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Acostarse is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to go to bed, lie down”.
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 acuesto) or after the infinitive (e.g. Él tiene que acostarse).
Below are all of the conjugations for acostarse 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 go to bed, lie down |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | acostarse |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está acostándose) and past continuous (estaba acostándose). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. lying down).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he acostado and hubiera acostado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have lain down).
| Gerundio / Gerund | acostándose |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | acostado |
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 lie down” or “they lie down”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | me acuesto |
| Tú | te acuestas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | se acuesta |
| Nosotros / as | nos acostamos |
| Vosotros / as | os acostáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | se acuestan |
| Vos | te acostás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I lay down” or “she lay down” 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 acosté | I lay down |
| Tú | te acostaste | You lay down |
| Él / Ella / Usted | se acostó | He / she / you lay down |
| Nosotros / as | nos acostamos | We lay down |
| Vosotros / as | os acostasteis | You lay down |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | se acostaron | They / you lay down |
| Vos | te acostaste | You lay down |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was lying down” or “she was lying down” 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 acostaba | I was lying down |
| Tú | te acostabas | You were lying down |
| Él / Ella / Usted | se acostaba | He was / she was / you were lying down |
| Nosotros / as | nos acostábamos | We were lying down |
| Vosotros / as | os acostabais | You were lying down |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | se acostaban | They / you were lying down |
| Vos | te acostabas | You were lying down |
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 lain down” and “she has lain down”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | me he acostado | I have lain down |
| Tú | te has acostado | You have lain down |
| Él / Ella / Usted | se ha acostado | He has / she has / you have lain down |
| Nosotros / as | nos hemos acostado | We have lain down |
| Vosotros / as | os habéis acostado | You have lain down |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | se han acostado | They / you have lain down |
| Vos | te has acostado | You have lain down |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would lie down” or “she would lie down”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | me acostaría | I would lie down |
| Tú | te acostarías | You would lie down |
| Él / Ella / Usted | se acostaría | He / she / you would lie down |
| Nosotros / as | nos acostaríamos | We would lie down |
| Vosotros / as | os acostaríais | You would lie down |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | se acostarían | They / you would lie down |
| Vos | te acostarías | You would lie down |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will lie down” or “they will lie down”.
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 acostarse” means “They are going to lie down”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | me acostaré | I will lie down |
| Tú | te acostarás | You will lie down |
| Él / Ella / Usted | se acostará | He / she / you will lie down |
| Nosotros / as | nos acostaremos | We will lie down |
| Vosotros / as | os acostaréis | You will lie down |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | se acostarán | They / you will lie down |
| Vos | te acostarás | You will lie down |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | me acueste |
| Tú | te acuestes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | se acueste |
| Nosotros / as | nos acostemos |
| Vosotros / as | os acostéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | se acuesten |
| Vos | te acuestes |
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 acostara | me acostase |
| Tú | te acostaras | me acostase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | se acostara | se acostase |
| Nosotros / as | nos acostáramos | nos acostásemos |
| Vosotros / as | os acostarais | os acostaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | se acostaran | se acostasen |
| Vos | te acostaras | me acostase |
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 acostare |
| Tú | te acostares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | se acostare |
| Nosotros / as | nos acostáremos |
| Vosotros / as | os acostareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | se acostaren |
| Vos | te acostares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “lie down!” and “don’t lie down!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | acuéstate | no te acuestes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | acuéstese | no se acueste |
| Nosotros / as | acostémonos | no nos acostemos |
| Vosotros / as | acostaos | no os acostéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | acuéstense | no se acuesten |
| Vos | acostate | no te acuestes |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya acostado |
| Tú | hayas acostado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya acostado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos acostado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis acostado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan acostado |
| Vos | hayas acostado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera acostado / hubiese acostado |
| Tú | hubieras acostado / hubieses acostado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera acostado / hubiese acostado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos acostado / hubiésemos acostado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais acostado / hubieseis acostado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran acostado / hubiesen acostado |
| Vos | hubieras acostado / hubieses acostado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere acostado |
| Tú | hubieres acostado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere acostado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos acostado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis acostado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren acostado |
| Vos | hubieres acostado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté acostándose |
| Tú | estés acostándose |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté acostándose |
| Nosotros / as | estemos acostándose |
| Vosotros / as | estéis acostándose |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén acostándose |
| Vos | estés acostándose |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera acostándose / estuviese acostándose |
| Tú | estuvieras acostándose / estuvieses acostándose |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera acostándose / estuviese acostándose |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos acostándose / estuviésamos acostándose |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais acostándose / estuvieseis acostándose |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera acostándose / estuviese acostándose |
| Vos | estuvieras acostándose / estuvieses acostándose |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere acostándose |
| Tú | estuvieres acostándose |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere acostándose |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos acostándose |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis acostándose |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere acostándose |
| Vos | estuvieres acostándose |
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 acostás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos te acostaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos te acostabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos te acostarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos te acostarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos te acuestes |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos te acostaras / Vos me acostase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos acostate |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no te acuestes |