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Instruir is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to instruct, teach”.
Below are all of the conjugations for instruir 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 instruct, teach |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | instruir |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está instruyendo) and past continuous (estaba instruyendo). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. instructing).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he instruido and hubiera instruido. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have instructed).
| Gerundio / Gerund | instruyendo |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | instruido |
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 instruct” or “they instruct”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | instruyo |
| Tú | instruyes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | instruye |
| Nosotros / as | instruimos |
| Vosotros / as | instruís |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | instruyen |
| Vos | instruís |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I instructed” or “she instructed” 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 | instruí | I instructed |
| Tú | instruiste | You instructed |
| Él / Ella / Usted | instruyó | He / she / you instructed |
| Nosotros / as | instruimos | We instructed |
| Vosotros / as | instruisteis | You instructed |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | instruyeron | They / you instructed |
| Vos | instruiste | You instructed |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was instructing” or “she was instructing” 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 | instruía | I was instructing |
| Tú | instruías | You were instructing |
| Él / Ella / Usted | instruía | He was / she was / you were instructing |
| Nosotros / as | instruíamos | We were instructing |
| Vosotros / as | instruíais | You were instructing |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | instruían | They / you were instructing |
| Vos | instruías | You were instructing |
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 instructed” and “she has instructed”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he instruido | I have instructed |
| Tú | has instruido | You have instructed |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha instruido | He has / she has / you have instructed |
| Nosotros / as | hemos instruido | We have instructed |
| Vosotros / as | habéis instruido | You have instructed |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han instruido | They / you have instructed |
| Vos | has instruido | You have instructed |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would instruct” or “she would instruct”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | instruiría | I would instruct |
| Tú | instruirías | You would instruct |
| Él / Ella / Usted | instruiría | He / she / you would instruct |
| Nosotros / as | instruiríamos | We would instruct |
| Vosotros / as | instruiríais | You would instruct |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | instruirían | They / you would instruct |
| Vos | instruirías | You would instruct |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will instruct” or “they will instruct”.
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 instruir” means “They are going to instruct”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | instruiré | I will instruct |
| Tú | instruirás | You will instruct |
| Él / Ella / Usted | instruirá | He / she / you will instruct |
| Nosotros / as | instruiremos | We will instruct |
| Vosotros / as | instruiréis | You will instruct |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | instruirán | They / you will instruct |
| Vos | instruirás | You will instruct |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | instruya |
| Tú | instruyas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | instruya |
| Nosotros / as | instruyamos |
| Vosotros / as | instruyáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | instruyan |
| Vos | instruyas |
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 | instruyera | instruyese |
| Tú | instruyeras | instruyese |
| Él / Ella / Usted | instruyera | instruyese |
| Nosotros / as | instruyéramos | instruyésemos |
| Vosotros / as | instruyerais | instruyeseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | instruyeran | instruyesen |
| Vos | instruyeras | instruyese |
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 | instruyere |
| Tú | instruyeres |
| Él / Ella / Usted | instruyera |
| Nosotros / as | instruyéremos |
| Vosotros / as | instruyereis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | instruyeren |
| Vos | instruyeres |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “instruct!” and “don’t instruct!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | instruye | no instruyas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | instruya | no instruya |
| Nosotros / as | instruyamos | no instruyamos |
| Vosotros / as | instruid | no instruyáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | instruyan | no instruyan |
| Vos | instruí | no instruyas |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya instruido |
| Tú | hayas instruido |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya instruido |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos instruido |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis instruido |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan instruido |
| Vos | hayas instruido |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera instruido / hubiese instruido |
| Tú | hubieras instruido / hubieses instruido |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera instruido / hubiese instruido |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos instruido / hubiésemos instruido |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais instruido / hubieseis instruido |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran instruido / hubiesen instruido |
| Vos | hubieras instruido / hubieses instruido |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere instruido |
| Tú | hubieres instruido |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere instruido |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos instruido |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis instruido |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren instruido |
| Vos | hubieres instruido |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté instruyendo |
| Tú | estés instruyendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté instruyendo |
| Nosotros / as | estemos instruyendo |
| Vosotros / as | estéis instruyendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén instruyendo |
| Vos | estés instruyendo |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera instruyendo / estuviese instruyendo |
| Tú | estuvieras instruyendo / estuvieses instruyendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera instruyendo / estuviese instruyendo |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos instruyendo / estuviésamos instruyendo |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais instruyendo / estuvieseis instruyendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera instruyendo / estuviese instruyendo |
| Vos | estuvieras instruyendo / estuvieses instruyendo |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere instruyendo |
| Tú | estuvieres instruyendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere instruyendo |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos instruyendo |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis instruyendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere instruyendo |
| Vos | estuvieres instruyendo |
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 instruís |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos instruiste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos instruías |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos instruirías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos instruirás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos instruyas |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos instruyeras / Vos instruyese |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos instruí |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no instruyas |