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Aprobar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to approve, ratify, pass a test”.
Below are all of the conjugations for aprobar 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 approve, ratify, pass a test |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | aprobar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está aprobando) and past continuous (estaba aprobando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. approving).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he aprobado and hubiera aprobado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have approved).
| Gerundio / Gerund | aprobando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | aprobado |
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 approve” or “they approve”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | apruebo |
| Tú | apruebas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | aprueba |
| Nosotros / as | aprobamos |
| Vosotros / as | aprobáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | aprueban |
| Vos | aprobás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I approved” or “she approved” 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 | aprobé | I approved |
| Tú | aprobaste | You approved |
| Él / Ella / Usted | aprobó | He / she / you approved |
| Nosotros / as | aprobamos | We approved |
| Vosotros / as | aprobasteis | You approved |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | aprobaron | They / you approved |
| Vos | aprobaste | You approved |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was approving” or “she was approving” 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 | aprobaba | I was approving |
| Tú | aprobabas | You were approving |
| Él / Ella / Usted | aprobaba | He was / she was / you were approving |
| Nosotros / as | aprobábamos | We were approving |
| Vosotros / as | aprobabais | You were approving |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | aprobaban | They / you were approving |
| Vos | aprobabas | You were approving |
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 approved” and “she has approved”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he aprobado | I have approved |
| Tú | has aprobado | You have approved |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha aprobado | He has / she has / you have approved |
| Nosotros / as | hemos aprobado | We have approved |
| Vosotros / as | habéis aprobado | You have approved |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han aprobado | They / you have approved |
| Vos | has aprobado | You have approved |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would approve” or “she would approve”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | aprobaría | I would approve |
| Tú | aprobarías | You would approve |
| Él / Ella / Usted | aprobaría | He / she / you would approve |
| Nosotros / as | aprobaríamos | We would approve |
| Vosotros / as | aprobaríais | You would approve |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | aprobarían | They / you would approve |
| Vos | aprobarías | You would approve |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will approve” or “they will approve”.
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 aprobar” means “They are going to approve”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | aprobaré | I will approve |
| Tú | aprobarás | You will approve |
| Él / Ella / Usted | aprobará | He / she / you will approve |
| Nosotros / as | aprobaremos | We will approve |
| Vosotros / as | aprobaréis | You will approve |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | aprobarán | They / you will approve |
| Vos | aprobarás | You will approve |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | apruebe |
| Tú | apruebes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | apruebe |
| Nosotros / as | aprobemos |
| Vosotros / as | aprobéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | aprueben |
| Vos | apruebes |
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 | aprobara | aprobase |
| Tú | aprobaras | aprobase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | aprobara | aprobase |
| Nosotros / as | aprobáramos | aprobásemos |
| Vosotros / as | aprobarais | aprobaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | aprobaran | aprobasen |
| Vos | aprobaras | aprobase |
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 | aprobare |
| Tú | aprobares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | aprobare |
| Nosotros / as | aprobáremos |
| Vosotros / as | aprobareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | aprobaren |
| Vos | aprobares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “approve!” and “don’t approve!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | aprueba | no apruebes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | apruebe | no apruebe |
| Nosotros / as | aprobemos | no aprobemos |
| Vosotros / as | aprobad | no aprobéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | aprueben | no aprueben |
| Vos | aprobá | no apruebes |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya aprobado |
| Tú | hayas aprobado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya aprobado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos aprobado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis aprobado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan aprobado |
| Vos | hayas aprobado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera aprobado / hubiese aprobado |
| Tú | hubieras aprobado / hubieses aprobado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera aprobado / hubiese aprobado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos aprobado / hubiésemos aprobado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais aprobado / hubieseis aprobado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran aprobado / hubiesen aprobado |
| Vos | hubieras aprobado / hubieses aprobado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere aprobado |
| Tú | hubieres aprobado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere aprobado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos aprobado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis aprobado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren aprobado |
| Vos | hubieres aprobado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté aprobando |
| Tú | estés aprobando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté aprobando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos aprobando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis aprobando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén aprobando |
| Vos | estés aprobando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera aprobando / estuviese aprobando |
| Tú | estuvieras aprobando / estuvieses aprobando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera aprobando / estuviese aprobando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos aprobando / estuviésamos aprobando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais aprobando / estuvieseis aprobando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera aprobando / estuviese aprobando |
| Vos | estuvieras aprobando / estuvieses aprobando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere aprobando |
| Tú | estuvieres aprobando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere aprobando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos aprobando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis aprobando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere aprobando |
| Vos | estuvieres aprobando |
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 aprobás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos aprobaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos aprobabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos aprobarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos aprobarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos apruebes |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos aprobaras / Vos aprobase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos aprobá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no apruebes |