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Encender is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to light, turn on”.
Below are all of the conjugations for encender 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 light, turn on |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | encender |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está encendiendo) and past continuous (estaba encendiendo). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. lighting).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he encendido and hubiera encendido. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have lit).
| Gerundio / Gerund | encendiendo |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | encendido |
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 light” or “they light”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | enciendo |
| Tú | enciendes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | enciende |
| Nosotros / as | encendemos |
| Vosotros / as | encendéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | encienden |
| Vos | encendés |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I lit” or “she lit” 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 | encendí | I lit |
| Tú | encendiste | You lit |
| Él / Ella / Usted | encendió | He / she / you lit |
| Nosotros / as | encendimos | We lit |
| Vosotros / as | encendisteis | You lit |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | encendieron | They / you lit |
| Vos | encendiste | You lit |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was lighting” or “she was lighting” 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 | encendía | I was lighting |
| Tú | encendías | You were lighting |
| Él / Ella / Usted | encendía | He was / she was / you were lighting |
| Nosotros / as | encendíamos | We were lighting |
| Vosotros / as | encendíais | You were lighting |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | encendían | They / you were lighting |
| Vos | encendías | You were lighting |
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 lit” and “she has lit”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he encendido | I have lit |
| Tú | has encendido | You have lit |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha encendido | He has / she has / you have lit |
| Nosotros / as | hemos encendido | We have lit |
| Vosotros / as | habéis encendido | You have lit |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han encendido | They / you have lit |
| Vos | has encendido | You have lit |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would light” or “she would light”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | encendería | I would light |
| Tú | encenderías | You would light |
| Él / Ella / Usted | encendería | He / she / you would light |
| Nosotros / as | encenderíamos | We would light |
| Vosotros / as | encenderíais | You would light |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | encenderían | They / you would light |
| Vos | encenderías | You would light |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will light” or “they will light”.
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 encender” means “They are going to light”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | encenderé | I will light |
| Tú | encenderás | You will light |
| Él / Ella / Usted | encenderá | He / she / you will light |
| Nosotros / as | encenderemos | We will light |
| Vosotros / as | encenderéis | You will light |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | encenderán | They / you will light |
| Vos | encenderás | You will light |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | encienda |
| Tú | enciendas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | encienda |
| Nosotros / as | encendamos |
| Vosotros / as | encendáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | enciendan |
| Vos | enciendas |
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 | encendiera | encendiese |
| Tú | encendieras | encendiese |
| Él / Ella / Usted | encendiera | encendiese |
| Nosotros / as | encendiéramos | encendiésemos |
| Vosotros / as | encendierais | encendieseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | encendieran | encendiesen |
| Vos | encendieras | encendiese |
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 | encendiere |
| Tú | encendieres |
| Él / Ella / Usted | encendiere |
| Nosotros / as | encendiéremos |
| Vosotros / as | encendiereis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | encendieren |
| Vos | encendieres |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “light!” and “don’t light!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | enciende | no enciendas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | encienda | no encienda |
| Nosotros / as | encendamos | no encendamos |
| Vosotros / as | encended | no encendáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | enciendan | no enciendan |
| Vos | encendé | no enciendas |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya encendido |
| Tú | hayas encendido |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya encendido |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos encendido |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis encendido |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan encendido |
| Vos | hayas encendido |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera encendido / hubiese encendido |
| Tú | hubieras encendido / hubieses encendido |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera encendido / hubiese encendido |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos encendido / hubiésemos encendido |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais encendido / hubieseis encendido |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran encendido / hubiesen encendido |
| Vos | hubieras encendido / hubieses encendido |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere encendido |
| Tú | hubieres encendido |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere encendido |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos encendido |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis encendido |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren encendido |
| Vos | hubieres encendido |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté encendiendo |
| Tú | estés encendiendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté encendiendo |
| Nosotros / as | estemos encendiendo |
| Vosotros / as | estéis encendiendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén encendiendo |
| Vos | estés encendiendo |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera encendiendo / estuviese encendiendo |
| Tú | estuvieras encendiendo / estuvieses encendiendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera encendiendo / estuviese encendiendo |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos encendiendo / estuviésamos encendiendo |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais encendiendo / estuvieseis encendiendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera encendiendo / estuviese encendiendo |
| Vos | estuvieras encendiendo / estuvieses encendiendo |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere encendiendo |
| Tú | estuvieres encendiendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere encendiendo |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos encendiendo |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis encendiendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere encendiendo |
| Vos | estuvieres encendiendo |
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 encendés |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos encendiste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos encendías |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos encenderías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos encenderás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos enciendas |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos encendieras / Vos encendiese |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos encendé |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no enciendas |