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Acariciar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to caress, treat tenderly”.
Below are all of the conjugations for acariciar 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 caress, treat tenderly |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | acariciar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está acariciando) and past continuous (estaba acariciando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. caressing).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he acariciado and hubiera acariciado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have caressed).
| Gerundio / Gerund | acariciando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | acariciado |
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 caress” or “they caress”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | acaricio |
| Tú | acaricias |
| Él / Ella / Usted | acaricia |
| Nosotros / as | acariciamos |
| Vosotros / as | acariciáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | acarician |
| Vos | acariciás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I caressed” or “she caressed” 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 | acaricié | I caressed |
| Tú | acariciaste | You caressed |
| Él / Ella / Usted | acarició | He / she / you caressed |
| Nosotros / as | acariciamos | We caressed |
| Vosotros / as | acariciasteis | You caressed |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | acariciaron | They / you caressed |
| Vos | acariciaste | You caressed |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was caressing” or “she was caressing” 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 | acariciaba | I was caressing |
| Tú | acariciabas | You were caressing |
| Él / Ella / Usted | acariciaba | He was / she was / you were caressing |
| Nosotros / as | acariciábamos | We were caressing |
| Vosotros / as | acariciabais | You were caressing |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | acariciaban | They / you were caressing |
| Vos | acariciabas | You were caressing |
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 caressed” and “she has caressed”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he acariciado | I have caressed |
| Tú | has acariciado | You have caressed |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha acariciado | He has / she has / you have caressed |
| Nosotros / as | hemos acariciado | We have caressed |
| Vosotros / as | habéis acariciado | You have caressed |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han acariciado | They / you have caressed |
| Vos | has acariciado | You have caressed |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would caress” or “she would caress”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | acariciaría | I would caress |
| Tú | acariciarías | You would caress |
| Él / Ella / Usted | acariciaría | He / she / you would caress |
| Nosotros / as | acariciaríamos | We would caress |
| Vosotros / as | acariciaríais | You would caress |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | acariciarían | They / you would caress |
| Vos | acariciarías | You would caress |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will caress” or “they will caress”.
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 acariciar” means “They are going to caress”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | acariciaré | I will caress |
| Tú | acariciarás | You will caress |
| Él / Ella / Usted | acariciará | He / she / you will caress |
| Nosotros / as | acariciaremos | We will caress |
| Vosotros / as | acariciaréis | You will caress |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | acariciarán | They / you will caress |
| Vos | acariciarás | You will caress |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | acaricie |
| Tú | acaricies |
| Él / Ella / Usted | acaricie |
| Nosotros / as | acariciemos |
| Vosotros / as | acariciéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | acaricien |
| Vos | acaricies |
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 | acariciara | acariciase |
| Tú | acariciaras | acariciase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | acariciara | acariciase |
| Nosotros / as | acariciáramos | acariciásemos |
| Vosotros / as | acariciarais | acariciaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | acariciaran | acariciasen |
| Vos | acariciaras | acariciase |
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 | acariciare |
| Tú | acariciares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | acariciare |
| Nosotros / as | acariciáremos |
| Vosotros / as | acariciareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | acariciaren |
| Vos | acariciares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “caress!” and “don’t caress!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | acaricia | no acaricies |
| Él / Ella / Usted | acaricie | no acaricie |
| Nosotros / as | acariciemos | no acariciemos |
| Vosotros / as | acariciad | no acariciéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | acaricien | no acaricien |
| Vos | acariciá | no acaricies |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya acariciado |
| Tú | hayas acariciado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya acariciado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos acariciado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis acariciado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan acariciado |
| Vos | hayas acariciado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera acariciado / hubiese acariciado |
| Tú | hubieras acariciado / hubieses acariciado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera acariciado / hubiese acariciado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos acariciado / hubiésemos acariciado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais acariciado / hubieseis acariciado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran acariciado / hubiesen acariciado |
| Vos | hubieras acariciado / hubieses acariciado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere acariciado |
| Tú | hubieres acariciado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere acariciado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos acariciado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis acariciado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren acariciado |
| Vos | hubieres acariciado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté acariciando |
| Tú | estés acariciando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté acariciando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos acariciando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis acariciando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén acariciando |
| Vos | estés acariciando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera acariciando / estuviese acariciando |
| Tú | estuvieras acariciando / estuvieses acariciando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera acariciando / estuviese acariciando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos acariciando / estuviésamos acariciando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais acariciando / estuvieseis acariciando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera acariciando / estuviese acariciando |
| Vos | estuvieras acariciando / estuvieses acariciando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere acariciando |
| Tú | estuvieres acariciando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere acariciando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos acariciando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis acariciando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere acariciando |
| Vos | estuvieres acariciando |
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 acariciás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos acariciaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos acariciabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos acariciarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos acariciarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos acaricies |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos acariciaras / Vos acariciase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos acariciá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no acaricies |