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Insistir is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to insist, emphasize”.
Below are all of the conjugations for insistir 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 insist, emphasize |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | insistir |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está insistiendo) and past continuous (estaba insistiendo). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. insisting).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he insistido and hubiera insistido. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have insisted).
| Gerundio / Gerund | insistiendo |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | insistido |
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 insist” or “they insist”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | insisto |
| Tú | insistes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | insiste |
| Nosotros / as | insistimos |
| Vosotros / as | insistís |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | insisten |
| Vos | insistís |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I insisted” or “she insisted” 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 | insistí | I insisted |
| Tú | insististe | You insisted |
| Él / Ella / Usted | insistió | He / she / you insisted |
| Nosotros / as | insistimos | We insisted |
| Vosotros / as | insististeis | You insisted |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | insistieron | They / you insisted |
| Vos | insististe | You insisted |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was insisting” or “she was insisting” 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 | insistía | I was insisting |
| Tú | insistías | You were insisting |
| Él / Ella / Usted | insistía | He was / she was / you were insisting |
| Nosotros / as | insistíamos | We were insisting |
| Vosotros / as | insistíais | You were insisting |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | insistían | They / you were insisting |
| Vos | insistías | You were insisting |
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 insisted” and “she has insisted”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he insistido | I have insisted |
| Tú | has insistido | You have insisted |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha insistido | He has / she has / you have insisted |
| Nosotros / as | hemos insistido | We have insisted |
| Vosotros / as | habéis insistido | You have insisted |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han insistido | They / you have insisted |
| Vos | has insistido | You have insisted |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would insist” or “she would insist”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | insistiría | I would insist |
| Tú | insistirías | You would insist |
| Él / Ella / Usted | insistiría | He / she / you would insist |
| Nosotros / as | insistiríamos | We would insist |
| Vosotros / as | insistiríais | You would insist |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | insistirían | They / you would insist |
| Vos | insistirías | You would insist |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will insist” or “they will insist”.
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 insistir” means “They are going to insist”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | insistiré | I will insist |
| Tú | insistirás | You will insist |
| Él / Ella / Usted | insistirá | He / she / you will insist |
| Nosotros / as | insistiremos | We will insist |
| Vosotros / as | insistiréis | You will insist |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | insistirán | They / you will insist |
| Vos | insistirás | You will insist |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | insista |
| Tú | insistas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | insista |
| Nosotros / as | insistamos |
| Vosotros / as | insistáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | insistan |
| Vos | insistas |
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 | insistiera | insistiese |
| Tú | insistieras | insistiese |
| Él / Ella / Usted | insistiera | insistiese |
| Nosotros / as | insistiéramos | insistiésemos |
| Vosotros / as | insistierais | insistieseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | insistieran | insistiesen |
| Vos | insistieras | insistiese |
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 | insistiere |
| Tú | insistieres |
| Él / Ella / Usted | insistiera |
| Nosotros / as | insistiéremos |
| Vosotros / as | insistiereis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | insistieren |
| Vos | insistieres |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “insist!” and “don’t insist!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | insiste | no insistas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | insista | no insista |
| Nosotros / as | insistamos | no insistamos |
| Vosotros / as | insistid | no insistáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | insistan | no insistan |
| Vos | insistí | no insistas |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya insistido |
| Tú | hayas insistido |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya insistido |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos insistido |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis insistido |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan insistido |
| Vos | hayas insistido |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera insistido / hubiese insistido |
| Tú | hubieras insistido / hubieses insistido |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera insistido / hubiese insistido |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos insistido / hubiésemos insistido |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais insistido / hubieseis insistido |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran insistido / hubiesen insistido |
| Vos | hubieras insistido / hubieses insistido |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere insistido |
| Tú | hubieres insistido |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere insistido |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos insistido |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis insistido |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren insistido |
| Vos | hubieres insistido |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté insistiendo |
| Tú | estés insistiendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté insistiendo |
| Nosotros / as | estemos insistiendo |
| Vosotros / as | estéis insistiendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén insistiendo |
| Vos | estés insistiendo |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera insistiendo / estuviese insistiendo |
| Tú | estuvieras insistiendo / estuvieses insistiendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera insistiendo / estuviese insistiendo |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos insistiendo / estuviésamos insistiendo |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais insistiendo / estuvieseis insistiendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera insistiendo / estuviese insistiendo |
| Vos | estuvieras insistiendo / estuvieses insistiendo |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere insistiendo |
| Tú | estuvieres insistiendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere insistiendo |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos insistiendo |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis insistiendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere insistiendo |
| Vos | estuvieres insistiendo |
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 insistís |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos insististe |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos insistías |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos insistirías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos insistirás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos insistas |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos insistieras / Vos insistiese |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos insistí |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no insistas |