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Atentar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to attempt”.
Below are all of the conjugations for atentar 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 attempt |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | atentar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está atentando) and past continuous (estaba atentando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. attempting).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he atentado and hubiera atentado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have attempted).
| Gerundio / Gerund | atentando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | atentado |
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 attempt” or “they attempt”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | atento |
| Tú | atentas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | atenta |
| Nosotros / as | atentamos |
| Vosotros / as | atentáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | atentan |
| Vos | atentás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I attempted” or “she attempted” 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 | atenté | I attempted |
| Tú | atentaste | You attempted |
| Él / Ella / Usted | atentó | He / she / you attempted |
| Nosotros / as | atentamos | We attempted |
| Vosotros / as | atentasteis | You attempted |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | atentaron | They / you attempted |
| Vos | atentaste | You attempted |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was attempting” or “she was attempting” 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 | atentaba | I was attempting |
| Tú | atentabas | You were attempting |
| Él / Ella / Usted | atentaba | He was / she was / you were attempting |
| Nosotros / as | atentábamos | We were attempting |
| Vosotros / as | atentabais | You were attempting |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | atentaban | They / you were attempting |
| Vos | atentabas | You were attempting |
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 attempted” and “she has attempted”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he atentado | I have attempted |
| Tú | has atentado | You have attempted |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha atentado | He has / she has / you have attempted |
| Nosotros / as | hemos atentado | We have attempted |
| Vosotros / as | habéis atentado | You have attempted |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han atentado | They / you have attempted |
| Vos | has atentado | You have attempted |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would attempt” or “she would attempt”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | atentaría | I would attempt |
| Tú | atentarías | You would attempt |
| Él / Ella / Usted | atentaría | He / she / you would attempt |
| Nosotros / as | atentaríamos | We would attempt |
| Vosotros / as | atentaríais | You would attempt |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | atentarían | They / you would attempt |
| Vos | atentarías | You would attempt |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will attempt” or “they will attempt”.
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 atentar” means “They are going to attempt”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | atentaré | I will attempt |
| Tú | atentarás | You will attempt |
| Él / Ella / Usted | atentará | He / she / you will attempt |
| Nosotros / as | atentaremos | We will attempt |
| Vosotros / as | atentaréis | You will attempt |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | atentarán | They / you will attempt |
| Vos | atentarás | You will attempt |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | atente |
| Tú | atentes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | atente |
| Nosotros / as | atentemos |
| Vosotros / as | atentéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | atenten |
| Vos | atentes |
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 | atentara | atentase |
| Tú | atentaras | atentase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | atentara | atentase |
| Nosotros / as | atentáramos | atentásemos |
| Vosotros / as | atentarais | atentaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | atentaran | atentasen |
| Vos | atentaras | atentase |
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 | atentare |
| Tú | atentares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | atentare |
| Nosotros / as | atentáremos |
| Vosotros / as | atentareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | atentaren |
| Vos | atentares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “attempt!” and “don’t attempt!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | atenta | no atentes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | atente | no atente |
| Nosotros / as | atentemos | no atentemos |
| Vosotros / as | atentad | no atentéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | atenten | no atenten |
| Vos | atentá | no atentes |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya atentado |
| Tú | hayas atentado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya atentado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos atentado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis atentado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan atentado |
| Vos | hayas atentado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera atentado / hubiese atentado |
| Tú | hubieras atentado / hubieses atentado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera atentado / hubiese atentado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos atentado / hubiésemos atentado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais atentado / hubieseis atentado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran atentado / hubiesen atentado |
| Vos | hubieras atentado / hubieses atentado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere atentado |
| Tú | hubieres atentado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere atentado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos atentado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis atentado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren atentado |
| Vos | hubieres atentado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté atentando |
| Tú | estés atentando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté atentando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos atentando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis atentando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén atentando |
| Vos | estés atentando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera atentando / estuviese atentando |
| Tú | estuvieras atentando / estuvieses atentando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera atentando / estuviese atentando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos atentando / estuviésamos atentando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais atentando / estuvieseis atentando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera atentando / estuviese atentando |
| Vos | estuvieras atentando / estuvieses atentando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere atentando |
| Tú | estuvieres atentando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere atentando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos atentando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis atentando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere atentando |
| Vos | estuvieres atentando |
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 atentás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos atentaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos atentabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos atentarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos atentarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos atentes |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos atentaras / Vos atentase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos atentá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no atentes |