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Improvisar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to improvise”.
Below are all of the conjugations for improvisar 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 improvise |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | improvisar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está improvisando) and past continuous (estaba improvisando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. improvising).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he improvisado and hubiera improvisado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have improvised).
| Gerundio / Gerund | improvisando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | improvisado |
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 improvise” or “they improvise”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | improviso |
| Tú | improvisas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | improvisa |
| Nosotros / as | improvisamos |
| Vosotros / as | improvisáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | improvisan |
| Vos | improvisás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I improvised” or “she improvised” 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 | improvisé | I improvised |
| Tú | improvisaste | You improvised |
| Él / Ella / Usted | improvisó | He / she / you improvised |
| Nosotros / as | improvisamos | We improvised |
| Vosotros / as | improvisasteis | You improvised |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | improvisaron | They / you improvised |
| Vos | improvisaste | You improvised |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was improvising” or “she was improvising” 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 | improvisaba | I was improvising |
| Tú | improvisabas | You were improvising |
| Él / Ella / Usted | improvisaba | He was / she was / you were improvising |
| Nosotros / as | improvisábamos | We were improvising |
| Vosotros / as | improvisabais | You were improvising |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | improvisaban | They / you were improvising |
| Vos | improvisabas | You were improvising |
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 improvised” and “she has improvised”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he improvisado | I have improvised |
| Tú | has improvisado | You have improvised |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha improvisado | He has / she has / you have improvised |
| Nosotros / as | hemos improvisado | We have improvised |
| Vosotros / as | habéis improvisado | You have improvised |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han improvisado | They / you have improvised |
| Vos | has improvisado | You have improvised |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would improvise” or “she would improvise”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | improvisaría | I would improvise |
| Tú | improvisarías | You would improvise |
| Él / Ella / Usted | improvisaría | He / she / you would improvise |
| Nosotros / as | improvisaríamos | We would improvise |
| Vosotros / as | improvisaríais | You would improvise |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | improvisarían | They / you would improvise |
| Vos | improvisarías | You would improvise |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will improvise” or “they will improvise”.
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 improvisar” means “They are going to improvise”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | improvisaré | I will improvise |
| Tú | improvisarás | You will improvise |
| Él / Ella / Usted | improvisará | He / she / you will improvise |
| Nosotros / as | improvisaremos | We will improvise |
| Vosotros / as | improvisaréis | You will improvise |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | improvisarán | They / you will improvise |
| Vos | improvisarás | You will improvise |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | improvise |
| Tú | improvises |
| Él / Ella / Usted | improvise |
| Nosotros / as | improvisemos |
| Vosotros / as | improviséis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | improvisen |
| Vos | improvises |
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 | improvisara | improvisase |
| Tú | improvisaras | improvisase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | improvisara | improvisase |
| Nosotros / as | improvisáramos | improvisásemos |
| Vosotros / as | improvisarais | improvisaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | improvisaran | improvisasen |
| Vos | improvisaras | improvisase |
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 | improvisare |
| Tú | improvisares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | improvisare |
| Nosotros / as | improvisáremos |
| Vosotros / as | improvisareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | improvisaren |
| Vos | improvisares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “improvise!” and “don’t improvise!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | improvisa | no improvises |
| Él / Ella / Usted | improvise | no improvise |
| Nosotros / as | improvisemos | no improvisemos |
| Vosotros / as | improvisad | no improviséis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | improvisen | no improvisen |
| Vos | improvisá | no improvises |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya improvisado |
| Tú | hayas improvisado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya improvisado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos improvisado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis improvisado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan improvisado |
| Vos | hayas improvisado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera improvisado / hubiese improvisado |
| Tú | hubieras improvisado / hubieses improvisado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera improvisado / hubiese improvisado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos improvisado / hubiésemos improvisado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais improvisado / hubieseis improvisado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran improvisado / hubiesen improvisado |
| Vos | hubieras improvisado / hubieses improvisado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere improvisado |
| Tú | hubieres improvisado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere improvisado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos improvisado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis improvisado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren improvisado |
| Vos | hubieres improvisado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté improvisando |
| Tú | estés improvisando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté improvisando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos improvisando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis improvisando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén improvisando |
| Vos | estés improvisando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera improvisando / estuviese improvisando |
| Tú | estuvieras improvisando / estuvieses improvisando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera improvisando / estuviese improvisando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos improvisando / estuviésamos improvisando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais improvisando / estuvieseis improvisando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera improvisando / estuviese improvisando |
| Vos | estuvieras improvisando / estuvieses improvisando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere improvisando |
| Tú | estuvieres improvisando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere improvisando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos improvisando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis improvisando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere improvisando |
| Vos | estuvieres improvisando |
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 improvisás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos improvisaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos improvisabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos improvisarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos improvisarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos improvises |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos improvisaras / Vos improvisase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos improvisá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no improvises |