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Avanzar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to advance, move or push forward”.
Below are all of the conjugations for avanzar 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 advance, move or push forward |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | avanzar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está avanzando) and past continuous (estaba avanzando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. advancing).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he avanzado and hubiera avanzado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have advanced).
| Gerundio / Gerund | avanzando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | avanzado |
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 advance” or “they advance”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | avanzo |
| Tú | avanzas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | avanza |
| Nosotros / as | avanzamos |
| Vosotros / as | avanzáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | avanzan |
| Vos | avanzás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I advanced” or “she advanced” 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 | avancé | I advanced |
| Tú | avanzaste | You advanced |
| Él / Ella / Usted | avanzó | He / she / you advanced |
| Nosotros / as | avanzamos | We advanced |
| Vosotros / as | avanzasteis | You advanced |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | avanzaron | They / you advanced |
| Vos | avanzaste | You advanced |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was advancing” or “she was advancing” 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 | avanzaba | I was advancing |
| Tú | avanzabas | You were advancing |
| Él / Ella / Usted | avanzaba | He was / she was / you were advancing |
| Nosotros / as | avanzábamos | We were advancing |
| Vosotros / as | avanzabais | You were advancing |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | avanzaban | They / you were advancing |
| Vos | avanzabas | You were advancing |
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 advanced” and “she has advanced”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he avanzado | I have advanced |
| Tú | has avanzado | You have advanced |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha avanzado | He has / she has / you have advanced |
| Nosotros / as | hemos avanzado | We have advanced |
| Vosotros / as | habéis avanzado | You have advanced |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han avanzado | They / you have advanced |
| Vos | has avanzado | You have advanced |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would advance” or “she would advance”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | avanzaría | I would advance |
| Tú | avanzarías | You would advance |
| Él / Ella / Usted | avanzaría | He / she / you would advance |
| Nosotros / as | avanzaríamos | We would advance |
| Vosotros / as | avanzaríais | You would advance |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | avanzarían | They / you would advance |
| Vos | avanzarías | You would advance |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will advance” or “they will advance”.
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 avanzar” means “They are going to advance”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | avanzaré | I will advance |
| Tú | avanzarás | You will advance |
| Él / Ella / Usted | avanzará | He / she / you will advance |
| Nosotros / as | avanzaremos | We will advance |
| Vosotros / as | avanzaréis | You will advance |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | avanzarán | They / you will advance |
| Vos | avanzarás | You will advance |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | avance |
| Tú | avances |
| Él / Ella / Usted | avance |
| Nosotros / as | avancemos |
| Vosotros / as | avancéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | avancen |
| Vos | avances |
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 | avanzara | avanzase |
| Tú | avanzaras | avanzase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | avanzara | avanzase |
| Nosotros / as | avanzáramos | avanzásemos |
| Vosotros / as | avanzarais | avanzaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | avanzaran | avanzasen |
| Vos | avanzaras | avanzase |
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 | avanzare |
| Tú | avanzares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | avanzare |
| Nosotros / as | avanzáremos |
| Vosotros / as | avanzareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | avanzaren |
| Vos | avanzares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “advance!” and “don’t advance!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | avanza | no avances |
| Él / Ella / Usted | avance | no avance |
| Nosotros / as | avancemos | no avancemos |
| Vosotros / as | avanzad | no avancéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | avancen | no avancen |
| Vos | avanzá | no avances |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya avanzado |
| Tú | hayas avanzado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya avanzado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos avanzado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis avanzado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan avanzado |
| Vos | hayas avanzado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera avanzado / hubiese avanzado |
| Tú | hubieras avanzado / hubieses avanzado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera avanzado / hubiese avanzado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos avanzado / hubiésemos avanzado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais avanzado / hubieseis avanzado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran avanzado / hubiesen avanzado |
| Vos | hubieras avanzado / hubieses avanzado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere avanzado |
| Tú | hubieres avanzado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere avanzado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos avanzado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis avanzado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren avanzado |
| Vos | hubieres avanzado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté avanzando |
| Tú | estés avanzando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté avanzando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos avanzando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis avanzando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén avanzando |
| Vos | estés avanzando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera avanzando / estuviese avanzando |
| Tú | estuvieras avanzando / estuvieses avanzando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera avanzando / estuviese avanzando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos avanzando / estuviésamos avanzando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais avanzando / estuvieseis avanzando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera avanzando / estuviese avanzando |
| Vos | estuvieras avanzando / estuvieses avanzando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere avanzando |
| Tú | estuvieres avanzando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere avanzando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos avanzando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis avanzando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere avanzando |
| Vos | estuvieres avanzando |
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 avanzás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos avanzaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos avanzabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos avanzarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos avanzarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos avances |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos avanzaras / Vos avanzase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos avanzá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no avances |