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Anhelar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to long for, yearn”.
Below are all of the conjugations for anhelar 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 long for, yearn |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | anhelar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está anhelando) and past continuous (estaba anhelando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. yearning).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he anhelado and hubiera anhelado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have yearned).
| Gerundio / Gerund | anhelando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | anhelado |
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 yearn” or “they yearn”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | anhelo |
| Tú | anhelas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | anhela |
| Nosotros / as | anhelamos |
| Vosotros / as | anheláis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | anhelan |
| Vos | anhelás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I yearned” or “she yearned” 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 | anhelé | I yearned |
| Tú | anhelaste | You yearned |
| Él / Ella / Usted | anheló | He / she / you yearned |
| Nosotros / as | anhelamos | We yearned |
| Vosotros / as | anhelasteis | You yearned |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | anhelaron | They / you yearned |
| Vos | anhelaste | You yearned |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was yearning” or “she was yearning” 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 | anhelaba | I was yearning |
| Tú | anhelabas | You were yearning |
| Él / Ella / Usted | anhelaba | He was / she was / you were yearning |
| Nosotros / as | anhelábamos | We were yearning |
| Vosotros / as | anhelabais | You were yearning |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | anhelaban | They / you were yearning |
| Vos | anhelabas | You were yearning |
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 yearned” and “she has yearned”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he anhelado | I have yearned |
| Tú | has anhelado | You have yearned |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha anhelado | He has / she has / you have yearned |
| Nosotros / as | hemos anhelado | We have yearned |
| Vosotros / as | habéis anhelado | You have yearned |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han anhelado | They / you have yearned |
| Vos | has anhelado | You have yearned |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would yearn” or “she would yearn”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | anhelaría | I would yearn |
| Tú | anhelarías | You would yearn |
| Él / Ella / Usted | anhelaría | He / she / you would yearn |
| Nosotros / as | anhelaríamos | We would yearn |
| Vosotros / as | anhelaríais | You would yearn |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | anhelarían | They / you would yearn |
| Vos | anhelarías | You would yearn |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will yearn” or “they will yearn”.
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 anhelar” means “They are going to yearn”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | anhelaré | I will yearn |
| Tú | anhelarás | You will yearn |
| Él / Ella / Usted | anhelará | He / she / you will yearn |
| Nosotros / as | anhelaremos | We will yearn |
| Vosotros / as | anhelaréis | You will yearn |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | anhelarán | They / you will yearn |
| Vos | anhelarás | You will yearn |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | anhele |
| Tú | anheles |
| Él / Ella / Usted | anhele |
| Nosotros / as | anhelemos |
| Vosotros / as | anheléis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | anhelen |
| Vos | anheles |
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 | anhelara | anhelase |
| Tú | anhelaras | anhelase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | anhelara | anhelase |
| Nosotros / as | anheláramos | anhelásemos |
| Vosotros / as | anhelarais | anhelaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | anhelaran | anhelasen |
| Vos | anhelaras | anhelase |
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 | anhelare |
| Tú | anhelares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | anhelare |
| Nosotros / as | anheláremos |
| Vosotros / as | anhelareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | anhelaren |
| Vos | anhelares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “yearn!” and “don’t yearn!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | anhela | no anheles |
| Él / Ella / Usted | anhele | no anhele |
| Nosotros / as | anhelemos | no anhelemos |
| Vosotros / as | anhelad | no anheléis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | anhelen | no anhelen |
| Vos | anhelá | no anheles |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya anhelado |
| Tú | hayas anhelado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya anhelado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos anhelado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis anhelado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan anhelado |
| Vos | hayas anhelado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera anhelado / hubiese anhelado |
| Tú | hubieras anhelado / hubieses anhelado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera anhelado / hubiese anhelado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos anhelado / hubiésemos anhelado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais anhelado / hubieseis anhelado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran anhelado / hubiesen anhelado |
| Vos | hubieras anhelado / hubieses anhelado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere anhelado |
| Tú | hubieres anhelado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere anhelado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos anhelado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis anhelado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren anhelado |
| Vos | hubieres anhelado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté anhelando |
| Tú | estés anhelando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté anhelando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos anhelando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis anhelando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén anhelando |
| Vos | estés anhelando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera anhelando / estuviese anhelando |
| Tú | estuvieras anhelando / estuvieses anhelando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera anhelando / estuviese anhelando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos anhelando / estuviésamos anhelando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais anhelando / estuvieseis anhelando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera anhelando / estuviese anhelando |
| Vos | estuvieras anhelando / estuvieses anhelando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere anhelando |
| Tú | estuvieres anhelando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere anhelando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos anhelando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis anhelando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere anhelando |
| Vos | estuvieres anhelando |
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 anhelás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos anhelaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos anhelabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos anhelarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos anhelarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos anheles |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos anhelaras / Vos anhelase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos anhelá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no anheles |