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Fallar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to judge, not work properly, fail”.
Below are all of the conjugations for fallar 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 judge, not work properly, fail |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | fallar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está fallando) and past continuous (estaba fallando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. judged).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he judged and hubiera judged. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have judging).
| Gerundio / Gerund | fallando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | judged |
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 judge” or “they judge”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | fallo |
| Tú | fallas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | falla |
| Nosotros / as | fallamos |
| Vosotros / as | falláis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | fallan |
| Vos | fallás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I judge” or “she judge” 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 | fallé | I judge |
| Tú | fallaste | You judge |
| Él / Ella / Usted | falló | He / she / you judge |
| Nosotros / as | fallamos | We judge |
| Vosotros / as | fallasteis | You judge |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | fallaron | They / you judge |
| Vos | fallaste | You judge |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was judged” or “she was judged” 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 | fallaba | I was judged |
| Tú | fallabas | You were judged |
| Él / Ella / Usted | fallaba | He was / she was / you were judged |
| Nosotros / as | fallábamos | We were judged |
| Vosotros / as | fallabais | You were judged |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | fallaban | They / you were judged |
| Vos | fallabas | You were judged |
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 judging” and “she has judging”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he judged | I have judging |
| Tú | has judged | You have judging |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha judged | He has / she has / you have judging |
| Nosotros / as | hemos judged | We have judging |
| Vosotros / as | habéis judged | You have judging |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han judged | They / you have judging |
| Vos | has judged | You have judging |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would judge” or “she would judge”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | fallaría | I would judge |
| Tú | fallarías | You would judge |
| Él / Ella / Usted | fallaría | He / she / you would judge |
| Nosotros / as | fallaríamos | We would judge |
| Vosotros / as | fallaríais | You would judge |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | fallarían | They / you would judge |
| Vos | fallarías | You would judge |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will judge” or “they will judge”.
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 fallar” means “They are going to judge”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | fallaré | I will judge |
| Tú | fallarás | You will judge |
| Él / Ella / Usted | fallará | He / she / you will judge |
| Nosotros / as | fallaremos | We will judge |
| Vosotros / as | fallaréis | You will judge |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | fallarán | They / you will judge |
| Vos | fallarás | You will judge |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | falle |
| Tú | falles |
| Él / Ella / Usted | falle |
| Nosotros / as | fallemos |
| Vosotros / as | falléis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | fallen |
| Vos | falles |
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 | fallara | fallase |
| Tú | fallaras | fallase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | fallara | fallase |
| Nosotros / as | falláramos | fallásemos |
| Vosotros / as | fallarais | fallaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | fallaran | fallasen |
| Vos | fallaras | fallase |
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 | fallare |
| Tú | fallares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | fallare |
| Nosotros / as | falláremos |
| Vosotros / as | fallareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | fallaren |
| Vos | fallares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “judge!” and “don’t judge!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | falla | no falles |
| Él / Ella / Usted | falle | no falle |
| Nosotros / as | fallemos | no fallemos |
| Vosotros / as | fallad | no falléis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | fallen | no fallen |
| Vos | fallá | no falles |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya judged |
| Tú | hayas judged |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya judged |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos judged |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis judged |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan judged |
| Vos | hayas judged |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera judged / hubiese judged |
| Tú | hubieras judged / hubieses judged |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera judged / hubiese judged |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos judged / hubiésemos judged |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais judged / hubieseis judged |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran judged / hubiesen judged |
| Vos | hubieras judged / hubieses judged |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere judged |
| Tú | hubieres judged |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere judged |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos judged |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis judged |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren judged |
| Vos | hubieres judged |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté fallando |
| Tú | estés fallando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté fallando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos fallando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis fallando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén fallando |
| Vos | estés fallando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera fallando / estuviese fallando |
| Tú | estuvieras fallando / estuvieses fallando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera fallando / estuviese fallando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos fallando / estuviésamos fallando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais fallando / estuvieseis fallando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera fallando / estuviese fallando |
| Vos | estuvieras fallando / estuvieses fallando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere fallando |
| Tú | estuvieres fallando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere fallando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos fallando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis fallando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere fallando |
| Vos | estuvieres fallando |
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 fallás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos fallaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos fallabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos fallarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos fallarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos falles |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos fallaras / Vos fallase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos fallá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no falles |