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Abreviar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to reduce, shorten”.
Below are all of the conjugations for abreviar 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 reduce, shorten |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | abreviar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está abreviando) and past continuous (estaba abreviando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. reducing).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he abreviado and hubiera abreviado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have reduced).
| Gerundio / Gerund | abreviando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | abreviado |
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 reduce” or “they reduce”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | abrevio |
| Tú | abrevias |
| Él / Ella / Usted | abrevia |
| Nosotros / as | abreviamos |
| Vosotros / as | abreviáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | abrevian |
| Vos | abreviás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I reduced” or “she reduced” 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 | abrevié | I reduced |
| Tú | abreviaste | You reduced |
| Él / Ella / Usted | abrevió | He / she / you reduced |
| Nosotros / as | abreviamos | We reduced |
| Vosotros / as | abreviasteis | You reduced |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | abreviaron | They / you reduced |
| Vos | abreviaste | You reduced |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was reducing” or “she was reducing” 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 | abreviaba | I was reducing |
| Tú | abreviabas | You were reducing |
| Él / Ella / Usted | abreviaba | He was / she was / you were reducing |
| Nosotros / as | abreviábamos | We were reducing |
| Vosotros / as | abreviabais | You were reducing |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | abreviaban | They / you were reducing |
| Vos | abreviabas | You were reducing |
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 reduced” and “she has reduced”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he abreviado | I have reduced |
| Tú | has abreviado | You have reduced |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha abreviado | He has / she has / you have reduced |
| Nosotros / as | hemos abreviado | We have reduced |
| Vosotros / as | habéis abreviado | You have reduced |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han abreviado | They / you have reduced |
| Vos | has abreviado | You have reduced |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would reduce” or “she would reduce”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | abreviaría | I would reduce |
| Tú | abreviarías | You would reduce |
| Él / Ella / Usted | abreviaría | He / she / you would reduce |
| Nosotros / as | abreviaríamos | We would reduce |
| Vosotros / as | abreviaríais | You would reduce |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | abreviarían | They / you would reduce |
| Vos | abreviarías | You would reduce |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will reduce” or “they will reduce”.
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 abreviar” means “They are going to reduce”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | abreviaré | I will reduce |
| Tú | abreviarás | You will reduce |
| Él / Ella / Usted | abreviará | He / she / you will reduce |
| Nosotros / as | abreviaremos | We will reduce |
| Vosotros / as | abreviaréis | You will reduce |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | abreviarán | They / you will reduce |
| Vos | abreviarás | You will reduce |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | abrevie |
| Tú | abrevies |
| Él / Ella / Usted | abrevie |
| Nosotros / as | abreviemos |
| Vosotros / as | abreviéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | abrevien |
| Vos | abrevies |
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 | abreviara | abreviase |
| Tú | abreviaras | abreviase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | abreviara | abreviase |
| Nosotros / as | abreviáramos | abreviásemos |
| Vosotros / as | abreviarais | abreviaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | abreviaran | abreviasen |
| Vos | abreviaras | abreviase |
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 | abreviare |
| Tú | abreviares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | abreviare |
| Nosotros / as | abreviáremos |
| Vosotros / as | abreviareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | abreviaren |
| Vos | abreviares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “reduce!” and “don’t reduce!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | abrevia | no abrevies |
| Él / Ella / Usted | abrevie | no abrevie |
| Nosotros / as | abreviemos | no abreviemos |
| Vosotros / as | abreviad | no abreviéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | abrevien | no abrevien |
| Vos | abreviá | no abrevies |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya abreviado |
| Tú | hayas abreviado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya abreviado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos abreviado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis abreviado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan abreviado |
| Vos | hayas abreviado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera abreviado / hubiese abreviado |
| Tú | hubieras abreviado / hubieses abreviado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera abreviado / hubiese abreviado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos abreviado / hubiésemos abreviado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais abreviado / hubieseis abreviado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran abreviado / hubiesen abreviado |
| Vos | hubieras abreviado / hubieses abreviado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere abreviado |
| Tú | hubieres abreviado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere abreviado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos abreviado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis abreviado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren abreviado |
| Vos | hubieres abreviado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté abreviando |
| Tú | estés abreviando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté abreviando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos abreviando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis abreviando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén abreviando |
| Vos | estés abreviando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera abreviando / estuviese abreviando |
| Tú | estuvieras abreviando / estuvieses abreviando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera abreviando / estuviese abreviando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos abreviando / estuviésamos abreviando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais abreviando / estuvieseis abreviando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera abreviando / estuviese abreviando |
| Vos | estuvieras abreviando / estuvieses abreviando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere abreviando |
| Tú | estuvieres abreviando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere abreviando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos abreviando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis abreviando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere abreviando |
| Vos | estuvieres abreviando |
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 abreviás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos abreviaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos abreviabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos abreviarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos abreviarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos abrevies |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos abreviaras / Vos abreviase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos abreviá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no abrevies |