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Everything you need to improve your Spanish
Acechar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to watch, spy on”.
Below are all of the conjugations for acechar 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 watch, spy on |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | acechar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está acechando) and past continuous (estaba acechando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. spying on).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he acechado and hubiera acechado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have spied on).
| Gerundio / Gerund | acechando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | acechado |
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 spy on” or “they spy on”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | acecho |
| Tú | acechas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | acecha |
| Nosotros / as | acechamos |
| Vosotros / as | acecháis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | acechan |
| Vos | acechás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I spied on” or “she spied on” 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 | aceché | I spied on |
| Tú | acechaste | You spied on |
| Él / Ella / Usted | acechó | He / she / you spied on |
| Nosotros / as | acechamos | We spied on |
| Vosotros / as | acechasteis | You spied on |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | acecharon | They / you spied on |
| Vos | acechaste | You spied on |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was spying on” or “she was spying on” 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 | acechaba | I was spying on |
| Tú | acechabas | You were spying on |
| Él / Ella / Usted | acechaba | He was / she was / you were spying on |
| Nosotros / as | acechábamos | We were spying on |
| Vosotros / as | acechabais | You were spying on |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | acechaban | They / you were spying on |
| Vos | acechabas | You were spying on |
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 spied on” and “she has spied on”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he acechado | I have spied on |
| Tú | has acechado | You have spied on |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha acechado | He has / she has / you have spied on |
| Nosotros / as | hemos acechado | We have spied on |
| Vosotros / as | habéis acechado | You have spied on |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han acechado | They / you have spied on |
| Vos | has acechado | You have spied on |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would spy on” or “she would spy on”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | acecharía | I would spy on |
| Tú | acecharías | You would spy on |
| Él / Ella / Usted | acecharía | He / she / you would spy on |
| Nosotros / as | acecharíamos | We would spy on |
| Vosotros / as | acecharíais | You would spy on |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | acecharían | They / you would spy on |
| Vos | acecharías | You would spy on |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will spy on” or “they will spy on”.
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 acechar” means “They are going to spy on”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | acecharé | I will spy on |
| Tú | acecharás | You will spy on |
| Él / Ella / Usted | acechará | He / she / you will spy on |
| Nosotros / as | acecharemos | We will spy on |
| Vosotros / as | acecharéis | You will spy on |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | acecharán | They / you will spy on |
| Vos | acecharás | You will spy on |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | aceche |
| Tú | aceches |
| Él / Ella / Usted | aceche |
| Nosotros / as | acechemos |
| Vosotros / as | acechéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | acechen |
| Vos | aceches |
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 | acechara | acechase |
| Tú | acecharas | acechase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | acechara | acechase |
| Nosotros / as | acecháramos | acechásemos |
| Vosotros / as | acecharais | acechaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | acecharan | acechasen |
| Vos | acecharas | acechase |
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 | acechare |
| Tú | acechares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | acechare |
| Nosotros / as | acecháremos |
| Vosotros / as | acechareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | acecharen |
| Vos | acechares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “spy on!” and “don’t spy on!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | acecha | no aceches |
| Él / Ella / Usted | aceche | no aceche |
| Nosotros / as | acechemos | no acechemos |
| Vosotros / as | acechad | no acechéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | acechen | no acechen |
| Vos | acechá | no aceches |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya acechado |
| Tú | hayas acechado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya acechado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos acechado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis acechado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan acechado |
| Vos | hayas acechado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera acechado / hubiese acechado |
| Tú | hubieras acechado / hubieses acechado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera acechado / hubiese acechado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos acechado / hubiésemos acechado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais acechado / hubieseis acechado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran acechado / hubiesen acechado |
| Vos | hubieras acechado / hubieses acechado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere acechado |
| Tú | hubieres acechado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere acechado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos acechado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis acechado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren acechado |
| Vos | hubieres acechado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté acechando |
| Tú | estés acechando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté acechando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos acechando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis acechando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén acechando |
| Vos | estés acechando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera acechando / estuviese acechando |
| Tú | estuvieras acechando / estuvieses acechando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera acechando / estuviese acechando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos acechando / estuviésamos acechando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais acechando / estuvieseis acechando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera acechando / estuviese acechando |
| Vos | estuvieras acechando / estuvieses acechando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere acechando |
| Tú | estuvieres acechando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere acechando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos acechando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis acechando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere acechando |
| Vos | estuvieres acechando |
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 acechás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos acechaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos acechabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos acecharías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos acecharás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos aceches |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos acecharas / Vos acechase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos acechá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no aceches |