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Inspirar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to inspire to”.
Below are all of the conjugations for inspirar 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 inspire to |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | inspirar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está inspirando) and past continuous (estaba inspirando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. inspiring to).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he inspirado and hubiera inspirado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have inspired to).
| Gerundio / Gerund | inspirando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | inspirado |
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 inspire to” or “they inspire to”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | inspiro |
| Tú | inspiras |
| Él / Ella / Usted | inspira |
| Nosotros / as | inspiramos |
| Vosotros / as | inspiráis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | inspiran |
| Vos | inspirás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I inspired to” or “she inspired to” 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 | inspiré | I inspired to |
| Tú | inspiraste | You inspired to |
| Él / Ella / Usted | inspiró | He / she / you inspired to |
| Nosotros / as | inspiramos | We inspired to |
| Vosotros / as | inspirasteis | You inspired to |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | inspiraron | They / you inspired to |
| Vos | inspiraste | You inspired to |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was inspiring to” or “she was inspiring to” 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 | inspiraba | I was inspiring to |
| Tú | inspirabas | You were inspiring to |
| Él / Ella / Usted | inspiraba | He was / she was / you were inspiring to |
| Nosotros / as | inspirábamos | We were inspiring to |
| Vosotros / as | inspirabais | You were inspiring to |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | inspiraban | They / you were inspiring to |
| Vos | inspirabas | You were inspiring to |
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 inspired to” and “she has inspired to”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he inspirado | I have inspired to |
| Tú | has inspirado | You have inspired to |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha inspirado | He has / she has / you have inspired to |
| Nosotros / as | hemos inspirado | We have inspired to |
| Vosotros / as | habéis inspirado | You have inspired to |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han inspirado | They / you have inspired to |
| Vos | has inspirado | You have inspired to |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would inspire to” or “she would inspire to”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | inspiraría | I would inspire to |
| Tú | inspirarías | You would inspire to |
| Él / Ella / Usted | inspiraría | He / she / you would inspire to |
| Nosotros / as | inspiraríamos | We would inspire to |
| Vosotros / as | inspiraríais | You would inspire to |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | inspirarían | They / you would inspire to |
| Vos | inspirarías | You would inspire to |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will inspire to” or “they will inspire to”.
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 inspirar” means “They are going to inspire to”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | inspiraré | I will inspire to |
| Tú | inspirarás | You will inspire to |
| Él / Ella / Usted | inspirará | He / she / you will inspire to |
| Nosotros / as | inspiraremos | We will inspire to |
| Vosotros / as | inspiraréis | You will inspire to |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | inspirarán | They / you will inspire to |
| Vos | inspirarás | You will inspire to |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | inspire |
| Tú | inspires |
| Él / Ella / Usted | inspire |
| Nosotros / as | inspiremos |
| Vosotros / as | inspiréis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | inspiren |
| Vos | inspires |
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 | inspirara | inspirase |
| Tú | inspiraras | inspirase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | inspirara | inspirase |
| Nosotros / as | inspiráramos | inspirásemos |
| Vosotros / as | inspirarais | inspiraseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | inspiraran | inspirasen |
| Vos | inspiraras | inspirase |
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 | inspirare |
| Tú | inspirares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | inspirare |
| Nosotros / as | inspiráremos |
| Vosotros / as | inspirareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | inspiraren |
| Vos | inspirares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “inspire to!” and “don’t inspire to!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | inspira | no inspires |
| Él / Ella / Usted | inspire | no inspire |
| Nosotros / as | inspiremos | no inspiremos |
| Vosotros / as | inspirad | no inspiréis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | inspiren | no inspiren |
| Vos | inspirá | no inspires |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya inspirado |
| Tú | hayas inspirado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya inspirado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos inspirado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis inspirado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan inspirado |
| Vos | hayas inspirado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera inspirado / hubiese inspirado |
| Tú | hubieras inspirado / hubieses inspirado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera inspirado / hubiese inspirado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos inspirado / hubiésemos inspirado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais inspirado / hubieseis inspirado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran inspirado / hubiesen inspirado |
| Vos | hubieras inspirado / hubieses inspirado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere inspirado |
| Tú | hubieres inspirado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere inspirado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos inspirado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis inspirado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren inspirado |
| Vos | hubieres inspirado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté inspirando |
| Tú | estés inspirando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté inspirando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos inspirando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis inspirando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén inspirando |
| Vos | estés inspirando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera inspirando / estuviese inspirando |
| Tú | estuvieras inspirando / estuvieses inspirando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera inspirando / estuviese inspirando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos inspirando / estuviésamos inspirando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais inspirando / estuvieseis inspirando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera inspirando / estuviese inspirando |
| Vos | estuvieras inspirando / estuvieses inspirando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere inspirando |
| Tú | estuvieres inspirando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere inspirando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos inspirando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis inspirando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere inspirando |
| Vos | estuvieres inspirando |
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 inspirás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos inspiraste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos inspirabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos inspirarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos inspirarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos inspires |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos inspiraras / Vos inspirase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos inspirá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no inspires |