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Aclarar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to explain, clarify, rinse, clear”.
Below are all of the conjugations for aclarar 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 explain, clarify, rinse, clear |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | aclarar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está aclarando) and past continuous (estaba aclarando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. clarifying).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he aclarado and hubiera aclarado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have clarified).
| Gerundio / Gerund | aclarando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | aclarado |
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 clarify” or “they clarify”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | aclaro |
| Tú | aclaras |
| Él / Ella / Usted | aclara |
| Nosotros / as | aclaramos |
| Vosotros / as | aclaráis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | aclaran |
| Vos | aclarás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I clarified” or “she clarified” 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 | aclaré | I clarified |
| Tú | aclaraste | You clarified |
| Él / Ella / Usted | aclaró | He / she / you clarified |
| Nosotros / as | aclaramos | We clarified |
| Vosotros / as | aclarasteis | You clarified |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | aclararon | They / you clarified |
| Vos | aclaraste | You clarified |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was clarifying” or “she was clarifying” 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 | aclaraba | I was clarifying |
| Tú | aclarabas | You were clarifying |
| Él / Ella / Usted | aclaraba | He was / she was / you were clarifying |
| Nosotros / as | aclarábamos | We were clarifying |
| Vosotros / as | aclarabais | You were clarifying |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | aclaraban | They / you were clarifying |
| Vos | aclarabas | You were clarifying |
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 clarified” and “she has clarified”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he aclarado | I have clarified |
| Tú | has aclarado | You have clarified |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha aclarado | He has / she has / you have clarified |
| Nosotros / as | hemos aclarado | We have clarified |
| Vosotros / as | habéis aclarado | You have clarified |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han aclarado | They / you have clarified |
| Vos | has aclarado | You have clarified |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would clarify” or “she would clarify”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | aclararía | I would clarify |
| Tú | aclararías | You would clarify |
| Él / Ella / Usted | aclararía | He / she / you would clarify |
| Nosotros / as | aclararíamos | We would clarify |
| Vosotros / as | aclararíais | You would clarify |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | aclararían | They / you would clarify |
| Vos | aclararías | You would clarify |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will clarify” or “they will clarify”.
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 aclarar” means “They are going to clarify”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | aclararé | I will clarify |
| Tú | aclararás | You will clarify |
| Él / Ella / Usted | aclarará | He / she / you will clarify |
| Nosotros / as | aclararemos | We will clarify |
| Vosotros / as | aclararéis | You will clarify |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | aclararán | They / you will clarify |
| Vos | aclararás | You will clarify |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | aclare |
| Tú | aclares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | aclare |
| Nosotros / as | aclaremos |
| Vosotros / as | aclaréis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | aclaren |
| Vos | aclares |
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 | aclarara | aclarase |
| Tú | aclararas | aclarase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | aclarara | aclarase |
| Nosotros / as | aclaráramos | aclarásemos |
| Vosotros / as | aclararais | aclaraseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | aclararan | aclarasen |
| Vos | aclararas | aclarase |
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 | aclarare |
| Tú | aclarares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | aclarare |
| Nosotros / as | aclaráremos |
| Vosotros / as | aclarareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | aclararen |
| Vos | aclarares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “clarify!” and “don’t clarify!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | aclara | no aclares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | aclare | no aclare |
| Nosotros / as | aclaremos | no aclaremos |
| Vosotros / as | aclarad | no aclaréis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | aclaren | no aclaren |
| Vos | aclará | no aclares |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya aclarado |
| Tú | hayas aclarado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya aclarado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos aclarado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis aclarado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan aclarado |
| Vos | hayas aclarado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera aclarado / hubiese aclarado |
| Tú | hubieras aclarado / hubieses aclarado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera aclarado / hubiese aclarado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos aclarado / hubiésemos aclarado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais aclarado / hubieseis aclarado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran aclarado / hubiesen aclarado |
| Vos | hubieras aclarado / hubieses aclarado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere aclarado |
| Tú | hubieres aclarado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere aclarado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos aclarado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis aclarado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren aclarado |
| Vos | hubieres aclarado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté aclarando |
| Tú | estés aclarando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté aclarando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos aclarando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis aclarando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén aclarando |
| Vos | estés aclarando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera aclarando / estuviese aclarando |
| Tú | estuvieras aclarando / estuvieses aclarando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera aclarando / estuviese aclarando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos aclarando / estuviésamos aclarando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais aclarando / estuvieseis aclarando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera aclarando / estuviese aclarando |
| Vos | estuvieras aclarando / estuvieses aclarando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere aclarando |
| Tú | estuvieres aclarando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere aclarando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos aclarando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis aclarando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere aclarando |
| Vos | estuvieres aclarando |
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 aclarás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos aclaraste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos aclarabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos aclararías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos aclararás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos aclares |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos aclararas / Vos aclarase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos aclará |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no aclares |