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Acaparar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to monopolize”.
Below are all of the conjugations for acaparar 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 monopolize |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | acaparar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está acaparando) and past continuous (estaba acaparando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. monopolising).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he acaparado and hubiera acaparado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have monopolised).
| Gerundio / Gerund | acaparando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | acaparado |
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 monopolise” or “they monopolise”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | acaparo |
| Tú | acaparas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | acapara |
| Nosotros / as | acaparamos |
| Vosotros / as | acaparáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | acaparan |
| Vos | acaparás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I monopolised” or “she monopolised” 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 | acaparé | I monopolised |
| Tú | acaparaste | You monopolised |
| Él / Ella / Usted | acaparó | He / she / you monopolised |
| Nosotros / as | acaparamos | We monopolised |
| Vosotros / as | acaparasteis | You monopolised |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | acapararon | They / you monopolised |
| Vos | acaparaste | You monopolised |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was monopolising” or “she was monopolising” 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 | acaparaba | I was monopolising |
| Tú | acaparabas | You were monopolising |
| Él / Ella / Usted | acaparaba | He was / she was / you were monopolising |
| Nosotros / as | acaparábamos | We were monopolising |
| Vosotros / as | acaparabais | You were monopolising |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | acaparaban | They / you were monopolising |
| Vos | acaparabas | You were monopolising |
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 monopolised” and “she has monopolised”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he acaparado | I have monopolised |
| Tú | has acaparado | You have monopolised |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha acaparado | He has / she has / you have monopolised |
| Nosotros / as | hemos acaparado | We have monopolised |
| Vosotros / as | habéis acaparado | You have monopolised |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han acaparado | They / you have monopolised |
| Vos | has acaparado | You have monopolised |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would monopolise” or “she would monopolise”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | acapararía | I would monopolise |
| Tú | acapararías | You would monopolise |
| Él / Ella / Usted | acapararía | He / she / you would monopolise |
| Nosotros / as | acapararíamos | We would monopolise |
| Vosotros / as | acapararíais | You would monopolise |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | acapararían | They / you would monopolise |
| Vos | acapararías | You would monopolise |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will monopolise” or “they will monopolise”.
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 acaparar” means “They are going to monopolise”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | acapararé | I will monopolise |
| Tú | acapararás | You will monopolise |
| Él / Ella / Usted | acaparará | He / she / you will monopolise |
| Nosotros / as | acapararemos | We will monopolise |
| Vosotros / as | acapararéis | You will monopolise |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | acapararán | They / you will monopolise |
| Vos | acapararás | You will monopolise |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | acapare |
| Tú | acapares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | acapare |
| Nosotros / as | acaparemos |
| Vosotros / as | acaparéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | acaparen |
| Vos | acapares |
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 | acaparara | acaparase |
| Tú | acapararas | acaparase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | acaparara | acaparase |
| Nosotros / as | acaparáramos | acaparásemos |
| Vosotros / as | acapararais | acaparaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | acapararan | acaparasen |
| Vos | acapararas | acaparase |
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 | acaparare |
| Tú | acaparares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | acaparare |
| Nosotros / as | acaparáremos |
| Vosotros / as | acaparareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | acapararen |
| Vos | acaparares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “monopolise!” and “don’t monopolise!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | acapara | no acapares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | acapare | no acapare |
| Nosotros / as | acaparemos | no acaparemos |
| Vosotros / as | acaparad | no acaparéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | acaparen | no acaparen |
| Vos | acapará | no acapares |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya acaparado |
| Tú | hayas acaparado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya acaparado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos acaparado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis acaparado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan acaparado |
| Vos | hayas acaparado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera acaparado / hubiese acaparado |
| Tú | hubieras acaparado / hubieses acaparado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera acaparado / hubiese acaparado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos acaparado / hubiésemos acaparado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais acaparado / hubieseis acaparado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran acaparado / hubiesen acaparado |
| Vos | hubieras acaparado / hubieses acaparado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere acaparado |
| Tú | hubieres acaparado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere acaparado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos acaparado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis acaparado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren acaparado |
| Vos | hubieres acaparado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté acaparando |
| Tú | estés acaparando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté acaparando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos acaparando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis acaparando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén acaparando |
| Vos | estés acaparando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera acaparando / estuviese acaparando |
| Tú | estuvieras acaparando / estuvieses acaparando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera acaparando / estuviese acaparando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos acaparando / estuviésamos acaparando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais acaparando / estuvieseis acaparando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera acaparando / estuviese acaparando |
| Vos | estuvieras acaparando / estuvieses acaparando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere acaparando |
| Tú | estuvieres acaparando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere acaparando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos acaparando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis acaparando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere acaparando |
| Vos | estuvieres acaparando |
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 acaparás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos acaparaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos acaparabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos acapararías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos acapararás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos acapares |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos acapararas / Vos acaparase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos acapará |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no acapares |