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Aguardar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to wait for, expect”.
Below are all of the conjugations for aguardar 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 wait for, expect |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | aguardar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está aguardando) and past continuous (estaba aguardando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. expecting).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he aguardado and hubiera aguardado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have expected).
| Gerundio / Gerund | aguardando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | aguardado |
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 expect” or “they expect”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | aguardo |
| Tú | aguardas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | aguarda |
| Nosotros / as | aguardamos |
| Vosotros / as | aguardáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | aguardan |
| Vos | aguardás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I expected” or “she expected” 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 | aguardé | I expected |
| Tú | aguardaste | You expected |
| Él / Ella / Usted | aguardó | He / she / you expected |
| Nosotros / as | aguardamos | We expected |
| Vosotros / as | aguardasteis | You expected |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | aguardaron | They / you expected |
| Vos | aguardaste | You expected |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was expecting” or “she was expecting” 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 | aguardaba | I was expecting |
| Tú | aguardabas | You were expecting |
| Él / Ella / Usted | aguardaba | He was / she was / you were expecting |
| Nosotros / as | aguardábamos | We were expecting |
| Vosotros / as | aguardabais | You were expecting |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | aguardaban | They / you were expecting |
| Vos | aguardabas | You were expecting |
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 expected” and “she has expected”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he aguardado | I have expected |
| Tú | has aguardado | You have expected |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha aguardado | He has / she has / you have expected |
| Nosotros / as | hemos aguardado | We have expected |
| Vosotros / as | habéis aguardado | You have expected |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han aguardado | They / you have expected |
| Vos | has aguardado | You have expected |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would expect” or “she would expect”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | aguardaría | I would expect |
| Tú | aguardarías | You would expect |
| Él / Ella / Usted | aguardaría | He / she / you would expect |
| Nosotros / as | aguardaríamos | We would expect |
| Vosotros / as | aguardaríais | You would expect |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | aguardarían | They / you would expect |
| Vos | aguardarías | You would expect |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will expect” or “they will expect”.
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 aguardar” means “They are going to expect”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | aguardaré | I will expect |
| Tú | aguardarás | You will expect |
| Él / Ella / Usted | aguardará | He / she / you will expect |
| Nosotros / as | aguardaremos | We will expect |
| Vosotros / as | aguardaréis | You will expect |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | aguardarán | They / you will expect |
| Vos | aguardarás | You will expect |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | aguarde |
| Tú | aguardes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | aguarde |
| Nosotros / as | aguardemos |
| Vosotros / as | aguardéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | aguarden |
| Vos | aguardes |
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 | aguardara | aguardase |
| Tú | aguardaras | aguardase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | aguardara | aguardase |
| Nosotros / as | aguardáramos | aguardásemos |
| Vosotros / as | aguardarais | aguardaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | aguardaran | aguardasen |
| Vos | aguardaras | aguardase |
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 | aguardare |
| Tú | aguardares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | aguardare |
| Nosotros / as | aguardáremos |
| Vosotros / as | aguardareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | aguardaren |
| Vos | aguardares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “expect!” and “don’t expect!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | aguarda | no aguardes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | aguarde | no aguarde |
| Nosotros / as | aguardemos | no aguardemos |
| Vosotros / as | aguardad | no aguardéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | aguarden | no aguarden |
| Vos | aguardá | no aguardes |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya aguardado |
| Tú | hayas aguardado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya aguardado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos aguardado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis aguardado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan aguardado |
| Vos | hayas aguardado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera aguardado / hubiese aguardado |
| Tú | hubieras aguardado / hubieses aguardado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera aguardado / hubiese aguardado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos aguardado / hubiésemos aguardado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais aguardado / hubieseis aguardado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran aguardado / hubiesen aguardado |
| Vos | hubieras aguardado / hubieses aguardado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere aguardado |
| Tú | hubieres aguardado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere aguardado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos aguardado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis aguardado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren aguardado |
| Vos | hubieres aguardado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté aguardando |
| Tú | estés aguardando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté aguardando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos aguardando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis aguardando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén aguardando |
| Vos | estés aguardando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera aguardando / estuviese aguardando |
| Tú | estuvieras aguardando / estuvieses aguardando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera aguardando / estuviese aguardando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos aguardando / estuviésamos aguardando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais aguardando / estuvieseis aguardando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera aguardando / estuviese aguardando |
| Vos | estuvieras aguardando / estuvieses aguardando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere aguardando |
| Tú | estuvieres aguardando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere aguardando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos aguardando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis aguardando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere aguardando |
| Vos | estuvieres aguardando |
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 aguardás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos aguardaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos aguardabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos aguardarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos aguardarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos aguardes |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos aguardaras / Vos aguardase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos aguardá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no aguardes |