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Fingir is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to pretend, fake, feign”.
Below are all of the conjugations for fingir 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 pretend, fake, feign |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | fingir |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está fingiendo) and past continuous (estaba fingiendo). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. pretended).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he pretended and hubiera pretended. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have pretending).
| Gerundio / Gerund | fingiendo |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | pretended |
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 pretend” or “they pretend”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | finjo |
| Tú | finges |
| Él / Ella / Usted | finge |
| Nosotros / as | fingimos |
| Vosotros / as | fingís |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | fingen |
| Vos | fingís |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I pretend” or “she pretend” 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 | fingí | I pretend |
| Tú | fingiste | You pretend |
| Él / Ella / Usted | fingió | He / she / you pretend |
| Nosotros / as | fingimos | We pretend |
| Vosotros / as | fingisteis | You pretend |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | fingieron | They / you pretend |
| Vos | fingiste | You pretend |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was pretended” or “she was pretended” 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 | fingía | I was pretended |
| Tú | fingías | You were pretended |
| Él / Ella / Usted | fingía | He was / she was / you were pretended |
| Nosotros / as | fingíamos | We were pretended |
| Vosotros / as | fingíais | You were pretended |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | fingían | They / you were pretended |
| Vos | fingías | You were pretended |
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 pretending” and “she has pretending”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he pretended | I have pretending |
| Tú | has pretended | You have pretending |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha pretended | He has / she has / you have pretending |
| Nosotros / as | hemos pretended | We have pretending |
| Vosotros / as | habéis pretended | You have pretending |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han pretended | They / you have pretending |
| Vos | has pretended | You have pretending |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would pretend” or “she would pretend”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | fingiría | I would pretend |
| Tú | fingirías | You would pretend |
| Él / Ella / Usted | fingiría | He / she / you would pretend |
| Nosotros / as | fingiríamos | We would pretend |
| Vosotros / as | fingiríais | You would pretend |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | fingirían | They / you would pretend |
| Vos | fingirías | You would pretend |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will pretend” or “they will pretend”.
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 fingir” means “They are going to pretend”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | fingiré | I will pretend |
| Tú | fingirás | You will pretend |
| Él / Ella / Usted | fingirá | He / she / you will pretend |
| Nosotros / as | fingiremos | We will pretend |
| Vosotros / as | fingiréis | You will pretend |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | fingirán | They / you will pretend |
| Vos | fingirás | You will pretend |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | finja |
| Tú | finjas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | finja |
| Nosotros / as | finjamos |
| Vosotros / as | finjáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | finjan |
| Vos | finjas |
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 | fingiera | fingiese |
| Tú | fingieras | fingiese |
| Él / Ella / Usted | fingiera | fingiese |
| Nosotros / as | fingiéramos | fingiésemos |
| Vosotros / as | fingierais | fingieseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | fingieran | fingiesen |
| Vos | fingieras | fingiese |
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 | fingiere |
| Tú | fingieres |
| Él / Ella / Usted | fingiera |
| Nosotros / as | fingiéremos |
| Vosotros / as | fingiereis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | fingieren |
| Vos | fingieres |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “pretend!” and “don’t pretend!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | finge | no finjas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | finja | no finja |
| Nosotros / as | finjamos | no finjamos |
| Vosotros / as | fingid | no finjáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | finjan | no finjan |
| Vos | fingí | no finjas |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya pretended |
| Tú | hayas pretended |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya pretended |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos pretended |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis pretended |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan pretended |
| Vos | hayas pretended |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera pretended / hubiese pretended |
| Tú | hubieras pretended / hubieses pretended |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera pretended / hubiese pretended |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos pretended / hubiésemos pretended |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais pretended / hubieseis pretended |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran pretended / hubiesen pretended |
| Vos | hubieras pretended / hubieses pretended |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere pretended |
| Tú | hubieres pretended |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere pretended |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos pretended |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis pretended |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren pretended |
| Vos | hubieres pretended |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté fingiendo |
| Tú | estés fingiendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté fingiendo |
| Nosotros / as | estemos fingiendo |
| Vosotros / as | estéis fingiendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén fingiendo |
| Vos | estés fingiendo |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera fingiendo / estuviese fingiendo |
| Tú | estuvieras fingiendo / estuvieses fingiendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera fingiendo / estuviese fingiendo |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos fingiendo / estuviésamos fingiendo |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais fingiendo / estuvieseis fingiendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera fingiendo / estuviese fingiendo |
| Vos | estuvieras fingiendo / estuvieses fingiendo |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere fingiendo |
| Tú | estuvieres fingiendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere fingiendo |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos fingiendo |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis fingiendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere fingiendo |
| Vos | estuvieres fingiendo |
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 fingís |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos fingiste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos fingías |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos fingirías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos fingirás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos finjas |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos fingieras / Vos fingiese |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos fingí |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no finjas |