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Aflojar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to loosen, slacken, let go”.
Below are all of the conjugations for aflojar 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 loosen, slacken, let go |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | aflojar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está aflojando) and past continuous (estaba aflojando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. loosening).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he aflojado and hubiera aflojado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have loosened).
| Gerundio / Gerund | aflojando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | aflojado |
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 loosen” or “they loosen”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | aflojo |
| Tú | aflojas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | afloja |
| Nosotros / as | aflojamos |
| Vosotros / as | aflojáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | aflojan |
| Vos | aflojás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I loosened” or “she loosened” 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 | aflojé | I loosened |
| Tú | aflojaste | You loosened |
| Él / Ella / Usted | aflojó | He / she / you loosened |
| Nosotros / as | aflojamos | We loosened |
| Vosotros / as | aflojasteis | You loosened |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | aflojaron | They / you loosened |
| Vos | aflojaste | You loosened |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was loosening” or “she was loosening” 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 | aflojaba | I was loosening |
| Tú | aflojabas | You were loosening |
| Él / Ella / Usted | aflojaba | He was / she was / you were loosening |
| Nosotros / as | aflojábamos | We were loosening |
| Vosotros / as | aflojabais | You were loosening |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | aflojaban | They / you were loosening |
| Vos | aflojabas | You were loosening |
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 loosened” and “she has loosened”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he aflojado | I have loosened |
| Tú | has aflojado | You have loosened |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha aflojado | He has / she has / you have loosened |
| Nosotros / as | hemos aflojado | We have loosened |
| Vosotros / as | habéis aflojado | You have loosened |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han aflojado | They / you have loosened |
| Vos | has aflojado | You have loosened |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would loosen” or “she would loosen”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | aflojaría | I would loosen |
| Tú | aflojarías | You would loosen |
| Él / Ella / Usted | aflojaría | He / she / you would loosen |
| Nosotros / as | aflojaríamos | We would loosen |
| Vosotros / as | aflojaríais | You would loosen |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | aflojarían | They / you would loosen |
| Vos | aflojarías | You would loosen |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will loosen” or “they will loosen”.
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 aflojar” means “They are going to loosen”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | aflojaré | I will loosen |
| Tú | aflojarás | You will loosen |
| Él / Ella / Usted | aflojará | He / she / you will loosen |
| Nosotros / as | aflojaremos | We will loosen |
| Vosotros / as | aflojaréis | You will loosen |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | aflojarán | They / you will loosen |
| Vos | aflojarás | You will loosen |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | afloje |
| Tú | aflojes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | afloje |
| Nosotros / as | aflojemos |
| Vosotros / as | aflojéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | aflojen |
| Vos | aflojes |
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 | aflojara | aflojase |
| Tú | aflojaras | aflojase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | aflojara | aflojase |
| Nosotros / as | aflojáramos | aflojásemos |
| Vosotros / as | aflojarais | aflojaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | aflojaran | aflojasen |
| Vos | aflojaras | aflojase |
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 | aflojare |
| Tú | aflojares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | aflojare |
| Nosotros / as | aflojáremos |
| Vosotros / as | aflojareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | aflojaren |
| Vos | aflojares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “loosen!” and “don’t loosen!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | afloja | no aflojes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | afloje | no afloje |
| Nosotros / as | aflojemos | no aflojemos |
| Vosotros / as | aflojad | no aflojéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | aflojen | no aflojen |
| Vos | aflojá | no aflojes |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya aflojado |
| Tú | hayas aflojado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya aflojado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos aflojado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis aflojado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan aflojado |
| Vos | hayas aflojado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera aflojado / hubiese aflojado |
| Tú | hubieras aflojado / hubieses aflojado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera aflojado / hubiese aflojado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos aflojado / hubiésemos aflojado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais aflojado / hubieseis aflojado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran aflojado / hubiesen aflojado |
| Vos | hubieras aflojado / hubieses aflojado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere aflojado |
| Tú | hubieres aflojado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere aflojado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos aflojado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis aflojado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren aflojado |
| Vos | hubieres aflojado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté aflojando |
| Tú | estés aflojando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté aflojando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos aflojando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis aflojando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén aflojando |
| Vos | estés aflojando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera aflojando / estuviese aflojando |
| Tú | estuvieras aflojando / estuvieses aflojando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera aflojando / estuviese aflojando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos aflojando / estuviésamos aflojando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais aflojando / estuvieseis aflojando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera aflojando / estuviese aflojando |
| Vos | estuvieras aflojando / estuvieses aflojando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere aflojando |
| Tú | estuvieres aflojando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere aflojando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos aflojando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis aflojando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere aflojando |
| Vos | estuvieres aflojando |
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 aflojás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos aflojaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos aflojabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos aflojarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos aflojarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos aflojes |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos aflojaras / Vos aflojase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos aflojá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no aflojes |