | estés empeorando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté empeorando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos empeorando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis empeorando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén empeorando |
| Vos | estés empeorando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera empeorando / estuviese empeorando |
| Tú | estuvieras empeorando / estuvieses empeorando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera empeorando / estuviese empeorando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos empeorando / estuviésamos empeorando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais empeorando / estuvieseis empeorando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera empeorando / estuviese empeorando |
| Vos | estuvieras empeorando / estuvieses empeorando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere empeorando |
| Tú | estuvieres empeorando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere empeorando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos empeorando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis empeorando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere empeorando |
| Vos | estuvieres empeorando |
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 empeorás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos empeoraste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos empeorabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos empeorarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos empeorarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos empeores |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos empeoraras / Vos empeorase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos empeorá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no empeores |