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Acosar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to harass, pursue, pest”.
Below are all of the conjugations for acosar 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 harass, pursue, pest |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | acosar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está acosando) and past continuous (estaba acosando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. harassing).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he acosado and hubiera acosado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have harassed).
| Gerundio / Gerund | acosando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | acosado |
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 harass” or “they harass”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | acoso |
| Tú | acosas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | acosa |
| Nosotros / as | acosamos |
| Vosotros / as | acosáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | acosan |
| Vos | acosás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I harassed” or “she harassed” 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 | acosé | I harassed |
| Tú | acosaste | You harassed |
| Él / Ella / Usted | acosó | He / she / you harassed |
| Nosotros / as | acosamos | We harassed |
| Vosotros / as | acosasteis | You harassed |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | acosaron | They / you harassed |
| Vos | acosaste | You harassed |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was harassing” or “she was harassing” 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 | acosaba | I was harassing |
| Tú | acosabas | You were harassing |
| Él / Ella / Usted | acosaba | He was / she was / you were harassing |
| Nosotros / as | acosábamos | We were harassing |
| Vosotros / as | acosabais | You were harassing |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | acosaban | They / you were harassing |
| Vos | acosabas | You were harassing |
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 harassed” and “she has harassed”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he acosado | I have harassed |
| Tú | has acosado | You have harassed |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha acosado | He has / she has / you have harassed |
| Nosotros / as | hemos acosado | We have harassed |
| Vosotros / as | habéis acosado | You have harassed |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han acosado | They / you have harassed |
| Vos | has acosado | You have harassed |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would harass” or “she would harass”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | acosaría | I would harass |
| Tú | acosarías | You would harass |
| Él / Ella / Usted | acosaría | He / she / you would harass |
| Nosotros / as | acosaríamos | We would harass |
| Vosotros / as | acosaríais | You would harass |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | acosarían | They / you would harass |
| Vos | acosarías | You would harass |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will harass” or “they will harass”.
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 acosar” means “They are going to harass”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | acosaré | I will harass |
| Tú | acosarás | You will harass |
| Él / Ella / Usted | acosará | He / she / you will harass |
| Nosotros / as | acosaremos | We will harass |
| Vosotros / as | acosaréis | You will harass |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | acosarán | They / you will harass |
| Vos | acosarás | You will harass |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | acose |
| Tú | acoses |
| Él / Ella / Usted | acose |
| Nosotros / as | acosemos |
| Vosotros / as | acoséis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | acosen |
| Vos | acoses |
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 | acosara | acosase |
| Tú | acosaras | acosase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | acosara | acosase |
| Nosotros / as | acosáramos | acosásemos |
| Vosotros / as | acosarais | acosaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | acosaran | acosasen |
| Vos | acosaras | acosase |
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 | acosare |
| Tú | acosares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | acosare |
| Nosotros / as | acosáremos |
| Vosotros / as | acosareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | acosaren |
| Vos | acosares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “harass!” and “don’t harass!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | acosa | no acoses |
| Él / Ella / Usted | acose | no acose |
| Nosotros / as | acosemos | no acosemos |
| Vosotros / as | acosad | no acoséis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | acosen | no acosen |
| Vos | acosá | no acoses |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya acosado |
| Tú | hayas acosado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya acosado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos acosado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis acosado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan acosado |
| Vos | hayas acosado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera acosado / hubiese acosado |
| Tú | hubieras acosado / hubieses acosado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera acosado / hubiese acosado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos acosado / hubiésemos acosado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais acosado / hubieseis acosado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran acosado / hubiesen acosado |
| Vos | hubieras acosado / hubieses acosado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere acosado |
| Tú | hubieres acosado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere acosado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos acosado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis acosado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren acosado |
| Vos | hubieres acosado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté acosando |
| Tú | estés acosando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté acosando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos acosando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis acosando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén acosando |
| Vos | estés acosando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera acosando / estuviese acosando |
| Tú | estuvieras acosando / estuvieses acosando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera acosando / estuviese acosando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos acosando / estuviésamos acosando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais acosando / estuvieseis acosando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera acosando / estuviese acosando |
| Vos | estuvieras acosando / estuvieses acosando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere acosando |
| Tú | estuvieres acosando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere acosando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos acosando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis acosando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere acosando |
| Vos | estuvieres acosando |
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 acosás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos acosaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos acosabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos acosarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos acosarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos acoses |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos acosaras / Vos acosase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos acosá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no acoses |