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Ayudar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to help”.
Below are all of the conjugations for ayudar 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 help |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | ayudar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está ayudando) and past continuous (estaba ayudando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. helping).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he ayudado and hubiera ayudado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have helped).
| Gerundio / Gerund | ayudando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | ayudado |
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 help” or “they help”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | ayudo |
| Tú | ayudas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ayuda |
| Nosotros / as | ayudamos |
| Vosotros / as | ayudáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | ayudan |
| Vos | ayudás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I helped” or “she helped” 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 | ayudé | I helped |
| Tú | ayudaste | You helped |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ayudó | He / she / you helped |
| Nosotros / as | ayudamos | We helped |
| Vosotros / as | ayudasteis | You helped |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | ayudaron | They / you helped |
| Vos | ayudaste | You helped |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was helping” or “she was helping” 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 | ayudaba | I was helping |
| Tú | ayudabas | You were helping |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ayudaba | He was / she was / you were helping |
| Nosotros / as | ayudábamos | We were helping |
| Vosotros / as | ayudabais | You were helping |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | ayudaban | They / you were helping |
| Vos | ayudabas | You were helping |
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 helped” and “she has helped”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he ayudado | I have helped |
| Tú | has ayudado | You have helped |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha ayudado | He has / she has / you have helped |
| Nosotros / as | hemos ayudado | We have helped |
| Vosotros / as | habéis ayudado | You have helped |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han ayudado | They / you have helped |
| Vos | has ayudado | You have helped |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would help” or “she would help”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | ayudaría | I would help |
| Tú | ayudarías | You would help |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ayudaría | He / she / you would help |
| Nosotros / as | ayudaríamos | We would help |
| Vosotros / as | ayudaríais | You would help |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | ayudarían | They / you would help |
| Vos | ayudarías | You would help |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will help” or “they will help”.
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 ayudar” means “They are going to help”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | ayudaré | I will help |
| Tú | ayudarás | You will help |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ayudará | He / she / you will help |
| Nosotros / as | ayudaremos | We will help |
| Vosotros / as | ayudaréis | You will help |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | ayudarán | They / you will help |
| Vos | ayudarás | You will help |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | ayude |
| Tú | ayudes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ayude |
| Nosotros / as | ayudemos |
| Vosotros / as | ayudéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | ayuden |
| Vos | ayudes |
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 | ayudara | ayudase |
| Tú | ayudaras | ayudase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ayudara | ayudase |
| Nosotros / as | ayudáramos | ayudásemos |
| Vosotros / as | ayudarais | ayudaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | ayudaran | ayudasen |
| Vos | ayudaras | ayudase |
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 | ayudare |
| Tú | ayudares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ayudare |
| Nosotros / as | ayudáremos |
| Vosotros / as | ayudareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | ayudaren |
| Vos | ayudares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “help!” and “don’t help!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | ayuda | no ayudes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ayude | no ayude |
| Nosotros / as | ayudemos | no ayudemos |
| Vosotros / as | ayudad | no ayudéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | ayuden | no ayuden |
| Vos | ayudá | no ayudes |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya ayudado |
| Tú | hayas ayudado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya ayudado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos ayudado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis ayudado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan ayudado |
| Vos | hayas ayudado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera ayudado / hubiese ayudado |
| Tú | hubieras ayudado / hubieses ayudado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera ayudado / hubiese ayudado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos ayudado / hubiésemos ayudado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais ayudado / hubieseis ayudado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran ayudado / hubiesen ayudado |
| Vos | hubieras ayudado / hubieses ayudado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere ayudado |
| Tú | hubieres ayudado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere ayudado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos ayudado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis ayudado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren ayudado |
| Vos | hubieres ayudado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté ayudando |
| Tú | estés ayudando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté ayudando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos ayudando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis ayudando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén ayudando |
| Vos | estés ayudando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera ayudando / estuviese ayudando |
| Tú | estuvieras ayudando / estuvieses ayudando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera ayudando / estuviese ayudando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos ayudando / estuviésamos ayudando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais ayudando / estuvieseis ayudando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera ayudando / estuviese ayudando |
| Vos | estuvieras ayudando / estuvieses ayudando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere ayudando |
| Tú | estuvieres ayudando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere ayudando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos ayudando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis ayudando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere ayudando |
| Vos | estuvieres ayudando |
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 ayudás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos ayudaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos ayudabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos ayudarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos ayudarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos ayudes |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos ayudaras / Vos ayudase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos ayudá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no ayudes |
