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Emplear is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to employ, use”.
Below are all of the conjugations for emplear 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 employ, use |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | emplear |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está empleando) and past continuous (estaba empleando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. employing).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he empleado and hubiera empleado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have employed).
| Gerundio / Gerund | empleando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | empleado |
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 employ” or “they employ”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | empleo |
| Tú | empleas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | emplea |
| Nosotros / as | empleamos |
| Vosotros / as | empleáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | emplean |
| Vos | empleás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I employed” or “she employed” 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 | empleé | I employed |
| Tú | empleaste | You employed |
| Él / Ella / Usted | empleó | He / she / you employed |
| Nosotros / as | empleamos | We employed |
| Vosotros / as | empleasteis | You employed |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | emplearon | They / you employed |
| Vos | empleaste | You employed |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was employing” or “she was employing” 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 | empleaba | I was employing |
| Tú | empleabas | You were employing |
| Él / Ella / Usted | empleaba | He was / she was / you were employing |
| Nosotros / as | empleábamos | We were employing |
| Vosotros / as | empleabais | You were employing |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | empleaban | They / you were employing |
| Vos | empleabas | You were employing |
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 employed” and “she has employed”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he empleado | I have employed |
| Tú | has empleado | You have employed |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha empleado | He has / she has / you have employed |
| Nosotros / as | hemos empleado | We have employed |
| Vosotros / as | habéis empleado | You have employed |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han empleado | They / you have employed |
| Vos | has empleado | You have employed |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would employ” or “she would employ”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | emplearía | I would employ |
| Tú | emplearías | You would employ |
| Él / Ella / Usted | emplearía | He / she / you would employ |
| Nosotros / as | emplearíamos | We would employ |
| Vosotros / as | emplearíais | You would employ |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | emplearían | They / you would employ |
| Vos | emplearías | You would employ |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will employ” or “they will employ”.
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 emplear” means “They are going to employ”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | emplearé | I will employ |
| Tú | emplearás | You will employ |
| Él / Ella / Usted | empleará | He / she / you will employ |
| Nosotros / as | emplearemos | We will employ |
| Vosotros / as | emplearéis | You will employ |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | emplearán | They / you will employ |
| Vos | emplearás | You will employ |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | emplee |
| Tú | emplees |
| Él / Ella / Usted | emplee |
| Nosotros / as | empleemos |
| Vosotros / as | empleéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | empleen |
| Vos | emplees |
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 | empleara | emplease |
| Tú | emplearas | emplease |
| Él / Ella / Usted | empleara | emplease |
| Nosotros / as | empleáramos | empleásemos |
| Vosotros / as | emplearais | empleaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | emplearan | empleasen |
| Vos | emplearas | emplease |
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 | empleare |
| Tú | empleares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | empleare |
| Nosotros / as | empleáremos |
| Vosotros / as | empleareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | emplearen |
| Vos | empleares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “employ!” and “don’t employ!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | emplea | no emplees |
| Él / Ella / Usted | emplee | no emplee |
| Nosotros / as | empleemos | no empleemos |
| Vosotros / as | emplead | no empleéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | empleen | no empleen |
| Vos | empleá | no emplees |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya empleado |
| Tú | hayas empleado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya empleado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos empleado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis empleado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan empleado |
| Vos | hayas empleado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera empleado / hubiese empleado |
| Tú | hubieras empleado / hubieses empleado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera empleado / hubiese empleado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos empleado / hubiésemos empleado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais empleado / hubieseis empleado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran empleado / hubiesen empleado |
| Vos | hubieras empleado / hubieses empleado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere empleado |
| Tú | hubieres empleado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere empleado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos empleado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis empleado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren empleado |
| Vos | hubieres empleado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté empleando |
| Tú | estés empleando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté empleando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos empleando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis empleando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén empleando |
| Vos | estés empleando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera empleando / estuviese empleando |
| Tú | estuvieras empleando / estuvieses empleando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera empleando / estuviese empleando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos empleando / estuviésamos empleando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais empleando / estuvieseis empleando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera empleando / estuviese empleando |
| Vos | estuvieras empleando / estuvieses empleando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere empleando |
| Tú | estuvieres empleando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere empleando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos empleando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis empleando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere empleando |
| Vos | estuvieres empleando |
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 empleás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos empleaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos empleabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos emplearías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos emplearás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos emplees |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos emplearas / Vos emplease |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos empleá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no emplees |