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Mantener is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to hold”.
Below are all of the conjugations for mantener 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 hold |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | mantener |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está manteniendo) and past continuous (estaba manteniendo). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. holding).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he mantenido and hubiera mantenido. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have held).
| Gerundio / Gerund | manteniendo |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | mantenido |
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 hold” or “they hold”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | mantengo |
| Tú | mantienes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | mantiene |
| Nosotros / as | mantenemos |
| Vosotros / as | mantenéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | mantienen |
| Vos | mantenés |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I held” or “she held” 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 | mantuve | I held |
| Tú | mantuviste | You held |
| Él / Ella / Usted | mantuvo | He / she / you held |
| Nosotros / as | mantuvimos | We held |
| Vosotros / as | mantuvisteis | You held |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | mantuvieron | They / you held |
| Vos | mantuviste | You held |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was holding” or “she was holding” 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 | mantenía | I was holding |
| Tú | mantenías | You were holding |
| Él / Ella / Usted | mantenía | He was / she was / you were holding |
| Nosotros / as | manteníamos | We were holding |
| Vosotros / as | manteníais | You were holding |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | mantenían | They / you were holding |
| Vos | mantenías | You were holding |
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 held” and “she has held”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he mantenido | I have held |
| Tú | has mantenido | You have held |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha mantenido | He has / she has / you have held |
| Nosotros / as | hemos mantenido | We have held |
| Vosotros / as | habéis mantenido | You have held |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han mantenido | They / you have held |
| Vos | has mantenido | You have held |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would hold” or “she would hold”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | mantendría | I would hold |
| Tú | mantendrías | You would hold |
| Él / Ella / Usted | mantendría | He / she / you would hold |
| Nosotros / as | mantendríamos | We would hold |
| Vosotros / as | mantendríais | You would hold |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | mantendrían | They / you would hold |
| Vos | mantendrías | You would hold |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will hold” or “they will hold”.
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 mantener” means “They are going to hold”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | mantendré | I will hold |
| Tú | mantendrás | You will hold |
| Él / Ella / Usted | mantendrá | He / she / you will hold |
| Nosotros / as | mantendremos | We will hold |
| Vosotros / as | mantendréis | You will hold |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | mantendrán | They / you will hold |
| Vos | mantendrás | You will hold |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | mantenga |
| Tú | mantengas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | mantenga |
| Nosotros / as | mantengamos |
| Vosotros / as | mantengáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | mantengan |
| Vos | mantengas |
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 | mantuviera | mantuviese |
| Tú | mantuvieras | mantuviese |
| Él / Ella / Usted | mantuviera | mantuviese |
| Nosotros / as | mantuviéramos | mantuviésemos |
| Vosotros / as | mantuvierais | mantuvieseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | mantuvieran | mantuviesen |
| Vos | mantuvieras | mantuviese |
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 | mantuviere |
| Tú | mantuvieres |
| Él / Ella / Usted | mantuviere |
| Nosotros / as | mantuviéremos |
| Vosotros / as | mantuviereis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | mantuvieren |
| Vos | mantuvieres |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “hold!” and “don’t hold!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | mantén | no mantengas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | mantenga | no mantenga |
| Nosotros / as | mantengamos | no mantengamos |
| Vosotros / as | mantened | no mantengáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | mantengan | no mantengan |
| Vos | mantené | no mantengas |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya mantenido |
| Tú | hayas mantenido |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya mantenido |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos mantenido |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis mantenido |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan mantenido |
| Vos | hayas mantenido |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera mantenido / hubiese mantenido |
| Tú | hubieras mantenido / hubieses mantenido |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera mantenido / hubiese mantenido |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos mantenido / hubiésemos mantenido |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais mantenido / hubieseis mantenido |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran mantenido / hubiesen mantenido |
| Vos | hubieras mantenido / hubieses mantenido |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere mantenido |
| Tú | hubieres mantenido |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere mantenido |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos mantenido |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis mantenido |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren mantenido |
| Vos | hubieres mantenido |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté manteniendo |
| Tú | estés manteniendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté manteniendo |
| Nosotros / as | estemos manteniendo |
| Vosotros / as | estéis manteniendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén manteniendo |
| Vos | estés manteniendo |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera manteniendo / estuviese manteniendo |
| Tú | estuvieras manteniendo / estuvieses manteniendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera manteniendo / estuviese manteniendo |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos manteniendo / estuviésamos manteniendo |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais manteniendo / estuvieseis manteniendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera manteniendo / estuviese manteniendo |
| Vos | estuvieras manteniendo / estuvieses manteniendo |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere manteniendo |
| Tú | estuvieres manteniendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere manteniendo |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos manteniendo |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis manteniendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere manteniendo |
| Vos | estuvieres manteniendo |
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 mantenés |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos mantuviste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos mantenías |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos mantendrías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos mantendrás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos mantengas |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos mantuvieras / Vos mantuviese |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos mantené |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no mantengas |
