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Ahorrar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to save (money, time), spare”.
Below are all of the conjugations for ahorrar 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 save (money, time), spare |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | ahorrar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está ahorrando) and past continuous (estaba ahorrando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. saving).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he ahorrado and hubiera ahorrado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have saved).
| Gerundio / Gerund | ahorrando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | ahorrado |
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 save” or “they save”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | ahorro |
| Tú | ahorras |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ahorra |
| Nosotros / as | ahorramos |
| Vosotros / as | ahorráis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | ahorran |
| Vos | ahorrás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I saved” or “she saved” 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 | ahorré | I saved |
| Tú | ahorraste | You saved |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ahorró | He / she / you saved |
| Nosotros / as | ahorramos | We saved |
| Vosotros / as | ahorrasteis | You saved |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | ahorraron | They / you saved |
| Vos | ahorraste | You saved |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was saving” or “she was saving” 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 | ahorraba | I was saving |
| Tú | ahorrabas | You were saving |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ahorraba | He was / she was / you were saving |
| Nosotros / as | ahorrábamos | We were saving |
| Vosotros / as | ahorrabais | You were saving |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | ahorraban | They / you were saving |
| Vos | ahorrabas | You were saving |
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 saved” and “she has saved”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he ahorrado | I have saved |
| Tú | has ahorrado | You have saved |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha ahorrado | He has / she has / you have saved |
| Nosotros / as | hemos ahorrado | We have saved |
| Vosotros / as | habéis ahorrado | You have saved |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han ahorrado | They / you have saved |
| Vos | has ahorrado | You have saved |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would save” or “she would save”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | ahorraría | I would save |
| Tú | ahorrarías | You would save |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ahorraría | He / she / you would save |
| Nosotros / as | ahorraríamos | We would save |
| Vosotros / as | ahorraríais | You would save |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | ahorrarían | They / you would save |
| Vos | ahorrarías | You would save |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will save” or “they will save”.
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 ahorrar” means “They are going to save”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | ahorraré | I will save |
| Tú | ahorrarás | You will save |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ahorrará | He / she / you will save |
| Nosotros / as | ahorraremos | We will save |
| Vosotros / as | ahorraréis | You will save |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | ahorrarán | They / you will save |
| Vos | ahorrarás | You will save |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | ahorre |
| Tú | ahorres |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ahorre |
| Nosotros / as | ahorremos |
| Vosotros / as | ahorréis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | ahorren |
| Vos | ahorres |
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 | ahorrara | ahorrase |
| Tú | ahorraras | ahorrase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ahorrara | ahorrase |
| Nosotros / as | ahorráramos | ahorrásemos |
| Vosotros / as | ahorrarais | ahorraseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | ahorraran | ahorrasen |
| Vos | ahorraras | ahorrase |
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 | ahorrare |
| Tú | ahorrares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ahorrare |
| Nosotros / as | ahorráremos |
| Vosotros / as | ahorrareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | ahorraren |
| Vos | ahorrares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “save!” and “don’t save!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | ahorra | no ahorres |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ahorre | no ahorre |
| Nosotros / as | ahorremos | no ahorremos |
| Vosotros / as | ahorrad | no ahorréis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | ahorren | no ahorren |
| Vos | ahorrá | no ahorres |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya ahorrado |
| Tú | hayas ahorrado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya ahorrado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos ahorrado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis ahorrado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan ahorrado |
| Vos | hayas ahorrado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera ahorrado / hubiese ahorrado |
| Tú | hubieras ahorrado / hubieses ahorrado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera ahorrado / hubiese ahorrado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos ahorrado / hubiésemos ahorrado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais ahorrado / hubieseis ahorrado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran ahorrado / hubiesen ahorrado |
| Vos | hubieras ahorrado / hubieses ahorrado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere ahorrado |
| Tú | hubieres ahorrado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere ahorrado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos ahorrado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis ahorrado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren ahorrado |
| Vos | hubieres ahorrado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté ahorrando |
| Tú | estés ahorrando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté ahorrando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos ahorrando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis ahorrando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén ahorrando |
| Vos | estés ahorrando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera ahorrando / estuviese ahorrando |
| Tú | estuvieras ahorrando / estuvieses ahorrando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera ahorrando / estuviese ahorrando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos ahorrando / estuviésamos ahorrando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais ahorrando / estuvieseis ahorrando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera ahorrando / estuviese ahorrando |
| Vos | estuvieras ahorrando / estuvieses ahorrando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere ahorrando |
| Tú | estuvieres ahorrando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere ahorrando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos ahorrando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis ahorrando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere ahorrando |
| Vos | estuvieres ahorrando |
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 ahorrás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos ahorraste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos ahorrabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos ahorrarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos ahorrarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos ahorres |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos ahorraras / Vos ahorrase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos ahorrá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no ahorres |