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Acordarse is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to remember”.
It’s a reflexive verb, which means the subject performs the action upon themselves – e.g. “I wake myself”.
Reflexive verbs always carry a reflexive pronoun – me, te, se, nos or os – which is often placed before the conjugated verb (e.g. me acordo) or after the infinitive (e.g. Él tiene que acordarse).
Below are all of the conjugations for acordarse 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 remember |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | acordarse |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está acordándose) and past continuous (estaba acordándose). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. remembering).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he acordado and hubiera acordado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have remembered).
| Gerundio / Gerund | acordándose |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | acordado |
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 remember” or “they remember”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | me acordo |
| Tú | te acordas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | se acorda |
| Nosotros / as | nos acordamos |
| Vosotros / as | os acordáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | se acordan |
| Vos | acordás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I remembered” or “she remembered” 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 | me acordé | I remembered |
| Tú | te acordaste | You remembered |
| Él / Ella / Usted | se acordó | He / she / you remembered |
| Nosotros / as | nos acordamos | We remembered |
| Vosotros / as | os acordasteis | You remembered |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | se acordaron | They / you remembered |
| Vos | te acordaste | You remembered |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was remembering” or “she was remembering” 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 | me acordaba | I was remembering |
| Tú | te acordabas | You were remembering |
| Él / Ella / Usted | se acordaba | He was / she was / you were remembering |
| Nosotros / as | nos acordábamos | We were remembering |
| Vosotros / as | os acordabais | You were remembering |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | se acordaban | They / you were remembering |
| Vos | te acordabas | You were remembering |
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 remembered” and “she has remembered”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | me he acordado | I have remembered |
| Tú | te has acordado | You have remembered |
| Él / Ella / Usted | se ha acordado | He has / she has / you have remembered |
| Nosotros / as | nos hemos acordado | We have remembered |
| Vosotros / as | os habéis acordado | You have remembered |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | se han acordado | They / you have remembered |
| Vos | te has acordado | You have remembered |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would remember” or “she would remember”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | me acordaría | I would remember |
| Tú | te acordarías | You would remember |
| Él / Ella / Usted | se acordaría | He / she / you would remember |
| Nosotros / as | nos acordaríamos | We would remember |
| Vosotros / as | os acordaríais | You would remember |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | se acordarían | They / you would remember |
| Vos | te acordarías | You would remember |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will remember” or “they will remember”.
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 acordarse” means “They are going to remember”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | me acordaré | I will remember |
| Tú | te acordarás | You will remember |
| Él / Ella / Usted | se acordará | He / she / you will remember |
| Nosotros / as | nos acordaremos | We will remember |
| Vosotros / as | os acordaréis | You will remember |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | se acordarán | They / you will remember |
| Vos | te acordarás | You will remember |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | me acorde |
| Tú | te acordes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | se acorde |
| Nosotros / as | nos acordemos |
| Vosotros / as | os acordéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | se acorden |
| Vos | te acordes |
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 | me acordara | me acordase |
| Tú | te acordaras | me acordase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | se acordara | se acordase |
| Nosotros / as | nos acordáramos | nos acordásemos |
| Vosotros / as | os acordarais | os acordaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | se acordaran | se acordasen |
| Vos | te acordaras | me acordase |
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 | me acordare |
| Tú | te acordares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | se acordare |
| Nosotros / as | nos acordáremos |
| Vosotros / as | os acordareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | se acordaren |
| Vos | te acordares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “remember!” and “don’t remember!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | acórdate | no te acordes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | acórdese | no se acorde |
| Nosotros / as | acordémonos | no nos acordemos |
| Vosotros / as | acordaos | no os acordéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | acórdense | no se acorden |
| Vos | acordate | no te acordes |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya acordado |
| Tú | hayas acordado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya acordado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos acordado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis acordado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan acordado |
| Vos | hayas acordado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera acordado / hubiese acordado |
| Tú | hubieras acordado / hubieses acordado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera acordado / hubiese acordado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos acordado / hubiésemos acordado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais acordado / hubieseis acordado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran acordado / hubiesen acordado |
| Vos | hubieras acordado / hubieses acordado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere acordado |
| Tú | hubieres acordado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere acordado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos acordado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis acordado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren acordado |
| Vos | hubieres acordado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté acordándose |
| Tú | estés acordándose |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté acordándose |
| Nosotros / as | estemos acordándose |
| Vosotros / as | estéis acordándose |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén acordándose |
| Vos | estés acordándose |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera acordándose / estuviese acordándose |
| Tú | estuvieras acordándose / estuvieses acordándose |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera acordándose / estuviese acordándose |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos acordándose / estuviésamos acordándose |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais acordándose / estuvieseis acordándose |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera acordándose / estuviese acordándose |
| Vos | estuvieras acordándose / estuvieses acordándose |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere acordándose |
| Tú | estuvieres acordándose |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere acordándose |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos acordándose |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis acordándose |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere acordándose |
| Vos | estuvieres acordándose |
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 acordás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos te acordaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos te acordabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos te acordarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos te acordarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos te acordes |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos te acordaras / Vos me acordase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos acordate |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no te acordes |