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Malentender is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to misunderstand”.
Below are all of the conjugations for malentender 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 misunderstand |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | malentender |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está malentendiendo) and past continuous (estaba malentendiendo). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. misunderstanding).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he malentendido and hubiera malentendido. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have misunderstood).
| Gerundio / Gerund | malentendiendo |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | malentendido |
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 misunderstand” or “they misunderstand”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | malentiendo |
| Tú | malentiendes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | malentiende |
| Nosotros / as | malentendemos |
| Vosotros / as | malentendéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | malentienden |
| Vos |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I misunderstood” or “she misunderstood” 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 | malentendí | I misunderstood |
| Tú | malentendiste | You misunderstood |
| Él / Ella / Usted | malentendió | He / she / you misunderstood |
| Nosotros / as | malentendimos | We misunderstood |
| Vosotros / as | malentendisteis | You misunderstood |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | malentendieron | They / you misunderstood |
| Vos | malentendiste | You misunderstood |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was misunderstanding” or “she was misunderstanding” 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 | malentendía | I was misunderstanding |
| Tú | malentendías | You were misunderstanding |
| Él / Ella / Usted | malentendía | He was / she was / you were misunderstanding |
| Nosotros / as | malentendíamos | We were misunderstanding |
| Vosotros / as | malentendíais | You were misunderstanding |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | malentendían | They / you were misunderstanding |
| Vos | malentendías | You were misunderstanding |
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 misunderstood” and “she has misunderstood”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he malentendido | I have misunderstood |
| Tú | has malentendido | You have misunderstood |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha malentendido | He has / she has / you have misunderstood |
| Nosotros / as | hemos malentendido | We have misunderstood |
| Vosotros / as | habéis malentendido | You have misunderstood |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han malentendido | They / you have misunderstood |
| Vos | has malentendido | You have misunderstood |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would misunderstand” or “she would misunderstand”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | malentendería | I would misunderstand |
| Tú | malentenderías | You would misunderstand |
| Él / Ella / Usted | malentendería | He / she / you would misunderstand |
| Nosotros / as | malentenderíamos | We would misunderstand |
| Vosotros / as | malentenderíais | You would misunderstand |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | malentenderían | They / you would misunderstand |
| Vos | malentenderías | You would misunderstand |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will misunderstand” or “they will misunderstand”.
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 malentender” means “They are going to misunderstand”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | malentenderé | I will misunderstand |
| Tú | malentenderás | You will misunderstand |
| Él / Ella / Usted | malentenderá | He / she / you will misunderstand |
| Nosotros / as | malentenderemos | We will misunderstand |
| Vosotros / as | malentenderéis | You will misunderstand |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | malentenderán | They / you will misunderstand |
| Vos | malentenderás | You will misunderstand |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | malentienda |
| Tú | malentiendas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | malentienda |
| Nosotros / as | malentendamos |
| Vosotros / as | malentendáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | malentiendan |
| Vos | malentiendas |
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 | malentendiera | malentendiese |
| Tú | malentendieras | malentendiese |
| Él / Ella / Usted | malentendiera | malentendiese |
| Nosotros / as | malentendiéramos | malentendiésemos |
| Vosotros / as | malentendierais | malentendieseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | malentendieran | malentendiesen |
| Vos | malentendieras | malentendiese |
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 | malentendiere |
| Tú | malentendieres |
| Él / Ella / Usted | malentendiere |
| Nosotros / as | malentendiéremos |
| Vosotros / as | malentendiereis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | malentendieren |
| Vos | malentendieres |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “misunderstand!” and “don’t misunderstand!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | malentiende | no malentiendas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | malentienda | no malentienda |
| Nosotros / as | malentendamos | no malentendamos |
| Vosotros / as | malentended | no malentendáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | malentiendan | no malentiendan |
| Vos | no malentiendas |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya malentendido |
| Tú | hayas malentendido |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya malentendido |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos malentendido |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis malentendido |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan malentendido |
| Vos | hayas malentendido |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera malentendido / hubiese malentendido |
| Tú | hubieras malentendido / hubieses malentendido |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera malentendido / hubiese malentendido |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos malentendido / hubiésemos malentendido |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais malentendido / hubieseis malentendido |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran malentendido / hubiesen malentendido |
| Vos | hubieras malentendido / hubieses malentendido |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere malentendido |
| Tú | hubieres malentendido |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere malentendido |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos malentendido |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis malentendido |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren malentendido |
| Vos | hubieres malentendido |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté malentendiendo |
| Tú | estés malentendiendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté malentendiendo |
| Nosotros / as | estemos malentendiendo |
| Vosotros / as | estéis malentendiendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén malentendiendo |
| Vos | estés malentendiendo |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera malentendiendo / estuviese malentendiendo |
| Tú | estuvieras malentendiendo / estuvieses malentendiendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera malentendiendo / estuviese malentendiendo |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos malentendiendo / estuviésamos malentendiendo |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais malentendiendo / estuvieseis malentendiendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera malentendiendo / estuviese malentendiendo |
| Vos | estuvieras malentendiendo / estuvieses malentendiendo |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere malentendiendo |
| Tú | estuvieres malentendiendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere malentendiendo |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos malentendiendo |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis malentendiendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere malentendiendo |
| Vos | estuvieres malentendiendo |
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 |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos malentendiste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos malentendías |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos malentenderías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos malentenderás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos malentiendas |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos malentendieras / Vos malentendiese |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no malentiendas |