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Aspirar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to inhale, breathe in, to aspire to be”.
Below are all of the conjugations for aspirar 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 inhale, breathe in, to aspire to be |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | aspirar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está aspirando) and past continuous (estaba aspirando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. inhaling).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he aspirado and hubiera aspirado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have inhaled).
| Gerundio / Gerund | aspirando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | aspirado |
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 inhale” or “they inhale”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | aspiro |
| Tú | aspiras |
| Él / Ella / Usted | aspira |
| Nosotros / as | aspiramos |
| Vosotros / as | aspiráis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | aspiran |
| Vos | aspirás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I inhaled” or “she inhaled” 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 | aspiré | I inhaled |
| Tú | aspiraste | You inhaled |
| Él / Ella / Usted | aspiró | He / she / you inhaled |
| Nosotros / as | aspiramos | We inhaled |
| Vosotros / as | aspirasteis | You inhaled |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | aspiraron | They / you inhaled |
| Vos | aspiraste | You inhaled |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was inhaling” or “she was inhaling” 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 | aspiraba | I was inhaling |
| Tú | aspirabas | You were inhaling |
| Él / Ella / Usted | aspiraba | He was / she was / you were inhaling |
| Nosotros / as | aspirábamos | We were inhaling |
| Vosotros / as | aspirabais | You were inhaling |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | aspiraban | They / you were inhaling |
| Vos | aspirabas | You were inhaling |
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 inhaled” and “she has inhaled”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he aspirado | I have inhaled |
| Tú | has aspirado | You have inhaled |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha aspirado | He has / she has / you have inhaled |
| Nosotros / as | hemos aspirado | We have inhaled |
| Vosotros / as | habéis aspirado | You have inhaled |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han aspirado | They / you have inhaled |
| Vos | has aspirado | You have inhaled |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would inhale” or “she would inhale”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | aspiraría | I would inhale |
| Tú | aspirarías | You would inhale |
| Él / Ella / Usted | aspiraría | He / she / you would inhale |
| Nosotros / as | aspiraríamos | We would inhale |
| Vosotros / as | aspiraríais | You would inhale |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | aspirarían | They / you would inhale |
| Vos | aspirarías | You would inhale |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will inhale” or “they will inhale”.
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 aspirar” means “They are going to inhale”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | aspiraré | I will inhale |
| Tú | aspirarás | You will inhale |
| Él / Ella / Usted | aspirará | He / she / you will inhale |
| Nosotros / as | aspiraremos | We will inhale |
| Vosotros / as | aspiraréis | You will inhale |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | aspirarán | They / you will inhale |
| Vos | aspirarás | You will inhale |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | aspire |
| Tú | aspires |
| Él / Ella / Usted | aspire |
| Nosotros / as | aspiremos |
| Vosotros / as | aspiréis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | aspiren |
| Vos | aspires |
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 | aspirara | aspirase |
| Tú | aspiraras | aspirase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | aspirara | aspirase |
| Nosotros / as | aspiráramos | aspirásemos |
| Vosotros / as | aspirarais | aspiraseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | aspiraran | aspirasen |
| Vos | aspiraras | aspirase |
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 | aspirare |
| Tú | aspirares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | aspirare |
| Nosotros / as | aspiráremos |
| Vosotros / as | aspirareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | aspiraren |
| Vos | aspirares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “inhale!” and “don’t inhale!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | aspira | no aspires |
| Él / Ella / Usted | aspire | no aspire |
| Nosotros / as | aspiremos | no aspiremos |
| Vosotros / as | aspirad | no aspiréis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | aspiren | no aspiren |
| Vos | aspirá | no aspires |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya aspirado |
| Tú | hayas aspirado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya aspirado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos aspirado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis aspirado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan aspirado |
| Vos | hayas aspirado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera aspirado / hubiese aspirado |
| Tú | hubieras aspirado / hubieses aspirado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera aspirado / hubiese aspirado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos aspirado / hubiésemos aspirado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais aspirado / hubieseis aspirado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran aspirado / hubiesen aspirado |
| Vos | hubieras aspirado / hubieses aspirado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere aspirado |
| Tú | hubieres aspirado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere aspirado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos aspirado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis aspirado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren aspirado |
| Vos | hubieres aspirado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté aspirando |
| Tú | estés aspirando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté aspirando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos aspirando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis aspirando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén aspirando |
| Vos | estés aspirando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera aspirando / estuviese aspirando |
| Tú | estuvieras aspirando / estuvieses aspirando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera aspirando / estuviese aspirando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos aspirando / estuviésamos aspirando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais aspirando / estuvieseis aspirando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera aspirando / estuviese aspirando |
| Vos | estuvieras aspirando / estuvieses aspirando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere aspirando |
| Tú | estuvieres aspirando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere aspirando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos aspirando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis aspirando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere aspirando |
| Vos | estuvieres aspirando |
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 aspirás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos aspiraste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos aspirabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos aspirarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos aspirarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos aspires |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos aspiraras / Vos aspirase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos aspirá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no aspires |