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Acicalarse is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to dress up, spruce up”.
It’s a reflexive verb, which means the subject performs the action upon themselves – e.g. “I wake myself”.
Reflexive verbs always carry a reflexive pronoun – me, te, se, nos or os – which is often placed before the conjugated verb (e.g. me acicalo) or after the infinitive (e.g. Él tiene que acicalarse).
Below are all of the conjugations for acicalarse 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 dress up, spruce up |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | acicalarse |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está acicalándose) and past continuous (estaba acicalándose). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. dressing up).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he acicalado and hubiera acicalado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have dressed up).
| Gerundio / Gerund | acicalándose |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | acicalado |
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 dress up” or “they dress up”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | me acicalo |
| Tú | te acicalas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | se acicala |
| Nosotros / as | nos acicalamos |
| Vosotros / as | os acicaláis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | se acicalan |
| Vos | te acicalás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I dressed up” or “she dressed up” 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 | me acicalé | I dressed up |
| Tú | te acicalaste | You dressed up |
| Él / Ella / Usted | se acicaló | He / she / you dressed up |
| Nosotros / as | nos acicalamos | We dressed up |
| Vosotros / as | os acicalasteis | You dressed up |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | se acicalaron | They / you dressed up |
| Vos | te acicalaste | You dressed up |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was dressing up” or “she was dressing up” 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 | me acicalaba | I was dressing up |
| Tú | te acicalabas | You were dressing up |
| Él / Ella / Usted | se acicalaba | He was / she was / you were dressing up |
| Nosotros / as | nos acicalábamos | We were dressing up |
| Vosotros / as | os acicalabais | You were dressing up |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | se acicalaban | They / you were dressing up |
| Vos | te acicalabas | You were dressing up |
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 dressed up” and “she has dressed up”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | me he acicalado | I have dressed up |
| Tú | te has acicalado | You have dressed up |
| Él / Ella / Usted | se ha acicalado | He has / she has / you have dressed up |
| Nosotros / as | nos hemos acicalado | We have dressed up |
| Vosotros / as | os habéis acicalado | You have dressed up |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | se han acicalado | They / you have dressed up |
| Vos | te has acicalado | You have dressed up |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would dress up” or “she would dress up”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | me acicalaría | I would dress up |
| Tú | te acicalarías | You would dress up |
| Él / Ella / Usted | se acicalaría | He / she / you would dress up |
| Nosotros / as | nos acicalaríamos | We would dress up |
| Vosotros / as | os acicalaríais | You would dress up |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | se acicalarían | They / you would dress up |
| Vos | te acicalarías | You would dress up |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will dress up” or “they will dress up”.
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 acicalarse” means “They are going to dress up”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | me acicalaré | I will dress up |
| Tú | te acicalarás | You will dress up |
| Él / Ella / Usted | se acicalará | He / she / you will dress up |
| Nosotros / as | nos acicalaremos | We will dress up |
| Vosotros / as | os acicalaréis | You will dress up |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | se acicalarán | They / you will dress up |
| Vos | te acicalarás | You will dress up |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | me acicale |
| Tú | te acicales |
| Él / Ella / Usted | se acicale |
| Nosotros / as | nos acicalemos |
| Vosotros / as | os acicaléis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | se acicalen |
| Vos | te acicales |
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 | me acicalara | me acicalase |
| Tú | te acicalaras | me acicalase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | se acicalara | se acicalase |
| Nosotros / as | nos acicaláramos | nos acicalásemos |
| Vosotros / as | os acicalarais | os acicalaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | se acicalaran | se acicalasen |
| Vos | te acicalaras | me acicalase |
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 | me acicalare |
| Tú | te acicalares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | se acicalare |
| Nosotros / as | nos acicaláremos |
| Vosotros / as | os acicalareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | se acicalaren |
| Vos | te acicalares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “dress up!” and “don’t dress up!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | acicálate | no te acicales |
| Él / Ella / Usted | acicálese | no se acicale |
| Nosotros / as | acicalémonos | no nos acicalemos |
| Vosotros / as | acicalaos | no os acicaléis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | acicálense | no se acicalen |
| Vos | acicalate | no te acicales |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya acicalado |
| Tú | hayas acicalado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya acicalado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos acicalado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis acicalado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan acicalado |
| Vos | hayas acicalado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera acicalado / hubiese acicalado |
| Tú | hubieras acicalado / hubieses acicalado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera acicalado / hubiese acicalado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos acicalado / hubiésemos acicalado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais acicalado / hubieseis acicalado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran acicalado / hubiesen acicalado |
| Vos | hubieras acicalado / hubieses acicalado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere acicalado |
| Tú | hubieres acicalado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere acicalado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos acicalado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis acicalado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren acicalado |
| Vos | hubieres acicalado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté acicalándose |
| Tú | estés acicalándose |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté acicalándose |
| Nosotros / as | estemos acicalándose |
| Vosotros / as | estéis acicalándose |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén acicalándose |
| Vos | estés acicalándose |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera acicalándose / estuviese acicalándose |
| Tú | estuvieras acicalándose / estuvieses acicalándose |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera acicalándose / estuviese acicalándose |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos acicalándose / estuviésamos acicalándose |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais acicalándose / estuvieseis acicalándose |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera acicalándose / estuviese acicalándose |
| Vos | estuvieras acicalándose / estuvieses acicalándose |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere acicalándose |
| Tú | estuvieres acicalándose |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere acicalándose |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos acicalándose |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis acicalándose |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere acicalándose |
| Vos | estuvieres acicalándose |
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 te acicalás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos te acicalaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos te acicalabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos te acicalarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos te acicalarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos te acicales |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos te acicalaras / Vos me acicalase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos acicalate |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no te acicales |