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Arrestar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to arrest”.
Below are all of the conjugations for arrestar 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 arrest |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | arrestar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está arrestando) and past continuous (estaba arrestando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. arresting).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he arrestado and hubiera arrestado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have arrested).
| Gerundio / Gerund | arrestando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | arrestado |
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 arrest” or “they arrest”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | arresto |
| Tú | arrestas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | arresta |
| Nosotros / as | arrestamos |
| Vosotros / as | arrestáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | arrestan |
| Vos | arrestás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I arrested” or “she arrested” 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 | arresté | I arrested |
| Tú | arrestaste | You arrested |
| Él / Ella / Usted | arrestó | He / she / you arrested |
| Nosotros / as | arrestamos | We arrested |
| Vosotros / as | arrestasteis | You arrested |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | arrestaron | They / you arrested |
| Vos | arrestaste | You arrested |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was arresting” or “she was arresting” 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 | arrestaba | I was arresting |
| Tú | arrestabas | You were arresting |
| Él / Ella / Usted | arrestaba | He was / she was / you were arresting |
| Nosotros / as | arrestábamos | We were arresting |
| Vosotros / as | arrestabais | You were arresting |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | arrestaban | They / you were arresting |
| Vos | arrestabas | You were arresting |
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 arrested” and “she has arrested”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he arrestado | I have arrested |
| Tú | has arrestado | You have arrested |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha arrestado | He has / she has / you have arrested |
| Nosotros / as | hemos arrestado | We have arrested |
| Vosotros / as | habéis arrestado | You have arrested |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han arrestado | They / you have arrested |
| Vos | has arrestado | You have arrested |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would arrest” or “she would arrest”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | arrestaría | I would arrest |
| Tú | arrestarías | You would arrest |
| Él / Ella / Usted | arrestaría | He / she / you would arrest |
| Nosotros / as | arrestaríamos | We would arrest |
| Vosotros / as | arrestaríais | You would arrest |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | arrestarían | They / you would arrest |
| Vos | arrestarías | You would arrest |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will arrest” or “they will arrest”.
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 arrestar” means “They are going to arrest”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | arrestaré | I will arrest |
| Tú | arrestarás | You will arrest |
| Él / Ella / Usted | arrestará | He / she / you will arrest |
| Nosotros / as | arrestaremos | We will arrest |
| Vosotros / as | arrestaréis | You will arrest |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | arrestarán | They / you will arrest |
| Vos | arrestarás | You will arrest |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | arreste |
| Tú | arrestes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | arreste |
| Nosotros / as | arrestemos |
| Vosotros / as | arrestéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | arresten |
| Vos | arrestes |
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 | arrestara | arrestase |
| Tú | arrestaras | arrestase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | arrestara | arrestase |
| Nosotros / as | arrestáramos | arrestásemos |
| Vosotros / as | arrestarais | arrestaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | arrestaran | arrestasen |
| Vos | arrestaras | arrestase |
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 | arrestare |
| Tú | arrestares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | arrestare |
| Nosotros / as | arrestáremos |
| Vosotros / as | arrestareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | arrestaren |
| Vos | arrestares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “arrest!” and “don’t arrest!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | arresta | no arrestes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | arreste | no arreste |
| Nosotros / as | arrestemos | no arrestemos |
| Vosotros / as | arrestad | no arrestéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | arresten | no arresten |
| Vos | arrestá | no arrestes |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya arrestado |
| Tú | hayas arrestado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya arrestado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos arrestado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis arrestado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan arrestado |
| Vos | hayas arrestado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera arrestado / hubiese arrestado |
| Tú | hubieras arrestado / hubieses arrestado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera arrestado / hubiese arrestado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos arrestado / hubiésemos arrestado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais arrestado / hubieseis arrestado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran arrestado / hubiesen arrestado |
| Vos | hubieras arrestado / hubieses arrestado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere arrestado |
| Tú | hubieres arrestado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere arrestado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos arrestado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis arrestado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren arrestado |
| Vos | hubieres arrestado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté arrestando |
| Tú | estés arrestando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté arrestando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos arrestando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis arrestando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén arrestando |
| Vos | estés arrestando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera arrestando / estuviese arrestando |
| Tú | estuvieras arrestando / estuvieses arrestando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera arrestando / estuviese arrestando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos arrestando / estuviésamos arrestando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais arrestando / estuvieseis arrestando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera arrestando / estuviese arrestando |
| Vos | estuvieras arrestando / estuvieses arrestando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere arrestando |
| Tú | estuvieres arrestando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere arrestando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos arrestando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis arrestando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere arrestando |
| Vos | estuvieres arrestando |
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 arrestás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos arrestaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos arrestabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos arrestarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos arrestarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos arrestes |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos arrestaras / Vos arrestase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos arrestá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no arrestes |