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Aconsejar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to advise, counsel”.
Below are all of the conjugations for aconsejar 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 advise, counsel |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | aconsejar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está aconsejando) and past continuous (estaba aconsejando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. advising).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he aconsejado and hubiera aconsejado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have advised).
| Gerundio / Gerund | aconsejando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | aconsejado |
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 advise” or “they advise”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | aconsejo |
| Tú | aconsejas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | aconseja |
| Nosotros / as | aconsejamos |
| Vosotros / as | aconsejáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | aconsejan |
| Vos | aconsejás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I advised” or “she advised” 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 | aconsejé | I advised |
| Tú | aconsejaste | You advised |
| Él / Ella / Usted | aconsejó | He / she / you advised |
| Nosotros / as | aconsejamos | We advised |
| Vosotros / as | aconsejasteis | You advised |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | aconsejaron | They / you advised |
| Vos | aconsejaste | You advised |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was advising” or “she was advising” 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 | aconsejaba | I was advising |
| Tú | aconsejabas | You were advising |
| Él / Ella / Usted | aconsejaba | He was / she was / you were advising |
| Nosotros / as | aconsejábamos | We were advising |
| Vosotros / as | aconsejabais | You were advising |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | aconsejaban | They / you were advising |
| Vos | aconsejabas | You were advising |
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 advised” and “she has advised”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he aconsejado | I have advised |
| Tú | has aconsejado | You have advised |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha aconsejado | He has / she has / you have advised |
| Nosotros / as | hemos aconsejado | We have advised |
| Vosotros / as | habéis aconsejado | You have advised |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han aconsejado | They / you have advised |
| Vos | has aconsejado | You have advised |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would advise” or “she would advise”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | aconsejaría | I would advise |
| Tú | aconsejarías | You would advise |
| Él / Ella / Usted | aconsejaría | He / she / you would advise |
| Nosotros / as | aconsejaríamos | We would advise |
| Vosotros / as | aconsejaríais | You would advise |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | aconsejarían | They / you would advise |
| Vos | aconsejarías | You would advise |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will advise” or “they will advise”.
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 aconsejar” means “They are going to advise”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | aconsejaré | I will advise |
| Tú | aconsejarás | You will advise |
| Él / Ella / Usted | aconsejará | He / she / you will advise |
| Nosotros / as | aconsejaremos | We will advise |
| Vosotros / as | aconsejaréis | You will advise |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | aconsejarán | They / you will advise |
| Vos | aconsejarás | You will advise |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | aconseje |
| Tú | aconsejes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | aconseje |
| Nosotros / as | aconsejemos |
| Vosotros / as | aconsejéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | aconsejen |
| Vos | aconsejes |
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 | aconsejara | aconsejase |
| Tú | aconsejaras | aconsejase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | aconsejara | aconsejase |
| Nosotros / as | aconsejáramos | aconsejásemos |
| Vosotros / as | aconsejarais | aconsejaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | aconsejaran | aconsejasen |
| Vos | aconsejaras | aconsejase |
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 | aconsejare |
| Tú | aconsejares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | aconsejare |
| Nosotros / as | aconsejáremos |
| Vosotros / as | aconsejareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | aconsejaren |
| Vos | aconsejares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “advise!” and “don’t advise!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | aconseja | no aconsejes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | aconseje | no aconseje |
| Nosotros / as | aconsejemos | no aconsejemos |
| Vosotros / as | aconsejad | no aconsejéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | aconsejen | no aconsejen |
| Vos | aconsejá | no aconsejes |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya aconsejado |
| Tú | hayas aconsejado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya aconsejado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos aconsejado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis aconsejado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan aconsejado |
| Vos | hayas aconsejado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera aconsejado / hubiese aconsejado |
| Tú | hubieras aconsejado / hubieses aconsejado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera aconsejado / hubiese aconsejado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos aconsejado / hubiésemos aconsejado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais aconsejado / hubieseis aconsejado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran aconsejado / hubiesen aconsejado |
| Vos | hubieras aconsejado / hubieses aconsejado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere aconsejado |
| Tú | hubieres aconsejado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere aconsejado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos aconsejado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis aconsejado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren aconsejado |
| Vos | hubieres aconsejado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté aconsejando |
| Tú | estés aconsejando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté aconsejando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos aconsejando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis aconsejando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén aconsejando |
| Vos | estés aconsejando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera aconsejando / estuviese aconsejando |
| Tú | estuvieras aconsejando / estuvieses aconsejando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera aconsejando / estuviese aconsejando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos aconsejando / estuviésamos aconsejando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais aconsejando / estuvieseis aconsejando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera aconsejando / estuviese aconsejando |
| Vos | estuvieras aconsejando / estuvieses aconsejando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere aconsejando |
| Tú | estuvieres aconsejando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere aconsejando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos aconsejando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis aconsejando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere aconsejando |
| Vos | estuvieres aconsejando |
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 aconsejás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos aconsejaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos aconsejabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos aconsejarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos aconsejarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos aconsejes |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos aconsejaras / Vos aconsejase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos aconsejá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no aconsejes |