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Instituir is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to institute, establish, found”.
Below are all of the conjugations for instituir 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 institute, establish, found |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | instituir |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está instituyendo) and past continuous (estaba instituyendo). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. insinuating).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he instituido and hubiera instituido. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have insinuated).
| Gerundio / Gerund | instituyendo |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | instituido |
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 insinuate” or “they insinuate”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | instituyo |
| Tú | instituyes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | instituye |
| Nosotros / as | instituimos |
| Vosotros / as | instituís |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | instituyen |
| Vos | instituís |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I insinuated” or “she insinuated” 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 | instituí | I insinuated |
| Tú | instituiste | You insinuated |
| Él / Ella / Usted | instituyó | He / she / you insinuated |
| Nosotros / as | instituimos | We insinuated |
| Vosotros / as | instituisteis | You insinuated |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | instituyeron | They / you insinuated |
| Vos | instituiste | You insinuated |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was insinuating” or “she was insinuating” 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 | instituía | I was insinuating |
| Tú | instituías | You were insinuating |
| Él / Ella / Usted | instituía | He was / she was / you were insinuating |
| Nosotros / as | instituíamos | We were insinuating |
| Vosotros / as | instituíais | You were insinuating |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | instituían | They / you were insinuating |
| Vos | instituías | You were insinuating |
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 insinuated” and “she has insinuated”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he instituido | I have insinuated |
| Tú | has instituido | You have insinuated |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha instituido | He has / she has / you have insinuated |
| Nosotros / as | hemos instituido | We have insinuated |
| Vosotros / as | habéis instituido | You have insinuated |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han instituido | They / you have insinuated |
| Vos | has instituido | You have insinuated |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would insinuate” or “she would insinuate”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | instituiría | I would insinuate |
| Tú | instituirías | You would insinuate |
| Él / Ella / Usted | instituiría | He / she / you would insinuate |
| Nosotros / as | instituiríamos | We would insinuate |
| Vosotros / as | instituiríais | You would insinuate |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | instituirían | They / you would insinuate |
| Vos | instituirías | You would insinuate |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will insinuate” or “they will insinuate”.
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 instituir” means “They are going to insinuate”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | instituiré | I will insinuate |
| Tú | instituirás | You will insinuate |
| Él / Ella / Usted | instituirá | He / she / you will insinuate |
| Nosotros / as | instituiremos | We will insinuate |
| Vosotros / as | instituiréis | You will insinuate |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | instituirán | They / you will insinuate |
| Vos | instituirás | You will insinuate |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | instituya |
| Tú | instituyas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | instituya |
| Nosotros / as | instituyamos |
| Vosotros / as | instituyáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | instituyan |
| Vos | instituyas |
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 | instituyera | instituyese |
| Tú | instituyeras | instituyese |
| Él / Ella / Usted | instituyera | instituyese |
| Nosotros / as | instituyéramos | instituyésemos |
| Vosotros / as | instituyerais | instituyeseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | instituyeran | instituyesen |
| Vos | instituyeras | instituyese |
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 | instituyere |
| Tú | instituyeres |
| Él / Ella / Usted | instituyera |
| Nosotros / as | instituyéremos |
| Vosotros / as | instituyereis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | instituyeren |
| Vos | instituyeres |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “insinuate!” and “don’t insinuate!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | instituye | no instituyas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | instituya | no instituya |
| Nosotros / as | instituyamos | no instituyamos |
| Vosotros / as | instituid | no instituyáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | instituyan | no instituyan |
| Vos | instituí | no instituyas |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya instituido |
| Tú | hayas instituido |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya instituido |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos instituido |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis instituido |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan instituido |
| Vos | hayas instituido |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera instituido / hubiese instituido |
| Tú | hubieras instituido / hubieses instituido |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera instituido / hubiese instituido |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos instituido / hubiésemos instituido |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais instituido / hubieseis instituido |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran instituido / hubiesen instituido |
| Vos | hubieras instituido / hubieses instituido |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere instituido |
| Tú | hubieres instituido |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere instituido |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos instituido |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis instituido |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren instituido |
| Vos | hubieres instituido |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté instituyendo |
| Tú | estés instituyendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté instituyendo |
| Nosotros / as | estemos instituyendo |
| Vosotros / as | estéis instituyendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén instituyendo |
| Vos | estés instituyendo |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera instituyendo / estuviese instituyendo |
| Tú | estuvieras instituyendo / estuvieses instituyendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera instituyendo / estuviese instituyendo |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos instituyendo / estuviésamos instituyendo |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais instituyendo / estuvieseis instituyendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera instituyendo / estuviese instituyendo |
| Vos | estuvieras instituyendo / estuvieses instituyendo |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere instituyendo |
| Tú | estuvieres instituyendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere instituyendo |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos instituyendo |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis instituyendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere instituyendo |
| Vos | estuvieres instituyendo |
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 instituís |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos instituiste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos instituías |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos instituirías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos instituirás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos instituyas |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos instituyeras / Vos instituyese |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos instituí |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no instituyas |