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Atrasar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to retard, delay, slow down”.
Below are all of the conjugations for atrasar 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 retard, delay, slow down |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | atrasar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está atrasando) and past continuous (estaba atrasando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. delaying).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he atrasado and hubiera atrasado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have delayed).
| Gerundio / Gerund | atrasando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | atrasado |
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 delay” or “they delay”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | atraso |
| Tú | atrasas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | atrasa |
| Nosotros / as | atrasamos |
| Vosotros / as | atrasáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | atrasan |
| Vos | atrasás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I delayed” or “she delayed” 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 | atrasé | I delayed |
| Tú | atrasaste | You delayed |
| Él / Ella / Usted | atrasó | He / she / you delayed |
| Nosotros / as | atrasamos | We delayed |
| Vosotros / as | atrasasteis | You delayed |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | atrasaron | They / you delayed |
| Vos | atrasaste | You delayed |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was delaying” or “she was delaying” 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 | atrasaba | I was delaying |
| Tú | atrasabas | You were delaying |
| Él / Ella / Usted | atrasaba | He was / she was / you were delaying |
| Nosotros / as | atrasábamos | We were delaying |
| Vosotros / as | atrasabais | You were delaying |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | atrasaban | They / you were delaying |
| Vos | atrasabas | You were delaying |
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 delayed” and “she has delayed”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he atrasado | I have delayed |
| Tú | has atrasado | You have delayed |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha atrasado | He has / she has / you have delayed |
| Nosotros / as | hemos atrasado | We have delayed |
| Vosotros / as | habéis atrasado | You have delayed |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han atrasado | They / you have delayed |
| Vos | has atrasado | You have delayed |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would delay” or “she would delay”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | atrasaría | I would delay |
| Tú | atrasarías | You would delay |
| Él / Ella / Usted | atrasaría | He / she / you would delay |
| Nosotros / as | atrasaríamos | We would delay |
| Vosotros / as | atrasaríais | You would delay |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | atrasarían | They / you would delay |
| Vos | atrasarías | You would delay |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will delay” or “they will delay”.
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 atrasar” means “They are going to delay”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | atrasaré | I will delay |
| Tú | atrasarás | You will delay |
| Él / Ella / Usted | atrasará | He / she / you will delay |
| Nosotros / as | atrasaremos | We will delay |
| Vosotros / as | atrasaréis | You will delay |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | atrasarán | They / you will delay |
| Vos | atrasarás | You will delay |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | atrase |
| Tú | atrases |
| Él / Ella / Usted | atrase |
| Nosotros / as | atrasemos |
| Vosotros / as | atraséis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | atrasen |
| Vos | atrases |
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 | atrasara | atrasase |
| Tú | atrasaras | atrasase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | atrasara | atrasase |
| Nosotros / as | atrasáramos | atrasásemos |
| Vosotros / as | atrasarais | atrasaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | atrasaran | atrasasen |
| Vos | atrasaras | atrasase |
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 | atrasare |
| Tú | atrasares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | atrasare |
| Nosotros / as | atrasáremos |
| Vosotros / as | atrasareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | atrasaren |
| Vos | atrasares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “delay!” and “don’t delay!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | atrasa | no atrases |
| Él / Ella / Usted | atrase | no atrase |
| Nosotros / as | atrasemos | no atrasemos |
| Vosotros / as | atrasad | no atraséis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | atrasen | no atrasen |
| Vos | atrasá | no atrases |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya atrasado |
| Tú | hayas atrasado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya atrasado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos atrasado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis atrasado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan atrasado |
| Vos | hayas atrasado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera atrasado / hubiese atrasado |
| Tú | hubieras atrasado / hubieses atrasado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera atrasado / hubiese atrasado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos atrasado / hubiésemos atrasado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais atrasado / hubieseis atrasado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran atrasado / hubiesen atrasado |
| Vos | hubieras atrasado / hubieses atrasado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere atrasado |
| Tú | hubieres atrasado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere atrasado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos atrasado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis atrasado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren atrasado |
| Vos | hubieres atrasado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté atrasando |
| Tú | estés atrasando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté atrasando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos atrasando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis atrasando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén atrasando |
| Vos | estés atrasando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera atrasando / estuviese atrasando |
| Tú | estuvieras atrasando / estuvieses atrasando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera atrasando / estuviese atrasando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos atrasando / estuviésamos atrasando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais atrasando / estuvieseis atrasando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera atrasando / estuviese atrasando |
| Vos | estuvieras atrasando / estuvieses atrasando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere atrasando |
| Tú | estuvieres atrasando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere atrasando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos atrasando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis atrasando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere atrasando |
| Vos | estuvieres atrasando |
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 atrasás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos atrasaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos atrasabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos atrasarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos atrasarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos atrases |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos atrasaras / Vos atrasase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos atrasá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no atrases |