How to Conjugate Acabar in Spanish: All Tenses + Acabar de Explained

Learning to conjugate acabar correctly is one of the highest-leverage steps in Spanish: the verb is completely regular, yet it powers two of the most useful structures in daily conversation — saying that something finished, and saying that you have just done something. This guide gives you the full acabar conjugation in every tense and mood, explains the acabar de + infinitive construction with real examples, and covers the regional forms vos and vosotros so you never hesitate in any Spanish-speaking country.

What Acabar Means and How Spanish Speakers Use It

Acabar means 'to finish' or 'to end'. You use it for completing tasks (acabé mi tarea, 'I finished my homework'), ending events (acabaron la reunión, 'they ended the meeting'), and running out of things (acabamos el pan, 'we ran out of bread'). It also forms one of the most common idiomatic structures in Spanish: acabar de + infinitive, meaning 'to have just done' something. Because acabar is a regular -ar verb, every tense follows the standard endings — which means one pattern unlocks the entire verb.

Acabar Conjugation: The Six Indicative Tenses in One Table

Here is the full acabar conjugation in the indicative mood — the tenses you will use every single day:

Pronoun	Present	Preterite	Imperfect	Future	Conditional
yo	acabo	acabé	acababa	acabaré	acabaría
tú	acabas	acabaste	acababas	acabarás	acabarías
él/ella/usted	acaba	acabó	acababa	acabará	acabaría
nosotros	acabamos	acabamos	acabábamos	acabaremos	acabaríamos
vosotros	acabáis	acabasteis	acababais	acabaréis	acabaríais
ellos/ustedes	acaban	acabaron	acababan	acabarán	acabarían

Two details matter here. First, the preterite first person carries an accent — acabé, not acabe — to preserve the -er sound of the stem. Second, the present and preterite first-person plural are identical: acabamos means both 'we finish' and 'we finished', and the context tells you which one is meant.

Acabar in the Subjunctive

The subjunctive is where acabar shows up after expressions of desire, doubt, and emotion:

Pronoun	Present subjunctive	Imperfect subjunctive
yo	acabe	acabara / acabase
tú	acabes	acabaras / acabases
él/ella/usted	acabe	acabara / acabase
nosotros	acabemos	acabáramos / acabásemos
vosotros	acabéis	acabarais / acabaseis
ellos/ustedes	acaben	acabaran / acabasen

You will hear this constantly: espero que acabes pronto ('I hope you finish soon'), dudo que acaben a tiempo ('I doubt they finish on time'), and si acabara antes, saldría ('if I finished earlier, I would leave'). The two imperfect forms are equally correct — the -ara and -ase endings are interchangeable in modern Spanish.

Acabar de + Infinitive: The Structure You Will Use Daily

Acabar de plus an infinitive means 'to have just done something', and native speakers use it constantly:

• Acabo de comer. (I just ate.)
• Acabamos de llegar. (We just arrived.)
• Acaba de salir. (He/She just left.)
• Acababa de empezar cuando llegaste. (I had just started when you arrived.)
• Acaban de anunciar el resultado. (They just announced the result.)

The construction only works with a conjugated form of acabar followed directly by an infinitive — there is no participle and no que in between. In the present tense it is the everyday 'just did' form; in the imperfect, acababa de, it means 'had just done', which makes it the perfect storytelling tense. A common learner mistake is adding an extra preposition, as in acabo de de comer — the correct form is simply acabo de comer.

Acabar Across Regions: Vos and Vosotros

Regional Spanish changes the second person. In Spain, vosotros takes the ending -áis: vosotros acabáis. Across Latin America, vosotros is replaced by ustedes (ustedes acaban), and several countries — especially Argentina, Uruguay, and parts of Central America — use vos instead of tú with its own accent pattern: vos acabás, vos acabaste, vos acabarás. If you study with Argentine content, vos forms will appear constantly; if you study with Spanish or Mexican content, you may never see them. A useful rule: vos forms stress the final syllable — acabás, acabarás — while vosotros forms stress the ending instead: acabáis, acabaréis.

Common Mistakes with Acabar

Three errors show up constantly in learner speech. First, using acabar de in the preterite to mean 'just did': acabé de comer means 'I finished eating', not 'I just ate' — for 'just', use the present: acabo de comer. Second, dropping the accent in the preterite first person, writing acabe instead of acabé, which silently turns the sentence into a subjunctive. Third, avoiding the subjunctive entirely after expressions like es importante que and espero que. And remember: acabar de always takes an infinitive, never a noun — say acabo de comer, not acabo de la comida. Write your own sentences for each mistake and check them after a week — the patterns disappear fast once you see them.

The Verdict

Acabar is the perfect first regular verb to master in Spanish: the endings are predictable, the everyday structures are everywhere, and acabar de + infinitive alone will make your Spanish sound noticeably more natural. Learn the tables in this guide, drill the subjunctive pairs, and practice acabar de in your own sentences — this verb pays for itself within the first week of conversation.

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