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Abarcar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to embrace, encompass”.
Below are all of the conjugations for abarcar 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 embrace, encompass |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | abarcar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está abarcando) and past continuous (estaba abarcando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. embracing).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he abarcado and hubiera abarcado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have embraced).
| Gerundio / Gerund | abarcando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | abarcado |
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 embrace” or “they embrace”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | abarco |
| Tú | abarcas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | abarca |
| Nosotros / as | abarcamos |
| Vosotros / as | abarcáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | abarcan |
| Vos | abarcás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I embraced” or “she embraced” 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 | abarqué | I embraced |
| Tú | abarcaste | You embraced |
| Él / Ella / Usted | abarcó | He / she / you embraced |
| Nosotros / as | abarcamos | We embraced |
| Vosotros / as | abarcasteis | You embraced |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | abarcaron | They / you embraced |
| Vos | abarcaste | You embraced |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was embracing” or “she was embracing” 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 | abarcaba | I was embracing |
| Tú | abarcabas | You were embracing |
| Él / Ella / Usted | abarcaba | He was / she was / you were embracing |
| Nosotros / as | abarcábamos | We were embracing |
| Vosotros / as | abarcabais | You were embracing |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | abarcaban | They / you were embracing |
| Vos | abarcabas | You were embracing |
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 embraced” and “she has embraced”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he abarcado | I have embraced |
| Tú | has abarcado | You have embraced |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha abarcado | He has / she has / you have embraced |
| Nosotros / as | hemos abarcado | We have embraced |
| Vosotros / as | habéis abarcado | You have embraced |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han abarcado | They / you have embraced |
| Vos | has abarcado | You have embraced |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would embrace” or “she would embrace”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | abarcaría | I would embrace |
| Tú | abarcarías | You would embrace |
| Él / Ella / Usted | abarcaría | He / she / you would embrace |
| Nosotros / as | abarcaríamos | We would embrace |
| Vosotros / as | abarcaríais | You would embrace |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | abarcarían | They / you would embrace |
| Vos | abarcarías | You would embrace |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will embrace” or “they will embrace”.
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 abarcar” means “They are going to embrace”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | abarcaré | I will embrace |
| Tú | abarcarás | You will embrace |
| Él / Ella / Usted | abarcará | He / she / you will embrace |
| Nosotros / as | abarcaremos | We will embrace |
| Vosotros / as | abarcaréis | You will embrace |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | abarcarán | They / you will embrace |
| Vos | abarcarás | You will embrace |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | abarque |
| Tú | abarques |
| Él / Ella / Usted | abarque |
| Nosotros / as | abarquemos |
| Vosotros / as | abarquéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | abarquen |
| Vos | abarques |
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 | abarcara | abarcase |
| Tú | abarcaras | abarcase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | abarcara | abarcase |
| Nosotros / as | abarcáramos | abarcásemos |
| Vosotros / as | abarcarais | abarcaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | abarcaran | abarcasen |
| Vos | abarcaras | abarcase |
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 | abarcare |
| Tú | abarcares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | abarcare |
| Nosotros / as | abarcáremos |
| Vosotros / as | abarcareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | abarcaren |
| Vos | abarcares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “embrace!” and “don’t embrace!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | abarca | no abarques |
| Él / Ella / Usted | abarque | no abarque |
| Nosotros / as | abarquemos | no abarquemos |
| Vosotros / as | abarcad | no abarquéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | abarquen | no abarquen |
| Vos | abarcá | no abarques |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya abarcado |
| Tú | hayas abarcado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya abarcado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos abarcado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis abarcado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan abarcado |
| Vos | hayas abarcado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera abarcado / hubiese abarcado |
| Tú | hubieras abarcado / hubieses abarcado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera abarcado / hubiese abarcado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos abarcado / hubiésemos abarcado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais abarcado / hubieseis abarcado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran abarcado / hubiesen abarcado |
| Vos | hubieras abarcado / hubieses abarcado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere abarcado |
| Tú | hubieres abarcado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere abarcado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos abarcado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis abarcado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren abarcado |
| Vos | hubieres abarcado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté abarcando |
| Tú | estés abarcando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté abarcando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos abarcando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis abarcando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén abarcando |
| Vos | estés abarcando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera abarcando / estuviese abarcando |
| Tú | estuvieras abarcando / estuvieses abarcando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera abarcando / estuviese abarcando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos abarcando / estuviésamos abarcando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais abarcando / estuvieseis abarcando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera abarcando / estuviese abarcando |
| Vos | estuvieras abarcando / estuvieses abarcando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere abarcando |
| Tú | estuvieres abarcando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere abarcando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos abarcando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis abarcando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere abarcando |
| Vos | estuvieres abarcando |
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 abarcás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos abarcaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos abarcabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos abarcarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos abarcarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos abarques |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos abarcaras / Vos abarcase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos abarcá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no abarques |