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Enseñar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to teach”.
Below are all of the conjugations for enseñar 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 teach |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | enseñar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está enseñando) and past continuous (estaba enseñando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. teaching).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he enseñado and hubiera enseñado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have taught).
| Gerundio / Gerund | enseñando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | enseñado |
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 teach” or “they teach”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | enseño |
| Tú | enseñas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | enseña |
| Nosotros / as | enseñamos |
| Vosotros / as | enseñáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | enseñan |
| Vos | enseñás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I taught” or “she taught” 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 | enseñé | I taught |
| Tú | enseñaste | You taught |
| Él / Ella / Usted | enseñó | He / she / you taught |
| Nosotros / as | enseñamos | We taught |
| Vosotros / as | enseñasteis | You taught |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | enseñaron | They / you taught |
| Vos | enseñaste | You taught |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was teaching” or “she was teaching” 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 | enseñaba | I was teaching |
| Tú | enseñabas | You were teaching |
| Él / Ella / Usted | enseñaba | He was / she was / you were teaching |
| Nosotros / as | enseñábamos | We were teaching |
| Vosotros / as | enseñabais | You were teaching |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | enseñaban | They / you were teaching |
| Vos | enseñabas | You were teaching |
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 taught” and “she has taught”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he enseñado | I have taught |
| Tú | has enseñado | You have taught |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha enseñado | He has / she has / you have taught |
| Nosotros / as | hemos enseñado | We have taught |
| Vosotros / as | habéis enseñado | You have taught |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han enseñado | They / you have taught |
| Vos | has enseñado | You have taught |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would teach” or “she would teach”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | enseñaría | I would teach |
| Tú | enseñarías | You would teach |
| Él / Ella / Usted | enseñaría | He / she / you would teach |
| Nosotros / as | enseñaríamos | We would teach |
| Vosotros / as | enseñaríais | You would teach |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | enseñarían | They / you would teach |
| Vos | enseñarías | You would teach |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will teach” or “they will teach”.
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 enseñar” means “They are going to teach”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | enseñaré | I will teach |
| Tú | enseñarás | You will teach |
| Él / Ella / Usted | enseñará | He / she / you will teach |
| Nosotros / as | enseñaremos | We will teach |
| Vosotros / as | enseñaréis | You will teach |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | enseñarán | They / you will teach |
| Vos | enseñarás | You will teach |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | enseñe |
| Tú | enseñes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | enseñe |
| Nosotros / as | enseñemos |
| Vosotros / as | enseñéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | enseñen |
| Vos | enseñes |
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 | enseñara | enseñase |
| Tú | enseñaras | enseñase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | enseñara | enseñase |
| Nosotros / as | enseñáramos | enseñásemos |
| Vosotros / as | enseñarais | enseñaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | enseñaran | enseñasen |
| Vos | enseñaras | enseñase |
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 | enseñare |
| Tú | enseñares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | enseñare |
| Nosotros / as | enseñáremos |
| Vosotros / as | enseñareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | enseñaren |
| Vos | enseñares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “teach!” and “don’t teach!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | enseña | no enseñes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | enseñe | no enseñe |
| Nosotros / as | enseñemos | no enseñemos |
| Vosotros / as | enseñad | no enseñéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | enseñen | no enseñen |
| Vos | enseñá | no enseñes |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya enseñado |
| Tú | hayas enseñado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya enseñado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos enseñado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis enseñado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan enseñado |
| Vos | hayas enseñado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera enseñado / hubiese enseñado |
| Tú | hubieras enseñado / hubieses enseñado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera enseñado / hubiese enseñado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos enseñado / hubiésemos enseñado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais enseñado / hubieseis enseñado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran enseñado / hubiesen enseñado |
| Vos | hubieras enseñado / hubieses enseñado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere enseñado |
| Tú | hubieres enseñado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere enseñado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos enseñado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis enseñado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren enseñado |
| Vos | hubieres enseñado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté enseñando |
| Tú | estés enseñando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté enseñando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos enseñando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis enseñando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén enseñando |
| Vos | estés enseñando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera enseñando / estuviese enseñando |
| Tú | estuvieras enseñando / estuvieses enseñando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera enseñando / estuviese enseñando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos enseñando / estuviésamos enseñando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais enseñando / estuvieseis enseñando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera enseñando / estuviese enseñando |
| Vos | estuvieras enseñando / estuvieses enseñando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere enseñando |
| Tú | estuvieres enseñando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere enseñando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos enseñando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis enseñando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere enseñando |
| Vos | estuvieres enseñando |
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 enseñás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos enseñaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos enseñabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos enseñarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos enseñarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos enseñes |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos enseñaras / Vos enseñase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos enseñá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no enseñes |