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Acortar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to shorten, reduce”.
Below are all of the conjugations for acortar 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 shorten, reduce |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | acortar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está acortando) and past continuous (estaba acortando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. shortening).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he acortado and hubiera acortado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have shortened).
| Gerundio / Gerund | acortando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | acortado |
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 shorten” or “they shorten”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | acuerto |
| Tú | acuertas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | acuerta |
| Nosotros / as | acortamos |
| Vosotros / as | acortáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | acuertan |
| Vos | acortás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I shortened” or “she shortened” 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 | acorté | I shortened |
| Tú | acortaste | You shortened |
| Él / Ella / Usted | acortó | He / she / you shortened |
| Nosotros / as | acortamos | We shortened |
| Vosotros / as | acortasteis | You shortened |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | acortaron | They / you shortened |
| Vos | acortaste | You shortened |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was shortening” or “she was shortening” 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 | acortaba | I was shortening |
| Tú | acortabas | You were shortening |
| Él / Ella / Usted | acortaba | He was / she was / you were shortening |
| Nosotros / as | acortábamos | We were shortening |
| Vosotros / as | acortabais | You were shortening |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | acortaban | They / you were shortening |
| Vos | acortabas | You were shortening |
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 shortened” and “she has shortened”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he acortado | I have shortened |
| Tú | has acortado | You have shortened |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha acortado | He has / she has / you have shortened |
| Nosotros / as | hemos acortado | We have shortened |
| Vosotros / as | habéis acortado | You have shortened |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han acortado | They / you have shortened |
| Vos | has acortado | You have shortened |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would shorten” or “she would shorten”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | acortaría | I would shorten |
| Tú | acortarías | You would shorten |
| Él / Ella / Usted | acortaría | He / she / you would shorten |
| Nosotros / as | acortaríamos | We would shorten |
| Vosotros / as | acortaríais | You would shorten |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | acortarían | They / you would shorten |
| Vos | acortarías | You would shorten |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will shorten” or “they will shorten”.
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 acortar” means “They are going to shorten”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | acortaré | I will shorten |
| Tú | acortarás | You will shorten |
| Él / Ella / Usted | acortará | He / she / you will shorten |
| Nosotros / as | acortaremos | We will shorten |
| Vosotros / as | acortaréis | You will shorten |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | acortarán | They / you will shorten |
| Vos | acortarás | You will shorten |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | acuerte |
| Tú | acuertes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | acuerte |
| Nosotros / as | acortemos |
| Vosotros / as | acortéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | acuerten |
| Vos | acuertes |
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 | acortara | acortase |
| Tú | acortaras | acortase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | acortara | acortase |
| Nosotros / as | acortáramos | acortásemos |
| Vosotros / as | acortarais | acortaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | acortaran | acortasen |
| Vos | acortaras | acortase |
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 | acortare |
| Tú | acortares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | acortare |
| Nosotros / as | acortáremos |
| Vosotros / as | acortareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | acortaren |
| Vos | acortares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “shorten!” and “don’t shorten!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | acuerta | no acuertes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | acuerte | no acuerte |
| Nosotros / as | acortemos | no acortemos |
| Vosotros / as | acortad | no acortéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | acuerten | no acuerten |
| Vos | acortá | no acuertes |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya acortado |
| Tú | hayas acortado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya acortado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos acortado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis acortado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan acortado |
| Vos | hayas acortado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera acortado / hubiese acortado |
| Tú | hubieras acortado / hubieses acortado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera acortado / hubiese acortado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos acortado / hubiésemos acortado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais acortado / hubieseis acortado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran acortado / hubiesen acortado |
| Vos | hubieras acortado / hubieses acortado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere acortado |
| Tú | hubieres acortado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere acortado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos acortado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis acortado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren acortado |
| Vos | hubieres acortado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté acortando |
| Tú | estés acortando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté acortando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos acortando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis acortando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén acortando |
| Vos | estés acortando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera acortando / estuviese acortando |
| Tú | estuvieras acortando / estuvieses acortando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera acortando / estuviese acortando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos acortando / estuviésamos acortando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais acortando / estuvieseis acortando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera acortando / estuviese acortando |
| Vos | estuvieras acortando / estuvieses acortando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere acortando |
| Tú | estuvieres acortando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere acortando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos acortando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis acortando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere acortando |
| Vos | estuvieres acortando |
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 acortás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos acortaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos acortabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos acortarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos acortarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos acuertes |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos acortaras / Vos acortase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos acortá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no acuertes |