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Acertar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to hit upon, guess right”.
Below are all of the conjugations for acertar 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 hit upon, guess right |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | acertar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está acertando) and past continuous (estaba acertando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. guessing right).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he acertado and hubiera acertado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have guessed right).
| Gerundio / Gerund | acertando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | acertado |
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 guess right” or “they guess right”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | acierto |
| Tú | aciertas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | acierta |
| Nosotros / as | acertamos |
| Vosotros / as | acertáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | aciertan |
| Vos | acertás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I guessed right” or “she guessed right” 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 | acerté | I guessed right |
| Tú | acertaste | You guessed right |
| Él / Ella / Usted | acertó | He / she / you guessed right |
| Nosotros / as | acertamos | We guessed right |
| Vosotros / as | acertasteis | You guessed right |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | acertaron | They / you guessed right |
| Vos | acertaste | You guessed right |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was guessing right” or “she was guessing right” 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 | acertaba | I was guessing right |
| Tú | acertabas | You were guessing right |
| Él / Ella / Usted | acertaba | He was / she was / you were guessing right |
| Nosotros / as | acertábamos | We were guessing right |
| Vosotros / as | acertabais | You were guessing right |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | acertaban | They / you were guessing right |
| Vos | acertabas | You were guessing right |
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 guessed right” and “she has guessed right”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he acertado | I have guessed right |
| Tú | has acertado | You have guessed right |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha acertado | He has / she has / you have guessed right |
| Nosotros / as | hemos acertado | We have guessed right |
| Vosotros / as | habéis acertado | You have guessed right |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han acertado | They / you have guessed right |
| Vos | has acertado | You have guessed right |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would guess right” or “she would guess right”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | acertaría | I would guess right |
| Tú | acertarías | You would guess right |
| Él / Ella / Usted | acertaría | He / she / you would guess right |
| Nosotros / as | acertaríamos | We would guess right |
| Vosotros / as | acertaríais | You would guess right |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | acertarían | They / you would guess right |
| Vos | acertarías | You would guess right |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will guess right” or “they will guess right”.
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 acertar” means “They are going to guess right”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | acertaré | I will guess right |
| Tú | acertarás | You will guess right |
| Él / Ella / Usted | acertará | He / she / you will guess right |
| Nosotros / as | acertaremos | We will guess right |
| Vosotros / as | acertaréis | You will guess right |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | acertarán | They / you will guess right |
| Vos | acertarás | You will guess right |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | acierte |
| Tú | aciertes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | acierte |
| Nosotros / as | acertemos |
| Vosotros / as | acertéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | acierten |
| Vos | aciertes |
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 | acertara | acertase |
| Tú | acertaras | acertase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | acertara | acertase |
| Nosotros / as | acertáramos | acertásemos |
| Vosotros / as | acertarais | acertaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | acertaran | acertasen |
| Vos | acertaras | acertase |
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 | acertare |
| Tú | acertares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | acertare |
| Nosotros / as | acertáremos |
| Vosotros / as | acertareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | acertaren |
| Vos | acertares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “guess right!” and “don’t guess right!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | acierta | no aciertes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | acierte | no acierte |
| Nosotros / as | acertemos | no acertemos |
| Vosotros / as | acertad | no acertéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | acierten | no acierten |
| Vos | acertá | no aciertes |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya acertado |
| Tú | hayas acertado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya acertado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos acertado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis acertado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan acertado |
| Vos | hayas acertado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera acertado / hubiese acertado |
| Tú | hubieras acertado / hubieses acertado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera acertado / hubiese acertado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos acertado / hubiésemos acertado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais acertado / hubieseis acertado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran acertado / hubiesen acertado |
| Vos | hubieras acertado / hubieses acertado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere acertado |
| Tú | hubieres acertado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere acertado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos acertado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis acertado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren acertado |
| Vos | hubieres acertado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté acertando |
| Tú | estés acertando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté acertando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos acertando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis acertando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén acertando |
| Vos | estés acertando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera acertando / estuviese acertando |
| Tú | estuvieras acertando / estuvieses acertando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera acertando / estuviese acertando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos acertando / estuviésamos acertando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais acertando / estuvieseis acertando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera acertando / estuviese acertando |
| Vos | estuvieras acertando / estuvieses acertando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere acertando |
| Tú | estuvieres acertando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere acertando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos acertando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis acertando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere acertando |
| Vos | estuvieres acertando |
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 acertás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos acertaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos acertabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos acertarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos acertarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos aciertes |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos acertaras / Vos acertase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos acertá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no aciertes |