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Acobardarse is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to become frightened, turn cowardly”.
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 acobardo) or after the infinitive (e.g. Él tiene que acobardarse).
Below are all of the conjugations for acobardarse 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 become frightened, turn cowardly |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | acobardarse |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está acobardándose) and past continuous (estaba acobardándose). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. becoming frightened).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he acobardado and hubiera acobardado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have become frightened).
| Gerundio / Gerund | acobardándose |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | acobardado |
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 become frightened” or “they become frightened”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | me acobardo |
| Tú | te acobardas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | se acobarda |
| Nosotros / as | nos acobardamos |
| Vosotros / as | os acobardáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | se acobardan |
| Vos | te acobardás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I became frightened” or “she became frightened” 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 acobardé | I became frightened |
| Tú | te acobardaste | You became frightened |
| Él / Ella / Usted | se acobardó | He / she / you became frightened |
| Nosotros / as | nos acobardamos | We became frightened |
| Vosotros / as | os acobardasteis | You became frightened |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | se acobardaron | They / you became frightened |
| Vos | te acobardaste | You became frightened |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was becoming frightened” or “she was becoming frightened” 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 acobardaba | I was becoming frightened |
| Tú | te acobardabas | You were becoming frightened |
| Él / Ella / Usted | se acobardaba | He was / she was / you were becoming frightened |
| Nosotros / as | nos acobardábamos | We were becoming frightened |
| Vosotros / as | os acobardabais | You were becoming frightened |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | se acobardaban | They / you were becoming frightened |
| Vos | te acobardabas | You were becoming frightened |
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 become frightened” and “she has become frightened”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | me he acobardado | I have become frightened |
| Tú | te has acobardado | You have become frightened |
| Él / Ella / Usted | se ha acobardado | He has / she has / you have become frightened |
| Nosotros / as | nos hemos acobardado | We have become frightened |
| Vosotros / as | os habéis acobardado | You have become frightened |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | se han acobardado | They / you have become frightened |
| Vos | te has acobardado | You have become frightened |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would become frightened” or “she would become frightened”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | me acobardaría | I would become frightened |
| Tú | te acobardarías | You would become frightened |
| Él / Ella / Usted | se acobardaría | He / she / you would become frightened |
| Nosotros / as | nos acobardaríamos | We would become frightened |
| Vosotros / as | os acobardaríais | You would become frightened |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | se acobardarían | They / you would become frightened |
| Vos | te acobardarías | You would become frightened |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will become frightened” or “they will become frightened”.
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 acobardarse” means “They are going to become frightened”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | me acobardaré | I will become frightened |
| Tú | te acobardarás | You will become frightened |
| Él / Ella / Usted | se acobardará | He / she / you will become frightened |
| Nosotros / as | nos acobardaremos | We will become frightened |
| Vosotros / as | os acobardaréis | You will become frightened |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | se acobardarán | They / you will become frightened |
| Vos | te acobardarás | You will become frightened |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | me acobarde |
| Tú | te acobardes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | se acobarde |
| Nosotros / as | nos acobardemos |
| Vosotros / as | os acobardéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | se acobarden |
| Vos | te acobardes |
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 acobardara | me acobardase |
| Tú | te acobardaras | me acobardase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | se acobardara | se acobardase |
| Nosotros / as | nos acobardáramos | nos acobardásemos |
| Vosotros / as | os acobardarais | os acobardaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | se acobardaran | se acobardasen |
| Vos | te acobardaras | me acobardase |
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 acobardare |
| Tú | te acobardares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | se acobardare |
| Nosotros / as | nos acobardáremos |
| Vosotros / as | os acobardareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | se acobardaren |
| Vos | te acobardares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “become frightened!” and “don’t become frightened!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | acobárdate | no te acobardes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | acobárdese | no se acobarde |
| Nosotros / as | acobardémonos | no nos acobardemos |
| Vosotros / as | acobardaos | no os acobardéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | acobárdense | no se acobarden |
| Vos | acobardate | no te acobardes |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya acobardado |
| Tú | hayas acobardado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya acobardado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos acobardado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis acobardado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan acobardado |
| Vos | hayas acobardado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera acobardado / hubiese acobardado |
| Tú | hubieras acobardado / hubieses acobardado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera acobardado / hubiese acobardado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos acobardado / hubiésemos acobardado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais acobardado / hubieseis acobardado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran acobardado / hubiesen acobardado |
| Vos | hubieras acobardado / hubieses acobardado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere acobardado |
| Tú | hubieres acobardado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere acobardado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos acobardado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis acobardado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren acobardado |
| Vos | hubieres acobardado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté acobardándose |
| Tú | estés acobardándose |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté acobardándose |
| Nosotros / as | estemos acobardándose |
| Vosotros / as | estéis acobardándose |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén acobardándose |
| Vos | estés acobardándose |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera acobardándose / estuviese acobardándose |
| Tú | estuvieras acobardándose / estuvieses acobardándose |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera acobardándose / estuviese acobardándose |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos acobardándose / estuviésamos acobardándose |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais acobardándose / estuvieseis acobardándose |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera acobardándose / estuviese acobardándose |
| Vos | estuvieras acobardándose / estuvieses acobardándose |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere acobardándose |
| Tú | estuvieres acobardándose |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere acobardándose |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos acobardándose |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis acobardándose |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere acobardándose |
| Vos | estuvieres acobardándose |
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 acobardás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos te acobardaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos te acobardabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos te acobardarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos te acobardarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos te acobardes |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos te acobardaras / Vos me acobardase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos acobardate |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no te acobardes |