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Acercarse is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to draw near, approach”.
It’s a reflexive verb, which means the subject performs the action upon themselves – e.g. “I wake myself”.
Reflexive verbs always carry a reflexive pronoun – me, te, se, nos or os – which is often placed before the conjugated verb (e.g. me acerco) or after the infinitive (e.g. Él tiene que acercarse).
Below are all of the conjugations for acercarse 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 draw near, approach |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | acercarse |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está acercándose) and past continuous (estaba acercándose). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. approaching).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he acercado and hubiera acercado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have approached).
| Gerundio / Gerund | acercándose |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | acercado |
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 approach” or “they approach”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | me acerco |
| Tú | te acercas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | se acerca |
| Nosotros / as | nos acercamos |
| Vosotros / as | os acercáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | se acercan |
| Vos | te acercás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I approached” or “she approached” 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 | me acerqué | I approached |
| Tú | te acercaste | You approached |
| Él / Ella / Usted | se acercó | He / she / you approached |
| Nosotros / as | nos acercamos | We approached |
| Vosotros / as | os acercasteis | You approached |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | se acercaron | They / you approached |
| Vos | te acercaste | You approached |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was approaching” or “she was approaching” 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 | me acercaba | I was approaching |
| Tú | te acercabas | You were approaching |
| Él / Ella / Usted | se acercaba | He was / she was / you were approaching |
| Nosotros / as | nos acercábamos | We were approaching |
| Vosotros / as | os acercabais | You were approaching |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | se acercaban | They / you were approaching |
| Vos | te acercabas | You were approaching |
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 approached” and “she has approached”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | me he acercado | I have approached |
| Tú | te has acercado | You have approached |
| Él / Ella / Usted | se ha acercado | He has / she has / you have approached |
| Nosotros / as | nos hemos acercado | We have approached |
| Vosotros / as | os habéis acercado | You have approached |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | se han acercado | They / you have approached |
| Vos | te has acercado | You have approached |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would approach” or “she would approach”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | me acercaría | I would approach |
| Tú | te acercarías | You would approach |
| Él / Ella / Usted | se acercaría | He / she / you would approach |
| Nosotros / as | nos acercaríamos | We would approach |
| Vosotros / as | os acercaríais | You would approach |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | se acercarían | They / you would approach |
| Vos | te acercarías | You would approach |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will approach” or “they will approach”.
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 acercarse” means “They are going to approach”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | me acercaré | I will approach |
| Tú | te acercarás | You will approach |
| Él / Ella / Usted | se acercará | He / she / you will approach |
| Nosotros / as | nos acercaremos | We will approach |
| Vosotros / as | os acercaréis | You will approach |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | se acercarán | They / you will approach |
| Vos | te acercarás | You will approach |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | me acerque |
| Tú | te acerques |
| Él / Ella / Usted | se acerque |
| Nosotros / as | nos acerquemos |
| Vosotros / as | os acerquéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | se acerquen |
| Vos | te acerques |
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 | me acercara | me acercase |
| Tú | te acercaras | me acercase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | se acercara | se acercase |
| Nosotros / as | nos acercáramos | nos acercásemos |
| Vosotros / as | os acercarais | os acercaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | se acercaran | se acercasen |
| Vos | te acercaras | me acercase |
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 | me acercare |
| Tú | te acercares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | se acercare |
| Nosotros / as | nos acercáremos |
| Vosotros / as | os acercareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | se acercaren |
| Vos | te acercares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “approach!” and “don’t approach!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | acércate | no te acerques |
| Él / Ella / Usted | acérquese | no se acerque |
| Nosotros / as | acerquémonos | no nos acerquemos |
| Vosotros / as | acercaos | no os acerquéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | acérquense | no se acerquen |
| Vos | acercate | no te acerques |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya acercado |
| Tú | hayas acercado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya acercado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos acercado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis acercado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan acercado |
| Vos | hayas acercado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera acercado / hubiese acercado |
| Tú | hubieras acercado / hubieses acercado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera acercado / hubiese acercado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos acercado / hubiésemos acercado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais acercado / hubieseis acercado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran acercado / hubiesen acercado |
| Vos | hubieras acercado / hubieses acercado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere acercado |
| Tú | hubieres acercado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere acercado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos acercado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis acercado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren acercado |
| Vos | hubieres acercado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté acercándose |
| Tú | estés acercándose |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté acercándose |
| Nosotros / as | estemos acercándose |
| Vosotros / as | estéis acercándose |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén acercándose |
| Vos | estés acercándose |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera acercándose / estuviese acercándose |
| Tú | estuvieras acercándose / estuvieses acercándose |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera acercándose / estuviese acercándose |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos acercándose / estuviésamos acercándose |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais acercándose / estuvieseis acercándose |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera acercándose / estuviese acercándose |
| Vos | estuvieras acercándose / estuvieses acercándose |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere acercándose |
| Tú | estuvieres acercándose |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere acercándose |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos acercándose |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis acercándose |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere acercándose |
| Vos | estuvieres acercándose |
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 te acercás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos te acercaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos te acercabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos te acercarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos te acercarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos te acerques |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos te acercaras / Vos me acercase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos acercate |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no te acerques |