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Atacar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to attack, assault, contradict”.
Below are all of the conjugations for atacar 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 attack, assault, contradict |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | atacar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está atacando) and past continuous (estaba atacando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. attacking).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he atacado and hubiera atacado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have attacked).
| Gerundio / Gerund | atacando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | atacado |
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 attack” or “they attack”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | ataco |
| Tú | atacas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ataca |
| Nosotros / as | atacamos |
| Vosotros / as | atacáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | atacan |
| Vos | atacás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I attacked” or “she attacked” 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 | ataqué | I attacked |
| Tú | atacaste | You attacked |
| Él / Ella / Usted | atacó | He / she / you attacked |
| Nosotros / as | atacamos | We attacked |
| Vosotros / as | atacasteis | You attacked |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | atacaron | They / you attacked |
| Vos | atacaste | You attacked |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was attacking” or “she was attacking” 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 | atacaba | I was attacking |
| Tú | atacabas | You were attacking |
| Él / Ella / Usted | atacaba | He was / she was / you were attacking |
| Nosotros / as | atacábamos | We were attacking |
| Vosotros / as | atacabais | You were attacking |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | atacaban | They / you were attacking |
| Vos | atacabas | You were attacking |
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 attacked” and “she has attacked”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he atacado | I have attacked |
| Tú | has atacado | You have attacked |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha atacado | He has / she has / you have attacked |
| Nosotros / as | hemos atacado | We have attacked |
| Vosotros / as | habéis atacado | You have attacked |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han atacado | They / you have attacked |
| Vos | has atacado | You have attacked |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would attack” or “she would attack”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | atacaría | I would attack |
| Tú | atacarías | You would attack |
| Él / Ella / Usted | atacaría | He / she / you would attack |
| Nosotros / as | atacaríamos | We would attack |
| Vosotros / as | atacaríais | You would attack |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | atacarían | They / you would attack |
| Vos | atacarías | You would attack |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will attack” or “they will attack”.
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 atacar” means “They are going to attack”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | atacaré | I will attack |
| Tú | atacarás | You will attack |
| Él / Ella / Usted | atacará | He / she / you will attack |
| Nosotros / as | atacaremos | We will attack |
| Vosotros / as | atacaréis | You will attack |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | atacarán | They / you will attack |
| Vos | atacarás | You will attack |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | ataque |
| Tú | ataques |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ataque |
| Nosotros / as | ataquemos |
| Vosotros / as | ataquéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | ataquen |
| Vos | ataques |
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 | atacara | atacase |
| Tú | atacaras | atacase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | atacara | atacase |
| Nosotros / as | atacáramos | atacásemos |
| Vosotros / as | atacarais | atacaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | atacaran | atacasen |
| Vos | atacaras | atacase |
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 | atacare |
| Tú | atacares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | atacare |
| Nosotros / as | atacáremos |
| Vosotros / as | atacareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | atacaren |
| Vos | atacares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “attack!” and “don’t attack!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | ataca | no ataques |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ataque | no ataque |
| Nosotros / as | ataquemos | no ataquemos |
| Vosotros / as | atacad | no ataquéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | ataquen | no ataquen |
| Vos | atacá | no ataques |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya atacado |
| Tú | hayas atacado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya atacado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos atacado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis atacado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan atacado |
| Vos | hayas atacado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera atacado / hubiese atacado |
| Tú | hubieras atacado / hubieses atacado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera atacado / hubiese atacado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos atacado / hubiésemos atacado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais atacado / hubieseis atacado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran atacado / hubiesen atacado |
| Vos | hubieras atacado / hubieses atacado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere atacado |
| Tú | hubieres atacado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere atacado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos atacado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis atacado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren atacado |
| Vos | hubieres atacado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté atacando |
| Tú | estés atacando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté atacando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos atacando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis atacando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén atacando |
| Vos | estés atacando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera atacando / estuviese atacando |
| Tú | estuvieras atacando / estuvieses atacando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera atacando / estuviese atacando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos atacando / estuviésamos atacando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais atacando / estuvieseis atacando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera atacando / estuviese atacando |
| Vos | estuvieras atacando / estuvieses atacando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere atacando |
| Tú | estuvieres atacando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere atacando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos atacando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis atacando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere atacando |
| Vos | estuvieres atacando |
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 atacás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos atacaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos atacabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos atacarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos atacarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos ataques |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos atacaras / Vos atacase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos atacá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no ataques |