Spanish Verb Pensar Conjugation

How to use the Spanish Verb Pensar

The verb Pensar is used to express a conclusion after you have heard the different points of view about a certain topic: Yo pienso que el partido Demócrata tiene una mejor plataforma política en este período. (I think that the Democratic Party has a better political platform this period.)

It is used to mention a habit, an obsession or constant situation a person holds: Algunas personas solo piensan en hacer dinero rápidamente. (Some people only think about making money as fast as possible.)

To state a prediction based on numbers or facts: Roger piensa que su país no ganará un lugar en el próximo mundial de fútbol. (Roger thinks his country will not win a space in the next Soccer World Cup.)

To talk about a memory that came to your mind: Estaba pensando en las vacaciones que pasamos en Venecia. (I was thinking about the holidays we spent in Venice.)

Verbals of Pensar

Verbals are words that need other words in order to be used. No matter the person, tense, number, these words will remain the same (hooray!). The verb Pensar has three verbals: the infinitive, the gerund and the participle. Let’s move on to the examples:

	Verbal	Common Use	Example	English
Infinitive	Pensar (to think / thinking)	Non conjugated / Noun	Pensar en ella todo el día es normal para un enamorado.	To think of her all day long is normal for a lover.
Gerund	Pensando (thinking)	Adverb/periphrasis	Sigue pensándolo y alguien más comparará la pieza.	Keep on thinking about it and someone else will buy the stuff.
Participle	Pensado  (thought)	Adjective	Eso fue pensado por Fibonacci hace más de cien años.	That was thought by Fibonacci more than a hundred years ago.

Conjugate the Spanish Verb Pensar

Many Spanish teachers, and I include myself, strongly recommend having practical exercises with real conversations to obtain “naturalness” in the way of speaking.

Pensar Conjugation: Indicative Mood

You have to consider the focus that is used when a person is speaking, what the verb or phrase is saying in general, and the most common focus in Spanish is the indicative mood. Although less common, please keep in mind that the auxiliary verb Haber (to have) is an important part of its compound tenses!

Simple Tenses of the Indicative Mood

Subject	Present	Preterite	Imperfect	Conditional	Future
	(think)	(thought)	(thought)	(would think)	(will think)
Yo	pienso	pensé	pensaba	pensaría	pensaré
Tú	piensas	pensaste	pensabas	pensarías	pensarás
Él/Ella/Usted	piensa	pensó	pensaba	pensaría	pensará
Nosotros	pensamos	pensamos	pensábamos	pensaríamos	pensaremos
Ellos/Ellas/Ustedes	piensan	pensaron	pensaban	pensarían	pensarán

Some examples:

• Pobre de ti que pensabas que aún sin entrenar podrías ganar el torneo. (Poor you who thought that even without training you could win the tournament.)
• Déjame leer los folletos y lo pensaré por unos días. (Let me read the brochures and I will think about it for a few days.)

Compound Tenses of the Indicative Mood

Subject	Present	Preterite	Imperfect	Conditional	Future
	(have/has thought)	(had thought)	(had thought)	(would have thought)	(will have thought)
Yo	he pensado	hube pensado	había pensado	habría pensado	habré pensado
Tú	has pensado	hubiste pensado	habías pensado	habrías pensado	habrás pensado
Él/Ella/Usted	ha pensado	hubo pensado	había pensado	habría pensado	habrá pensado
Nosotros	hemos pensado	hubimos pensado	habíamos pensado	habrían pensado	habremos pensado
Ellos/Ellas/Ustedes	han pensado	hubieron pensado	habían pensado	habrían pensado	habrán pensado

Pensar Conjugation: Subjunctive Mood

With this mood, we hypothesize or express our wishes. The number of verb tenses is reduced, being divided equally into simple and compound.

Simple Tenses of the Subjunctive Mood

Subject	Present	Imperfect	Imperfect 2	Future
Yo	piense	pensara	pensase	pensare
Tú	pienses	pensaras	pensases	pensares
Él/Ella/Usted	piense	pensara	pensase	pensare
Nosotros	pensemos	pensáramos	pensásemos	pensáremos
Ellos/Ellas/Ustedes	piensen	pensaran	pensasen	pensaren

More examples:

• Si usted pensara que nuestra calidad es mala, no estaría hoy aquí. (If you thought our quality was bad, you would not be here today.)
• La idea de la campaña publicitaria es hacer que los niños piensen en nuestros dulces día y noche. (The idea of the publicity campaign is to have the children think of our candies night and day.)

Compound Tenses of the Subjunctive Mood

Subject	Present	Imperfect	Imperfect 2	Future
Yo	haya pensado	hubiera pensado	hubiese pensado	hubiere pensado
Tú	hayas pensado	hubieras pensado	hubieses pensado	hubieres pensado
Él/Ella/Usted	haya pensado	hubiera pensado	hubiese pensado	hubiere pensado
Nosotros	hayamos pensado	hubiéramos pensado	hubiésemos pensado	hubiéremos pensado
Ellos/Ellas/Ustedes	hayan pensado	hubieran pensado	hubiesen pensado	hubieren pensado

Pensar Conjugation: Imperative Mood

We enter the last mood you are going to memorize, with fewer people to learn (fortunately): the bossy (or Imperative) mood. With this conjugation, you can express orders. And since you can’t order yourself or a third party, you will only learn 3 persons and 1 verb tense. Possible uses of the Imperative mood? Children, pets, or that roomie who won’t stop eating your stuff.

Imperative Mood’s Conjugations

Subject	Affirmative	Negative
	(think / let's think)	(don't think / let's not think)
Tú	piensa	no pienses
Nosotros	pensemos	no pensemos
Ustedes	piensen	no piensen

Examples:

Pensemos en todos los beneficios que esta autopista traerá a la comunidad. (Let’s think about the benefits this highway will bring to the community.)

Será mejor que no pienses cosas malas antes de que pasen. (It would be better if you don´t think of bad things before they happen.)

Verb Pensar – Quiz/Worksheet

As I mentioned before, practicing will be your best ally in mastering Spanish, and since our goal is to help you, we will leave you some sentences to review what we have learned in this lesson. Fill in the correct conjugation in the spaces below:

1. Lo ___________________ dos veces antes de casarte con ella. (You should had thought about it twice before marrying her.)
2. No puedo dejar de ____________ en el accidente, me afectó mucho. (I can not stop thinking about the accident, it affected me a lot.)
3. _________________ en perder, solo en ganar. (Do not think about losing, only about winning)
4. ____________ todos por un momento en las repercusiones económicas de esta fusión. (Let’s think for a moment about the economic repercussions of this merger.)
5. Si lo ______________________ un poco más, habríamos viajado en avión. (If we had thought about it a little more, we would have traveled by plane.)
6. Nunca __________ mal de mis amigos hasta que los escuché hablando mal de mí. (I would had never thought badly of my friends until I heard them speaking ill of me.)
7. No lo ______________ dos veces y compramos la villa en Madrid. (We did not think it twice and bought the villa in Madrid.)
8. Después de la entrevista _________ que me contratarían. (After the interview I thought they would hire me.)
9. Que ella ____________ eso de mí fue devastador. (That she would think that of me was devastating.)
10. Para cuando llegue a Nebraska, ya lo _______________ mejor. (The moment I arrive to Nebraska I would have thought about it better.)

Answers

Here you can confirm if you got the answers right, remember that it’s okay to make mistakes, don’t lose sleep over a few mistakes, keep practicing every day!

1. Hubieras pensado
2. Pensar
3. No pienses
4. Pensemos
5. Hubiésemos pensado
6. Habría pensado
7. Pensamos
8. Pensé
9. Pensara
10. Habré pensado

A word to the wise

No digas lo que piensas, pero piensa lo que dices: the title of this class gives us a game of words about not to say what you think, but to think about what you say. The general idea means keeping quiet about certain things, as sometimes it is not necessary to speak. You can wait to give an opinion later, but if you are going to talk about it anyway, you better think very hard about the consequences of your opinion.