Everything you need to improve your Spanish
Menu
Everything you need to improve your Spanish
Acentuar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to accent, accentuate”.
Below are all of the conjugations for acentuar 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 accent, accentuate |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | acentuar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está acentuando) and past continuous (estaba acentuando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. accentuating).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he acentuado and hubiera acentuado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have accentuated).
| Gerundio / Gerund | acentuando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | acentuado |
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 accentuate” or “they accentuate”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | acentúo |
| Tú | acentúas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | acentúa |
| Nosotros / as | acentuamos |
| Vosotros / as | acentuáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | acentúan |
| Vos | acentuás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I accentuated” or “she accentuated” 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 | acentué | I accentuated |
| Tú | acentuaste | You accentuated |
| Él / Ella / Usted | acentuó | He / she / you accentuated |
| Nosotros / as | acentuamos | We accentuated |
| Vosotros / as | acentuasteis | You accentuated |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | acentuaron | They / you accentuated |
| Vos | acentuaste | You accentuated |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was accentuating” or “she was accentuating” 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 | acentuaba | I was accentuating |
| Tú | acentuabas | You were accentuating |
| Él / Ella / Usted | acentuaba | He was / she was / you were accentuating |
| Nosotros / as | acentuábamos | We were accentuating |
| Vosotros / as | acentuabais | You were accentuating |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | acentuaban | They / you were accentuating |
| Vos | acentuabas | You were accentuating |
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 accentuated” and “she has accentuated”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he acentuado | I have accentuated |
| Tú | has acentuado | You have accentuated |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha acentuado | He has / she has / you have accentuated |
| Nosotros / as | hemos acentuado | We have accentuated |
| Vosotros / as | habéis acentuado | You have accentuated |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han acentuado | They / you have accentuated |
| Vos | has acentuado | You have accentuated |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would accentuate” or “she would accentuate”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | acentuaría | I would accentuate |
| Tú | acentuarías | You would accentuate |
| Él / Ella / Usted | acentuaría | He / she / you would accentuate |
| Nosotros / as | acentuaríamos | We would accentuate |
| Vosotros / as | acentuaríais | You would accentuate |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | acentuarían | They / you would accentuate |
| Vos | acentuarías | You would accentuate |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will accentuate” or “they will accentuate”.
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 acentuar” means “They are going to accentuate”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | acentuaré | I will accentuate |
| Tú | acentuarás | You will accentuate |
| Él / Ella / Usted | acentuará | He / she / you will accentuate |
| Nosotros / as | acentuaremos | We will accentuate |
| Vosotros / as | acentuaréis | You will accentuate |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | acentuarán | They / you will accentuate |
| Vos | acentuarás | You will accentuate |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | acentúe |
| Tú | acentúes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | acentúe |
| Nosotros / as | acentuemos |
| Vosotros / as | acentuéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | acentúen |
| Vos | acentúes |
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 | acentuara | acentuase |
| Tú | acentuaras | acentuase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | acentuara | acentuase |
| Nosotros / as | acentuáramos | acentuásemos |
| Vosotros / as | acentuarais | acentuaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | acentuaran | acentuasen |
| Vos | acentuaras | acentuase |
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 | acentuare |
| Tú | acentuares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | acentuare |
| Nosotros / as | acentuáremos |
| Vosotros / as | acentuareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | acentuaren |
| Vos | acentuares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “accentuate!” and “don’t accentuate!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | acentúa | no acentúes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | acentúe | no acentúe |
| Nosotros / as | acentuemos | no acentuemos |
| Vosotros / as | acentuad | no acentuéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | acentúen | no acentúen |
| Vos | acentuá | no acentúes |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya acentuado |
| Tú | hayas acentuado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya acentuado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos acentuado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis acentuado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan acentuado |
| Vos | hayas acentuado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera acentuado / hubiese acentuado |
| Tú | hubieras acentuado / hubieses acentuado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera acentuado / hubiese acentuado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos acentuado / hubiésemos acentuado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais acentuado / hubieseis acentuado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran acentuado / hubiesen acentuado |
| Vos | hubieras acentuado / hubieses acentuado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere acentuado |
| Tú | hubieres acentuado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere acentuado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos acentuado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis acentuado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren acentuado |
| Vos | hubieres acentuado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté acentuando |
| Tú | estés acentuando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté acentuando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos acentuando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis acentuando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén acentuando |
| Vos | estés acentuando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera acentuando / estuviese acentuando |
| Tú | estuvieras acentuando / estuvieses acentuando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera acentuando / estuviese acentuando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos acentuando / estuviésamos acentuando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais acentuando / estuvieseis acentuando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera acentuando / estuviese acentuando |
| Vos | estuvieras acentuando / estuvieses acentuando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere acentuando |
| Tú | estuvieres acentuando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere acentuando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos acentuando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis acentuando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere acentuando |
| Vos | estuvieres acentuando |
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 acentuás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos acentuaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos acentuabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos acentuarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos acentuarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos acentúes |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos acentuaras / Vos acentuase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos acentuá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no acentúes |