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Ceñir is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to gird, enclose, tighten”.
Below are all of the conjugations for ceñir 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 gird, enclose, tighten |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | ceñir |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está ceñiendo) and past continuous (estaba ceñiendo). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. enclosing).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he ceñido and hubiera ceñido. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have enclosed).
| Gerundio / Gerund | ceñiendo |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | ceñido |
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 enclose” or “they enclose”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | ceño |
| Tú | ceñes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ceñe |
| Nosotros / as | ceñimos |
| Vosotros / as | ceñís |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | ceñen |
| Vos | ciñés |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I enclosed” or “she enclosed” 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 | ceñí | I enclosed |
| Tú | ceñiste | You enclosed |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ceñió | He / she / you enclosed |
| Nosotros / as | ceñimos | We enclosed |
| Vosotros / as | ceñisteis | You enclosed |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | ceñieron | They / you enclosed |
| Vos | ceñiste | You enclosed |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was enclosing” or “she was enclosing” 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 | ceñía | I was enclosing |
| Tú | ceñías | You were enclosing |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ceñía | He was / she was / you were enclosing |
| Nosotros / as | ceñíamos | We were enclosing |
| Vosotros / as | ceñíais | You were enclosing |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | ceñían | They / you were enclosing |
| Vos | ceñías | You were enclosing |
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 enclosed” and “she has enclosed”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he ceñido | I have enclosed |
| Tú | has ceñido | You have enclosed |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha ceñido | He has / she has / you have enclosed |
| Nosotros / as | hemos ceñido | We have enclosed |
| Vosotros / as | habéis ceñido | You have enclosed |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han ceñido | They / you have enclosed |
| Vos | has ceñido | You have enclosed |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would enclose” or “she would enclose”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | ceñiría | I would enclose |
| Tú | ceñirías | You would enclose |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ceñiría | He / she / you would enclose |
| Nosotros / as | ceñiríamos | We would enclose |
| Vosotros / as | ceñiríais | You would enclose |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | ceñirían | They / you would enclose |
| Vos | ceñirías | You would enclose |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will enclose” or “they will enclose”.
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 ceñir” means “They are going to enclose”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | ceñiré | I will enclose |
| Tú | ceñirás | You will enclose |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ceñirá | He / she / you will enclose |
| Nosotros / as | ceñiremos | We will enclose |
| Vosotros / as | ceñiréis | You will enclose |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | ceñirán | They / you will enclose |
| Vos | ceñirás | You will enclose |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | ceña |
| Tú | ceñas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ceña |
| Nosotros / as | ceñamos |
| Vosotros / as | ceñáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | ceñan |
| Vos | ceñas |
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 | ceñiera | ceñiese |
| Tú | ceñieras | ceñiese |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ceñiera | ceñiese |
| Nosotros / as | ceñiéramos | ceñiésemos |
| Vosotros / as | ceñierais | ceñieseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | ceñieran | ceñiesen |
| Vos | ceñieras | ceñiese |
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 | ceñiere |
| Tú | ceñieres |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ceñiera |
| Nosotros / as | ceñiéremos |
| Vosotros / as | ceñiereis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | ceñieren |
| Vos | ceñieres |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “enclose!” and “don’t enclose!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | ceñe | no ceñas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ceña | no ceña |
| Nosotros / as | ceñamos | no ceñamos |
| Vosotros / as | ceñid | no ceñáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | ceñan | no ceñan |
| Vos | ciñé | no ceñas |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya ceñido |
| Tú | hayas ceñido |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya ceñido |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos ceñido |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis ceñido |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan ceñido |
| Vos | hayas ceñido |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera ceñido / hubiese ceñido |
| Tú | hubieras ceñido / hubieses ceñido |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera ceñido / hubiese ceñido |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos ceñido / hubiésemos ceñido |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais ceñido / hubieseis ceñido |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran ceñido / hubiesen ceñido |
| Vos | hubieras ceñido / hubieses ceñido |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere ceñido |
| Tú | hubieres ceñido |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere ceñido |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos ceñido |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis ceñido |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren ceñido |
| Vos | hubieres ceñido |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté ceñiendo |
| Tú | estés ceñiendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté ceñiendo |
| Nosotros / as | estemos ceñiendo |
| Vosotros / as | estéis ceñiendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén ceñiendo |
| Vos | estés ceñiendo |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera ceñiendo / estuviese ceñiendo |
| Tú | estuvieras ceñiendo / estuvieses ceñiendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera ceñiendo / estuviese ceñiendo |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos ceñiendo / estuviésamos ceñiendo |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais ceñiendo / estuvieseis ceñiendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera ceñiendo / estuviese ceñiendo |
| Vos | estuvieras ceñiendo / estuvieses ceñiendo |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere ceñiendo |
| Tú | estuvieres ceñiendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere ceñiendo |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos ceñiendo |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis ceñiendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere ceñiendo |
| Vos | estuvieres ceñiendo |
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 ciñés |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos ceñiste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos ceñías |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos ceñirías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos ceñirás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos ceñas |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos ceñieras / Vos ceñiese |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos ciñé |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no ceñas |