Acabar de: An Easy Hack to Speak Past-Tense Spanish

In this post we’re going to explain what we like to call the “Acabar de hack,” which allows you to speak about the past without needing to learn the past tense.

The verb acabar is one of the most common verbs in Spanish, and is directly translated as to finish. However, the meaning can change slightly depending on which preposition it’s used with.

In the rest of this post we’ll explain several different uses of this verb, along with some examples you’ll come across in everyday life as a Spanish speaker.

What does the verb acabar mean?

Before we dive deeper into acabar de, and see how it’s used as a shortcut to speak about the past, let’s take a step back and look at the root verb acabar on its own, as well as its use with some other prepositions.

Acabar means to finish something, or even to put an end to someone. It can be used as both a transitive and an intransitive verb.

• The girl finishes her homework early so she can go outside to play. – La niña acaba su tarea temprano para poder salir a jugar.

• Finish the rest of the wine, I need to throw away the bottle. – Acábate el resto del vino, necesito botar la botella.

Acabar + preposition

Different contexts call for the use of different prepositions with acabar. Here are some of the most common prepositions we can use, with examples:

acabar de – just

• Acabo de llegar. – I have just arrived.
• Acabamos de comprar los regalos. – We just bought the presents.

acabar con –  to finish with, to finish up, to bring an end to something

• Ellos acabaron con la renovación de la casa en marzo. – They finished with the home renovations in March.
• Él acabó con toda la comida. – He finished up all the food.

acabar por – to end up

• Si no tienes un mapa, acabarás por perderte. – If you don’t have a map, you’ll end up getting lost.
• Si no descansas la mente, acabarás por odiar tu carrera. – If you don’t rest your mind, you’ll end up hating your career.

acabar en – finish up in, end up in

• Todos los asesinos deben acabar en la cárcel. – All murderers must end up in jail.
• Acabaré en un manicomio si los niños no vuelven a clases pronto. –  I’ll end up in a madhouse if the kids don’t go back to school soon.

Now that you have an idea of some uses of acabar, let’s bring our focus back to acabar de.

How to conjugate acabar de

Indicative mood: Simple conjugations

Personal pronoun	Present	Simple past	Imperfect past
Yo	acabo de	acabé de	acababa de
Tú	acabas de	acabaste de	acababas de
Él – Ella – Usted	acaba de	acabó de	acababa de
Nosotros	acabamos de	acabamos de	acabábamos de
Ustedes	acaban de	acabaron de	acababan de
Ellos	acaban de	acabaron de	acababan de

• I just finished dinner. – Yo acabo de cenar.

• She just talked to me to tell me what happened. – Ella acaba de hablar conmigo para decirme lo que pasó.

• They just finished dessert, don’t give them more sugar. – Ellos acaban de terminar el postre, no les des más azúcar.

• This weather just ruined my hopes of going to the beach. – Este clima acabó de arruinar mis esperanzas de ir a la playa.

• I just paid off all that debt last year. – Yo acabé de pagar toda esa deuda el año pasado.

• They had just left when you arrived. – Ellos acababan de irse cuando tú llegaste.

• We had just arrived at the house when the accident occurred on the highway. – Nosotros acabábamos de llegar a la casa cuando ocurrió el accidente en la autopista.

Compound conjugations

Here is the conjugation table for the most common compound forms of acabar de, followed by some examples:

Personal Pronoun	Present perfect	Past perfect	Present subjunctive
Yo	he acabado de	había acabado de	acabe de
Tú	has acabado de	habías acabado de	acabes de
Él – Ella – Usted	ha acabado	había acabado	acabe de
Nosotros	hemos acabado de	habíamos acabado de	acabemos de
Ustedes	han acabado de	habían acabado de	acaben de
Ellos	han acabado de	habían acabado de	acaben de

• They have just finished giving their speech. It was beautiful. – Ellos han acabado de dar su discurso. Estuvo hermoso.

• You had just left when she arrived. – Ustedes habían acabado de salir cuando ella llegó.

Acabar de in present subjunctive

Note that since acabar de describes something which has finished in the past, it is not used in future conjugations. When describing what will happen once something finishes, however, we can use the present subjunctive. Although it has not happened yet, we use this form to say that once we finish the current action, we will do the next.

• Once I finish eating, I will call him. – Cuando acabe de comer, lo llamaré.

• Once you finish studying, we can go for a walk. – Cuando acabes de estudiar, podemos salir a caminar.

Acabar de + infinitive

As with many verbs in Spanish, we can use acabar de (conjugated) followed by a second verb in the infinitive to express that the action described by the second verb is finishing.

• The movie just started. – La película acaba de empezar.

• Your mother just called. – Tu madre acaba de llamar.

• I just finished reading this book. – Acabo de terminar de leer este libro.

• We just had dinner. – Nosotros acabamos de cenar.

• The boss just quit. – El jefe acaba de renunciar.

• The train just leftwhen we arrived at the terminal. – El tren acababa de salir cuando llegamos al terminal.

• I just saw your missed call. – Acabo de ver tu llamada perdida.

• An alarm just sounded. – Acaba de sonar una alarma.

• The team just qualified. – El equipo acaba de clasificar.

What is the difference between Acabar and Terminar?

The verbs acabar (to end) and terminar (to finish) are synonyms in many contexts. You can use either one to express that an action has ended.

English	Acabar	Terminar
The class just ended an hour ago.	La clase acaba de terminar hace una hora.	La clase terminó hace una hora.
I finished college at 26.	Acabé la universidad a los 26 años.	Terminé la universidad a los 26 años.
Let me just finish eating and I’ll help you with your homework.	Deja que acabe de comer y te ayudo con la tarea.	Deja que termine de comer y te ayudo con la tarea.

When we talk about ending relationships, whether personal or professional, we rather need to express it using terminar:

• Veronica and I ended the relationship. – Verónica y yo terminamos la relación.

• I must end my current employment relationship to accept the new offer. – Debo terminar mi relación laboral actual para aceptar la nueva oferta.

You can also use both verbs in the same sentence to avoid repeating the same words:

• The class just ended. – La clase acaba de terminar.

• I finished the project at 11pm. I ended up exhausted. – Acabé el proyecto a las 11pm. Terminé exhausto.

• We just ate, and we finished the entire box of cereal. – Acabamos de comer, y terminamos toda la caja de cereal.

Conclusion

¿Acabas de leer ese artículo? – Did you just read this post?

¡Entonces acabas de aprender el “acabar de hack” para hablar fácilmente en el pasado! – Well, then you’ve just learned the “acabar de hack” to easily talk in the past!