Agradecer Conjugation in Spanish
Introduction
agradecer means "to thank" in English, and it is one of the verbs you will meet constantly in everyday Spanish — for thanking someone. Learning it properly means more than memorising one form: the verb changes across thirteen tenses, and this page gives you every one of them, with the exact forms from the VerbFlow engine, so you can check any person or tense in seconds. Agradecer is a irregular -er verb; c → zc spelling change before o and a verb, and it is regular in its endings, with a spelling change. That matters because the patterns on this page are the patterns you will reuse every time you speak or write. Work through the tables first, then read the notes under each tense — they explain when to use each tense and what to watch out for with this verb in particular. A natural example is: Cada día, yo agradezco a mis profesores por su ayuda. — "Every day, I thank my teachers for their help." Once you can say that sentence confidently, try changing the person and the tense using the tables below.
Quick facts
| Infinitive | agradecer |
| Translation | to thank |
| Verb type | Irregular -er verb; c → zc spelling change before o and a |
| Gerund | agradeciendo |
| Past participle | agradecido |
| Auxiliary | haber (all compound tenses) |
| Irregular tenses | regular in its endings, with a spelling change |
Full conjugation of agradecer
Present indicative
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | agradezco |
| tú | agradeces |
| él / ella / Ud. | agradece |
| nosotros / nosotras | agradecemos |
| vosotros / vosotras | agradecéis |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | agradecen |
Preterite
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | agradecí |
| tú | agradeciste |
| él / ella / Ud. | agradeció |
| nosotros / nosotras | agradecimos |
| vosotros / vosotras | agradecisteis |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | agradecieron |
Imperfect
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | agradecía |
| tú | agradecías |
| él / ella / Ud. | agradecía |
| nosotros / nosotras | agradecíamos |
| vosotros / vosotras | agradecíais |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | agradecían |
Future
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | agradeceré |
| tú | agradecerás |
| él / ella / Ud. | agradecerá |
| nosotros / nosotras | agradeceremos |
| vosotros / vosotras | agradeceréis |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | agradecerán |
Conditional
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | agradecería |
| tú | agradecerías |
| él / ella / Ud. | agradecería |
| nosotros / nosotras | agradeceríamos |
| vosotros / vosotras | agradeceríais |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | agradecerían |
Present subjunctive
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | agradezca |
| tú | agradezcas |
| él / ella / Ud. | agradezca |
| nosotros / nosotras | agradezcamos |
| vosotros / vosotras | agradecáis |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | agradezcan |
Imperfect subjunctive (-ra forms)
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | agradeciera |
| tú | agradecieras |
| él / ella / Ud. | agradeciera |
| nosotros / nosotras | agradeciéramos |
| vosotros / vosotras | agradecierais |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | agradecieran |
Present perfect
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | he agradecido |
| tú | has agradecido |
| él / ella / Ud. | ha agradecido |
| nosotros / nosotras | hemos agradecido |
| vosotros / vosotras | habéis agradecido |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | han agradecido |
Pluperfect
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | había agradecido |
| tú | habías agradecido |
| él / ella / Ud. | había agradecido |
| nosotros / nosotras | habíamos agradecido |
| vosotros / vosotras | habíais agradecido |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | habían agradecido |
Future perfect
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | habré agradecido |
| tú | habrás agradecido |
| él / ella / Ud. | habrá agradecido |
| nosotros / nosotras | habremos agradecido |
| vosotros / vosotras | habréis agradecido |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | habrán agradecido |
Conditional perfect
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | habría agradecido |
| tú | habrías agradecido |
| él / ella / Ud. | habría agradecido |
| nosotros / nosotras | habríamos agradecido |
| vosotros / vosotras | habríais agradecido |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | habrían agradecido |
Imperative — affirmative
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| tú | agradece |
| él / ella / Ud. | agradezca |
| nosotros / nosotras | agradezcamos |
| vosotros / vosotras | agradeced |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | agradezcan |
Imperative — negative
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| tú | agradezcas |
| él / ella / Ud. | agradezca |
| nosotros / nosotras | agradezcamos |
| vosotros / vosotras | agradecáis |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | agradezcan |
Gerund: agradeciendo · Past participle: agradecido
Agradecer in every tense — notes and examples
Present indicative
The present is the tense for habits, facts and what is happening now. It is the first tense to master, because the present subjunctive and the affirmative imperative are both built from the present yo form. Watch the spelling in the present: c becomes zc before o, so the yo form is agradezco, not the form you would expect from the infinitive. Example: Cada día, yo agradezco a mis profesores por su ayuda. — "Every day, I thank my teachers for their help."
Preterite
The preterite is for completed actions in the past — things that started and finished at a definite moment. Use it for a single event, a sequence of events, or an action with a clear end. Example: Ayer, yo agradecí a mis profesores por su ayuda. — "Yesterday, I thanked my teachers for their help."
Imperfect
The imperfect is for the past without a definite end: habits, background scenes, descriptions and actions in progress when something else happened. It never states when the action finished. Example: Antes, yo agradecía a mis profesores por su ayuda. — "Before, I thanked my teachers for their help."
Future
The future is for what will happen, and also for guesses about the present ("I wonder if…"). For regular verbs it is the infinitive plus the endings -é, -ás, -á, -emos, -éis, -án. Example: Mañana, yo agradeceré a mis profesores por su ayuda. — "Tomorrow, I will thank my teachers for their help."
Conditional
The conditional is for what would happen — polite requests, hypothetical results and reported expectations. It shares its stem with the future, so any irregular future stem appears here too. Example: Yo agradecería a mis profesores por su ayuda si tuviera la oportunidad. — "I would thank my teachers for their help if I had the chance."
Present subjunctive
The present subjunctive is for wishes, doubts, emotions and other non-facts after que, and after expressions such as ojalá, es importante que or no creo que. It is not a tense for stating facts. Example: Espero que ella agradezca a mis profesores por su ayuda. — "I hope she will thank my teachers for their help."
Imperfect subjunctive (-ra forms)
The imperfect subjunctive (-ra forms) is for wishes and doubts about the past, and for the if-part of hypothetical sentences (si + imperfect subjunctive, conditional). This page shows the -ra forms from the engine. Example: Si ella agradeciera a mis profesores por su ayuda, todo cambiaría. — "If she thanked my teachers for their help, everything would change."
Present perfect
The present perfect (haber + past participle) is for past actions connected to the present — recent events, experience, or something that has just happened. The auxiliary is always haber. Example: Yo he agradecido el regalo con una carta varias veces. — "I have thanked the present with a letter several times."
Pluperfect
The pluperfect (había + past participle) is the past of the past: something that had already happened before another past event. Example: Yo había agradecido a mis profesores por su ayuda antes de la reunión. — "I had thanked my teachers for their help before the meeting."
Future perfect
The future perfect (habré + past participle) is for something that will already be finished by a future moment, or for a guess about the past. It is less common in speech than the simple future. Example: Para mañana, yo habré agradecido a mis profesores por su ayuda. — "By tomorrow, I will have thanked my teachers for their help."
Conditional perfect
The conditional perfect (habría + past participle) is for what would have happened — the past of the conditional, used for regrets and unreal past conditions. Example: Yo habría agradecido a mis profesores por su ayuda si hubiera tenido tiempo. — "I would have thanked my teachers for their help if I had had time."
Imperative — affirmative
The affirmative imperative is for direct orders, instructions and invitations. The tú form comes from the present él/ella form, and the formal, nosotros and plural forms come from the present subjunctive. Example: ¡agradece a mis profesores por su ayuda! — "Thank my teachers for their help!"
Imperative — negative
The negative imperative (no + subjunctive) is for telling someone not to do something. All five persons come from the present subjunctive, which is why they look different from the affirmative tú form. Example: No agradezcas a mis profesores por su ayuda. — "Do not thank my teachers for their help."
Example sentences with agradecer
Yo agradezco a mis profesores por su ayuda. — "I thank my teachers for their help."
¿Tú agradeces el regalo con una carta? — "Do you thank the present with a letter?"
Ayer, él agradeció a mis profesores por su ayuda. — "Yesterday, he thanked my teachers for their help."
Nosotros agradecimos el regalo con una carta a tiempo. — "We thanked the present with a letter on time."
Antes, ellos agradecían a mis profesores por su ayuda. — "Before, they thanked my teachers for their help."
Mañana, yo agradeceré el regalo con una carta. — "Tomorrow, I will thank the present with a letter."
Nosotros agradeceríamos a mis profesores por su ayuda si pudiéramos. — "We would thank my teachers for their help if we could."
Yo he agradecido el regalo con una carta varias veces. — "I have thanked the present with a letter several times."
Espero que ella agradezca a mis profesores por su ayuda. — "I hope she will thank my teachers for their help."
Ahora mismo, yo estoy agradeciendo el regalo con una carta. — "Right now, I am thanking the present with a letter."
Common mistakes with agradecer
1. Writing ✗ agradeco instead of the correct present form
The correct yo form in the present is agradezco. Learners often build it straight from the infinitive, but this verb changes its stem or spelling in the present, so memorise the yo form — the present subjunctive and the formal imperative are built from it.
2. Confusing agradecer with felicitar (to congratulate)
agradecer means "to thank", while felicitar means "to congratulate". They overlap in English but they are not interchangeable in Spanish: use agradecer when you mean thanking someone, and felicitar for its own meaning. Check the conjugation of felicitar before choosing.
3. Mixing up the preterite and the imperfect
Ayer yo agradecí a mis profesores por su ayuda (preterite: one finished event yesterday) is not the same as antes yo agradecía a mis profesores por su ayuda (imperfect: what used to happen). If you can add "yesterday" or "last week", you usually want the preterite; if you can add "used to", you want the imperfect.
4. Using estar instead of haber in the perfect tenses
The present perfect is he agradecido (haber + participle), never estoy agradecido. Haber is the only auxiliary for compound tenses in Spanish.
5. Dropping the preposition before the complement
agradecer takes a here: yo agradezco a mis profesores por su ayuda. Dropping the preposition (yo agradezco mis profesores por su ayuda) sounds wrong to a native speaker, so learn the verb together with its preposition.
Quiz: agradecer
1. Yo ___ a mis profesores por su ayuda.
a. agradece b. agradezco c. agradecen
2. Ella ___ a mis profesores por su ayuda.
a. agradezco b. agradece c. agradecen
3. Ayer, yo ___ a mis profesores por su ayuda.
a. agradezco b. agradecí c. agradece
4. Ellos ___ a mis profesores por su ayuda ayer.
a. agradezco b. agradecieron c. agradece
5. Antes, yo ___ a mis profesores por su ayuda.
a. agradezco b. agradecía c. agradece
6. Mañana, yo ___ a mis profesores por su ayuda.
a. agradezco b. agradeceré c. agradece
7. Yo ___ a mis profesores por su ayuda si pudiera.
a. agradezco b. agradecería c. agradece
8. Espero que ella ___ a mis profesores por su ayuda.
a. agradezco b. agradezca c. agradece
9. Ahora mismo, yo estoy ___ el regalo con una carta.
a. agradecido b. agradeciendo c. agradezco
10. Yo he ___ el regalo con una carta varias veces.
a. agradeciendo b. agradecido c. agradezco
Answer key
agradezco — present tense, yo form.
agradece — present tense, él/ella form.
agradecí — preterite, yo form — a finished action yesterday.
agradecieron — preterite, ellos/ellas form.
agradecía — imperfect, yo form — a past habit.
agradeceré — future, yo form.
agradecería — conditional, yo form — a hypothetical.
agradezca — present subjunctive after 'espero que'.
agradeciendo — gerund — the progressive is estar + gerund.
agradecido — past participle — the present perfect is haber + participle.
Frequently asked questions about agradecer
What does agradecer mean in English?
Agradecer means "to thank". It is used for thanking someone. A simple example is yo agradezco a mis profesores por su ayuda — "I thank my teachers for their help."
Is agradecer regular or irregular?
Agradecer is a irregular -er verb; c → zc spelling change before o and a verb, and it is regular in its endings, with a spelling change. The forms that most often catch learners out are the present yo form agradezco, the preterite yo form agradecí and the past participle agradecido — learn those three first, then fill in the rest from the tables above.
What is the gerund and the past participle of agradecer?
The gerund is agradeciendo (used for the progressive: estoy agradeciendo) and the past participle is agradecido (used with haber in all perfect tenses: he agradecido). Both forms are used constantly, so they are worth memorising on their own.
How do I say "I thank" in the past?
It depends on the meaning. For one finished action use the preterite: ayer yo agradecí a mis profesores por su ayuda — "yesterday I thanked my teachers for their help". For a past habit or background use the imperfect: antes yo agradecía a mis profesores por su ayuda — "before, I thanked my teachers for their help". The mistake most learners make is using one for the other.
Does agradecer take the subjunctive?
Not usually. Agradecer on its own takes the indicative — yo agradezco a mis profesores por su ayuda. You will meet the subjunctive with agradecer only inside a larger construction that itself triggers it, such as no creo que or es importante que, and then the subjunctive form is agradezca.