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Afanarse is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to work hard, strive”.
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 afano) or after the infinitive (e.g. Él tiene que afanarse).
Below are all of the conjugations for afanarse 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 work hard, strive |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | afanarse |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está afanándose) and past continuous (estaba afanándose). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. striving).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he afanado and hubiera afanado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have striven).
| Gerundio / Gerund | afanándose |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | afanado |
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 strive” or “they strive”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | me afano |
| Tú | te afanas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | se afana |
| Nosotros / as | nos afanamos |
| Vosotros / as | os afanáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | se afanan |
| Vos | afectás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I strove” or “she strove” 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 afané | I strove |
| Tú | te afanaste | You strove |
| Él / Ella / Usted | se afanó | He / she / you strove |
| Nosotros / as | nos afanamos | We strove |
| Vosotros / as | os afanasteis | You strove |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | se afanaron | They / you strove |
| Vos | te afanaste | You strove |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was striving” or “she was striving” 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 afanaba | I was striving |
| Tú | te afanabas | You were striving |
| Él / Ella / Usted | se afanaba | He was / she was / you were striving |
| Nosotros / as | nos afanábamos | We were striving |
| Vosotros / as | os afanabais | You were striving |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | se afanaban | They / you were striving |
| Vos | te afanabas | You were striving |
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 striven” and “she has striven”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | me he afanado | I have striven |
| Tú | te has afanado | You have striven |
| Él / Ella / Usted | se ha afanado | He has / she has / you have striven |
| Nosotros / as | nos hemos afanado | We have striven |
| Vosotros / as | os habéis afanado | You have striven |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | se han afanado | They / you have striven |
| Vos | te has afanado | You have striven |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would strive” or “she would strive”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | me afanaría | I would strive |
| Tú | te afanarías | You would strive |
| Él / Ella / Usted | se afanaría | He / she / you would strive |
| Nosotros / as | nos afanaríamos | We would strive |
| Vosotros / as | os afanaríais | You would strive |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | se afanarían | They / you would strive |
| Vos | te afanarías | You would strive |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will strive” or “they will strive”.
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 afanarse” means “They are going to strive”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | me afanaré | I will strive |
| Tú | te afanarás | You will strive |
| Él / Ella / Usted | se afanará | He / she / you will strive |
| Nosotros / as | nos afanaremos | We will strive |
| Vosotros / as | os afanaréis | You will strive |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | se afanarán | They / you will strive |
| Vos | te afanarás | You will strive |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | me afane |
| Tú | te afanes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | se afane |
| Nosotros / as | nos afanemos |
| Vosotros / as | os afanéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | se afanen |
| Vos | te afanes |
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 afanara | me afanase |
| Tú | te afanaras | me afanase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | se afanara | se afanase |
| Nosotros / as | nos afanáramos | nos afanásemos |
| Vosotros / as | os afanarais | os afanaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | se afanaran | se afanasen |
| Vos | te afanaras | me afanase |
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 afanare |
| Tú | te afanares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | se afanare |
| Nosotros / as | nos afanáremos |
| Vosotros / as | os afanareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | se afanaren |
| Vos | te afanares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “strive!” and “don’t strive!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | afánate | no te afanes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | afánese | no se afane |
| Nosotros / as | afanémonos | no nos afanemos |
| Vosotros / as | afanaos | no os afanéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | afánense | no se afanen |
| Vos | afanáte | no te afanes |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya afanado |
| Tú | hayas afanado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya afanado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos afanado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis afanado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan afanado |
| Vos | hayas afanado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera afanado / hubiese afanado |
| Tú | hubieras afanado / hubieses afanado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera afanado / hubiese afanado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos afanado / hubiésemos afanado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais afanado / hubieseis afanado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran afanado / hubiesen afanado |
| Vos | hubieras afanado / hubieses afanado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere afanado |
| Tú | hubieres afanado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere afanado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos afanado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis afanado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren afanado |
| Vos | hubieres afanado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté afanándose |
| Tú | estés afanándose |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté afanándose |
| Nosotros / as | estemos afanándose |
| Vosotros / as | estéis afanándose |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén afanándose |
| Vos | estés afanándose |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera afanándose / estuviese afanándose |
| Tú | estuvieras afanándose / estuvieses afanándose |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera afanándose / estuviese afanándose |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos afanándose / estuviésamos afanándose |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais afanándose / estuvieseis afanándose |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera afanándose / estuviese afanándose |
| Vos | estuvieras afanándose / estuvieses afanándose |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere afanándose |
| Tú | estuvieres afanándose |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere afanándose |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos afanándose |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis afanándose |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere afanándose |
| Vos | estuvieres afanándose |
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 afectás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos te afanaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos te afanabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos te afanarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos te afanarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos te afanes |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos te afanaras / Vos me afanase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos afanáte |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no te afanes |