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Imponer is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to impose”.
Below are all of the conjugations for imponer 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 impose |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | imponer |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está imponiendo) and past continuous (estaba imponiendo). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. imposing).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he impuesto and hubiera impuesto. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have imposed).
| Gerundio / Gerund | imponiendo |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | impuesto |
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 impose” or “they impose”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | impongo |
| Tú | impones |
| Él / Ella / Usted | impone |
| Nosotros / as | imponemos |
| Vosotros / as | imponéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | imponen |
| Vos | imponés |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I imposed” or “she imposed” 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 | impuse | I imposed |
| Tú | impusiste | You imposed |
| Él / Ella / Usted | impuso | He / she / you imposed |
| Nosotros / as | impusimos | We imposed |
| Vosotros / as | impusisteis | You imposed |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | impusieron | They / you imposed |
| Vos | impusiste | You imposed |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was imposing” or “she was imposing” 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 | imponía | I was imposing |
| Tú | imponías | You were imposing |
| Él / Ella / Usted | imponía | He was / she was / you were imposing |
| Nosotros / as | imponíamos | We were imposing |
| Vosotros / as | imponíais | You were imposing |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | imponían | They / you were imposing |
| Vos | imponías | You were imposing |
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 imposed” and “she has imposed”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he impuesto | I have imposed |
| Tú | has impuesto | You have imposed |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha impuesto | He has / she has / you have imposed |
| Nosotros / as | hemos impuesto | We have imposed |
| Vosotros / as | habéis impuesto | You have imposed |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han impuesto | They / you have imposed |
| Vos | has impuesto | You have imposed |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would impose” or “she would impose”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | impondría | I would impose |
| Tú | impondrías | You would impose |
| Él / Ella / Usted | impondría | He / she / you would impose |
| Nosotros / as | impondríamos | We would impose |
| Vosotros / as | impondríais | You would impose |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | impondrían | They / you would impose |
| Vos | impondrías | You would impose |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will impose” or “they will impose”.
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 imponer” means “They are going to impose”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | impondré | I will impose |
| Tú | impondrás | You will impose |
| Él / Ella / Usted | impondrá | He / she / you will impose |
| Nosotros / as | impondremos | We will impose |
| Vosotros / as | impondréis | You will impose |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | impondrán | They / you will impose |
| Vos | impondrás | You will impose |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | imponga |
| Tú | impongas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | imponga |
| Nosotros / as | impongamos |
| Vosotros / as | impongáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | impongan |
| Vos | impongas |
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 | impusiera | impusiese |
| Tú | impusieras | impusiese |
| Él / Ella / Usted | impusiera | impusiese |
| Nosotros / as | impusiéramos | impusiésemos |
| Vosotros / as | impusierais | impusieseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | impusieran | impusiesen |
| Vos | impusieras | impusiese |
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 | impusiere |
| Tú | impusieres |
| Él / Ella / Usted | impusiere |
| Nosotros / as | impusiéremos |
| Vosotros / as | impusiereis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | impusieren |
| Vos | impusieres |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “impose!” and “don’t impose!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | impón | no impongas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | imponga | no imponga |
| Nosotros / as | impongamos | no impongamos |
| Vosotros / as | imponed | no impongáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | impongan | no impongan |
| Vos | imponé | no impongas |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya impuesto |
| Tú | hayas impuesto |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya impuesto |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos impuesto |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis impuesto |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan impuesto |
| Vos | hayas impuesto |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera impuesto / hubiese impuesto |
| Tú | hubieras impuesto / hubieses impuesto |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera impuesto / hubiese impuesto |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos impuesto / hubiésemos impuesto |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais impuesto / hubieseis impuesto |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran impuesto / hubiesen impuesto |
| Vos | hubieras impuesto / hubieses impuesto |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere impuesto |
| Tú | hubieres impuesto |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere impuesto |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos impuesto |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis impuesto |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren impuesto |
| Vos | hubieres impuesto |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté imponiendo |
| Tú | estés imponiendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté imponiendo |
| Nosotros / as | estemos imponiendo |
| Vosotros / as | estéis imponiendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén imponiendo |
| Vos | estés imponiendo |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera imponiendo / estuviese imponiendo |
| Tú | estuvieras imponiendo / estuvieses imponiendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera imponiendo / estuviese imponiendo |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos imponiendo / estuviésamos imponiendo |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais imponiendo / estuvieseis imponiendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera imponiendo / estuviese imponiendo |
| Vos | estuvieras imponiendo / estuvieses imponiendo |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere imponiendo |
| Tú | estuvieres imponiendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere imponiendo |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos imponiendo |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis imponiendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere imponiendo |
| Vos | estuvieres imponiendo |
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 imponés |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos impusiste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos imponías |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos impondrías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos impondrás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos impongas |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos impusieras / Vos impusiese |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos imponé |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no impongas |