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Afinar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to arm, assemble, tune (instrument), perfect, refine”.
Below are all of the conjugations for afinar 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 arm, assemble, tune (instrument), perfect, refine |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | afinar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está afinando) and past continuous (estaba afinando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. assembling).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he afinado and hubiera afinado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have assembled).
| Gerundio / Gerund | afinando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | afinado |
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 assemble” or “they assemble”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | afino |
| Tú | afinas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | afina |
| Nosotros / as | afinamos |
| Vosotros / as | afináis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | afinan |
| Vos | afinás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I assembled” or “she assembled” 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 | afiné | I assembled |
| Tú | afinaste | You assembled |
| Él / Ella / Usted | afinó | He / she / you assembled |
| Nosotros / as | afinamos | We assembled |
| Vosotros / as | afinasteis | You assembled |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | afinaron | They / you assembled |
| Vos | afinaste | You assembled |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was assembling” or “she was assembling” 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 | afinaba | I was assembling |
| Tú | afinabas | You were assembling |
| Él / Ella / Usted | afinaba | He was / she was / you were assembling |
| Nosotros / as | afinábamos | We were assembling |
| Vosotros / as | afinabais | You were assembling |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | afinaban | They / you were assembling |
| Vos | afinabas | You were assembling |
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 assembled” and “she has assembled”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he afinado | I have assembled |
| Tú | has afinado | You have assembled |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha afinado | He has / she has / you have assembled |
| Nosotros / as | hemos afinado | We have assembled |
| Vosotros / as | habéis afinado | You have assembled |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han afinado | They / you have assembled |
| Vos | has afinado | You have assembled |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would assemble” or “she would assemble”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | afinaría | I would assemble |
| Tú | afinarías | You would assemble |
| Él / Ella / Usted | afinaría | He / she / you would assemble |
| Nosotros / as | afinaríamos | We would assemble |
| Vosotros / as | afinaríais | You would assemble |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | afinarían | They / you would assemble |
| Vos | afinarías | You would assemble |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will assemble” or “they will assemble”.
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 afinar” means “They are going to assemble”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | afinaré | I will assemble |
| Tú | afinarás | You will assemble |
| Él / Ella / Usted | afinará | He / she / you will assemble |
| Nosotros / as | afinaremos | We will assemble |
| Vosotros / as | afinaréis | You will assemble |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | afinarán | They / you will assemble |
| Vos | afinarás | You will assemble |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | afine |
| Tú | afines |
| Él / Ella / Usted | afine |
| Nosotros / as | afinemos |
| Vosotros / as | afinéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | afinen |
| Vos | afines |
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 | afinara | afinase |
| Tú | afinaras | afinase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | afinara | afinase |
| Nosotros / as | afináramos | afinásemos |
| Vosotros / as | afinarais | afinaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | afinaran | afinasen |
| Vos | afinaras | afinase |
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 | afinare |
| Tú | afinares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | afinare |
| Nosotros / as | afináremos |
| Vosotros / as | afinareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | afinaren |
| Vos | afinares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “assemble!” and “don’t assemble!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | afina | no afines |
| Él / Ella / Usted | afine | no afine |
| Nosotros / as | afinemos | no afinemos |
| Vosotros / as | afinad | no afinéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | afinen | no afinen |
| Vos | afiná | no afines |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya afinado |
| Tú | hayas afinado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya afinado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos afinado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis afinado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan afinado |
| Vos | hayas afinado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera afinado / hubiese afinado |
| Tú | hubieras afinado / hubieses afinado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera afinado / hubiese afinado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos afinado / hubiésemos afinado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais afinado / hubieseis afinado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran afinado / hubiesen afinado |
| Vos | hubieras afinado / hubieses afinado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere afinado |
| Tú | hubieres afinado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere afinado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos afinado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis afinado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren afinado |
| Vos | hubieres afinado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté afinando |
| Tú | estés afinando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté afinando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos afinando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis afinando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén afinando |
| Vos | estés afinando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera afinando / estuviese afinando |
| Tú | estuvieras afinando / estuvieses afinando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera afinando / estuviese afinando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos afinando / estuviésamos afinando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais afinando / estuvieseis afinando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera afinando / estuviese afinando |
| Vos | estuvieras afinando / estuvieses afinando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere afinando |
| Tú | estuvieres afinando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere afinando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos afinando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis afinando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere afinando |
| Vos | estuvieres afinando |
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 afinás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos afinaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos afinabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos afinarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos afinarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos afines |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos afinaras / Vos afinase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos afiná |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no afines |