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Envilecer is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to debase, degrade”.
Below are all of the conjugations for envilecer 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 debase, degrade |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | envilecer |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está envileciendo) and past continuous (estaba envileciendo). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. debasing).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he envilecido and hubiera envilecido. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have debased).
| Gerundio / Gerund | envileciendo |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | envilecido |
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 debase” or “they debase”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | envilezco |
| Tú | envileces |
| Él / Ella / Usted | envilece |
| Nosotros / as | envilecemos |
| Vosotros / as | envilecéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | envilecen |
| Vos | envilecés |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I debased” or “she debased” 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 | envilecí | I debased |
| Tú | envileciste | You debased |
| Él / Ella / Usted | envileció | He / she / you debased |
| Nosotros / as | envilecimos | We debased |
| Vosotros / as | envilecisteis | You debased |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | envilecieron | They / you debased |
| Vos | envileciste | You debased |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was debasing” or “she was debasing” 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 | envilecía | I was debasing |
| Tú | envilecías | You were debasing |
| Él / Ella / Usted | envilecía | He was / she was / you were debasing |
| Nosotros / as | envilecíamos | We were debasing |
| Vosotros / as | envilecíais | You were debasing |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | envilecían | They / you were debasing |
| Vos | envilecías | You were debasing |
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 debased” and “she has debased”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he envilecido | I have debased |
| Tú | has envilecido | You have debased |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha envilecido | He has / she has / you have debased |
| Nosotros / as | hemos envilecido | We have debased |
| Vosotros / as | habéis envilecido | You have debased |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han envilecido | They / you have debased |
| Vos | has envilecido | You have debased |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would debase” or “she would debase”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | envilecería | I would debase |
| Tú | envilecerías | You would debase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | envilecería | He / she / you would debase |
| Nosotros / as | envileceríamos | We would debase |
| Vosotros / as | envileceríais | You would debase |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | envilecerían | They / you would debase |
| Vos | envilecerías | You would debase |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will debase” or “they will debase”.
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 envilecer” means “They are going to debase”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | envileceré | I will debase |
| Tú | envilecerás | You will debase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | envilecerá | He / she / you will debase |
| Nosotros / as | envileceremos | We will debase |
| Vosotros / as | envileceréis | You will debase |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | envilecerán | They / you will debase |
| Vos | envilecerás | You will debase |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | envilezca |
| Tú | envilezcas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | envilezca |
| Nosotros / as | envilezcamos |
| Vosotros / as | envilezcáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | envilezcan |
| Vos | envilezcas |
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 | envileciera | envileciese |
| Tú | envilecieras | envileciese |
| Él / Ella / Usted | envileciera | envileciese |
| Nosotros / as | envileciéramos | envileciésemos |
| Vosotros / as | envilecierais | envilecieseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | envilecieran | envileciesen |
| Vos | envilecieras | envileciese |
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 | envileciere |
| Tú | envilecieres |
| Él / Ella / Usted | envileciere |
| Nosotros / as | envileciéremos |
| Vosotros / as | envileciereis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | envilecieren |
| Vos | envilecieres |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “debase!” and “don’t debase!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | envilece | no envilezcas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | envilezca | no envilezca |
| Nosotros / as | envilezcamos | no envilezcamos |
| Vosotros / as | envileced | no envilezcáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | envilezcan | no envilezcan |
| Vos | envilecé | no envilezcas |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya envilecido |
| Tú | hayas envilecido |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya envilecido |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos envilecido |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis envilecido |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan envilecido |
| Vos | hayas envilecido |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera envilecido / hubiese envilecido |
| Tú | hubieras envilecido / hubieses envilecido |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera envilecido / hubiese envilecido |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos envilecido / hubiésemos envilecido |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais envilecido / hubieseis envilecido |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran envilecido / hubiesen envilecido |
| Vos | hubieras envilecido / hubieses envilecido |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere envilecido |
| Tú | hubieres envilecido |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere envilecido |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos envilecido |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis envilecido |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren envilecido |
| Vos | hubieres envilecido |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté envileciendo |
| Tú | estés envileciendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté envileciendo |
| Nosotros / as | estemos envileciendo |
| Vosotros / as | estéis envileciendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén envileciendo |
| Vos | estés envileciendo |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera envileciendo / estuviese envileciendo |
| Tú | estuvieras envileciendo / estuvieses envileciendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera envileciendo / estuviese envileciendo |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos envileciendo / estuviésamos envileciendo |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais envileciendo / estuvieseis envileciendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera envileciendo / estuviese envileciendo |
| Vos | estuvieras envileciendo / estuvieses envileciendo |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere envileciendo |
| Tú | estuvieres envileciendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere envileciendo |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos envileciendo |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis envileciendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere envileciendo |
| Vos | estuvieres envileciendo |
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 envilecés |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos envileciste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos envilecías |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos envilecerías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos envilecerás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos envilezcas |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos envilecieras / Vos envileciese |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos envilecé |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no envilezcas |