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Ensanchar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to wider, extend”.
Below are all of the conjugations for ensanchar 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 wider, extend |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | ensanchar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está ensanchando) and past continuous (estaba ensanchando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. widening).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he ensanchado and hubiera ensanchado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have widened).
| Gerundio / Gerund | ensanchando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | ensanchado |
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 widen” or “they widen”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | ensancho |
| Tú | ensanchas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ensancha |
| Nosotros / as | ensanchamos |
| Vosotros / as | ensancháis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | ensanchan |
| Vos | ensanchás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I widened” or “she widened” 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 | ensanché | I widened |
| Tú | ensanchaste | You widened |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ensanchó | He / she / you widened |
| Nosotros / as | ensanchamos | We widened |
| Vosotros / as | ensanchasteis | You widened |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | ensancharon | They / you widened |
| Vos | ensanchaste | You widened |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was widening” or “she was widening” 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 | ensanchaba | I was widening |
| Tú | ensanchabas | You were widening |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ensanchaba | He was / she was / you were widening |
| Nosotros / as | ensanchábamos | We were widening |
| Vosotros / as | ensanchabais | You were widening |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | ensanchaban | They / you were widening |
| Vos | ensanchabas | You were widening |
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 widened” and “she has widened”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he ensanchado | I have widened |
| Tú | has ensanchado | You have widened |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha ensanchado | He has / she has / you have widened |
| Nosotros / as | hemos ensanchado | We have widened |
| Vosotros / as | habéis ensanchado | You have widened |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han ensanchado | They / you have widened |
| Vos | has ensanchado | You have widened |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would widen” or “she would widen”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | ensancharía | I would widen |
| Tú | ensancharías | You would widen |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ensancharía | He / she / you would widen |
| Nosotros / as | ensancharíamos | We would widen |
| Vosotros / as | ensancharíais | You would widen |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | ensancharían | They / you would widen |
| Vos | ensancharías | You would widen |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will widen” or “they will widen”.
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 ensanchar” means “They are going to widen”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | ensancharé | I will widen |
| Tú | ensancharás | You will widen |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ensanchará | He / she / you will widen |
| Nosotros / as | ensancharemos | We will widen |
| Vosotros / as | ensancharéis | You will widen |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | ensancharán | They / you will widen |
| Vos | ensancharás | You will widen |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | ensanche |
| Tú | ensanches |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ensanche |
| Nosotros / as | ensanchemos |
| Vosotros / as | ensanchéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | ensanchen |
| Vos | ensanches |
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 | ensanchara | ensanchase |
| Tú | ensancharas | ensanchase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ensanchara | ensanchase |
| Nosotros / as | ensancháramos | ensanchásemos |
| Vosotros / as | ensancharais | ensanchaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | ensancharan | ensanchasen |
| Vos | ensancharas | ensanchase |
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 | ensanchare |
| Tú | ensanchares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ensanchare |
| Nosotros / as | ensancháremos |
| Vosotros / as | ensanchareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | ensancharen |
| Vos | ensanchares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “widen!” and “don’t widen!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | ensancha | no ensanches |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ensanche | no ensanche |
| Nosotros / as | ensanchemos | no ensanchemos |
| Vosotros / as | ensanchad | no ensanchéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | ensanchen | no ensanchen |
| Vos | ensanchá | no ensanches |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya ensanchado |
| Tú | hayas ensanchado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya ensanchado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos ensanchado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis ensanchado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan ensanchado |
| Vos | hayas ensanchado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera ensanchado / hubiese ensanchado |
| Tú | hubieras ensanchado / hubieses ensanchado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera ensanchado / hubiese ensanchado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos ensanchado / hubiésemos ensanchado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais ensanchado / hubieseis ensanchado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran ensanchado / hubiesen ensanchado |
| Vos | hubieras ensanchado / hubieses ensanchado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere ensanchado |
| Tú | hubieres ensanchado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere ensanchado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos ensanchado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis ensanchado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren ensanchado |
| Vos | hubieres ensanchado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté ensanchando |
| Tú | estés ensanchando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté ensanchando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos ensanchando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis ensanchando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén ensanchando |
| Vos | estés ensanchando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera ensanchando / estuviese ensanchando |
| Tú | estuvieras ensanchando / estuvieses ensanchando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera ensanchando / estuviese ensanchando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos ensanchando / estuviésamos ensanchando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais ensanchando / estuvieseis ensanchando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera ensanchando / estuviese ensanchando |
| Vos | estuvieras ensanchando / estuvieses ensanchando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere ensanchando |
| Tú | estuvieres ensanchando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere ensanchando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos ensanchando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis ensanchando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere ensanchando |
| Vos | estuvieres ensanchando |
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 ensanchás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos ensanchaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos ensanchabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos ensancharías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos ensancharás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos ensanches |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos ensancharas / Vos ensanchase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos ensanchá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no ensanches |