Animar Conjugation in Spanish
Introduction
animar means "to encourage, to cheer up" in English, and it is one of the verbs you will meet constantly in everyday Spanish — for encouraging someone, or cheering them up. 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. Animar is a regular -ar verb verb, and it is regular in every tense. 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 animo a mi hermano antes del partido. — "Every day, I encourage my brother before the match." Once you can say that sentence confidently, try changing the person and the tense using the tables below.
Quick facts
| Infinitive | animar |
| Translation | to encourage, to cheer up |
| Verb type | Regular -ar verb |
| Gerund | animando |
| Past participle | animado |
| Auxiliary | haber (all compound tenses) |
| Irregular tenses | regular in every tense |
Full conjugation of animar
Present indicative
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | animo |
| tú | animas |
| él / ella / Ud. | anima |
| nosotros / nosotras | animamos |
| vosotros / vosotras | animáis |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | animan |
Preterite
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | animé |
| tú | animaste |
| él / ella / Ud. | animó |
| nosotros / nosotras | animamos |
| vosotros / vosotras | animasteis |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | animaron |
Imperfect
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | animaba |
| tú | animabas |
| él / ella / Ud. | animaba |
| nosotros / nosotras | animábamos |
| vosotros / vosotras | animabais |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | animaban |
Future
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | animaré |
| tú | animarás |
| él / ella / Ud. | animará |
| nosotros / nosotras | animaremos |
| vosotros / vosotras | animaréis |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | animarán |
Conditional
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | animaría |
| tú | animarías |
| él / ella / Ud. | animaría |
| nosotros / nosotras | animaríamos |
| vosotros / vosotras | animaríais |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | animarían |
Present subjunctive
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | anime |
| tú | animes |
| él / ella / Ud. | anime |
| nosotros / nosotras | animemos |
| vosotros / vosotras | animéis |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | animen |
Imperfect subjunctive (-ra forms)
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | animara |
| tú | animaras |
| él / ella / Ud. | animara |
| nosotros / nosotras | animáramos |
| vosotros / vosotras | animarais |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | animaran |
Present perfect
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | he animado |
| tú | has animado |
| él / ella / Ud. | ha animado |
| nosotros / nosotras | hemos animado |
| vosotros / vosotras | habéis animado |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | han animado |
Pluperfect
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | había animado |
| tú | habías animado |
| él / ella / Ud. | había animado |
| nosotros / nosotras | habíamos animado |
| vosotros / vosotras | habíais animado |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | habían animado |
Future perfect
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | habré animado |
| tú | habrás animado |
| él / ella / Ud. | habrá animado |
| nosotros / nosotras | habremos animado |
| vosotros / vosotras | habréis animado |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | habrán animado |
Conditional perfect
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | habría animado |
| tú | habrías animado |
| él / ella / Ud. | habría animado |
| nosotros / nosotras | habríamos animado |
| vosotros / vosotras | habríais animado |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | habrían animado |
Imperative — affirmative
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| tú | anima |
| él / ella / Ud. | anime |
| nosotros / nosotras | animemos |
| vosotros / vosotras | animad |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | animen |
Imperative — negative
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| tú | animes |
| él / ella / Ud. | anime |
| nosotros / nosotras | animemos |
| vosotros / vosotras | animéis |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | animen |
Gerund: animando · Past participle: animado
Animar 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. Example: Cada día, yo animo a mi hermano antes del partido. — "Every day, I encourage my brother before the match."
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 animé a mi hermano antes del partido. — "Yesterday, I encouraged my brother before the match."
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 animaba a mi hermano antes del partido. — "Before, I encouraged my brother before the match."
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 animaré a mi hermano antes del partido. — "Tomorrow, I will encourage my brother before the match."
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 animaría a mi hermano antes del partido si tuviera la oportunidad. — "I would encourage my brother before the match 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 anime a mi hermano antes del partido. — "I hope she will encourage my brother before the match."
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 animara a mi hermano antes del partido, todo cambiaría. — "If she encouraged my brother before the match, 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 animado a mis amigos a seguir estudiando varias veces. — "I have encouraged my friends to keep studying 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 animado a mi hermano antes del partido antes de la reunión. — "I had encouraged my brother before the match 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 animado a mi hermano antes del partido. — "By tomorrow, I will have encouraged my brother before the match."
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 animado a mi hermano antes del partido si hubiera tenido tiempo. — "I would have encouraged my brother before the match 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: ¡anima a mi hermano antes del partido! — "Encourage my brother before the match!"
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 animes a mi hermano antes del partido. — "Do not encourage my brother before the match."
Example sentences with animar
Yo animo a mi hermano antes del partido. — "I encourage my brother before the match."
¿Tú animas a mis amigos a seguir estudiando? — "Do you encourage my friends to keep studying?"
Ayer, él animó a mi hermano antes del partido. — "Yesterday, he encouraged my brother before the match."
Nosotros animamos a mis amigos a seguir estudiando a tiempo. — "We encouraged my friends to keep studying on time."
Antes, ellos animaban a mi hermano antes del partido. — "Before, they encouraged my brother before the match."
Mañana, yo animaré a mis amigos a seguir estudiando. — "Tomorrow, I will encourage my friends to keep studying."
Nosotros animaríamos a mi hermano antes del partido si pudiéramos. — "We would encourage my brother before the match if we could."
Yo he animado a mis amigos a seguir estudiando varias veces. — "I have encouraged my friends to keep studying several times."
Espero que ella anime a mi hermano antes del partido. — "I hope she will encourage my brother before the match."
Ahora mismo, yo estoy animando a mis amigos a seguir estudiando. — "Right now, I am encouraging my friends to keep studying."
Common mistakes with animar
1. Dropping the accent on the preterite yo form
The preterite yo form is animé — with the accent. Without it the word is misspelled, and in some verbs the accent is the only thing separating one tense from another.
2. Confusing animar with desanimar (to discourage)
animar means "to encourage, to cheer up", while desanimar means "to discourage". They overlap in English but they are not interchangeable in Spanish: use animar when you mean encouraging someone, or cheering them up, and desanimar for its own meaning. Check the conjugation of desanimar before choosing.
3. Mixing up the preterite and the imperfect
Ayer yo animé a mi hermano antes del partido (preterite: one finished event yesterday) is not the same as antes yo animaba a mi hermano antes del partido (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 animado (haber + participle), never estoy animado. Haber is the only auxiliary for compound tenses in Spanish.
5. Dropping the preposition before the complement
animar takes a here: yo animo a mi hermano antes del partido. Dropping the preposition (yo animo mi hermano antes del partido) sounds wrong to a native speaker, so learn the verb together with its preposition.
Quiz: animar
1. Yo ___ a mi hermano antes del partido.
a. anima b. animo c. animan
2. Ella ___ a mi hermano antes del partido.
a. animo b. anima c. animan
3. Ayer, yo ___ a mi hermano antes del partido.
a. animo b. animé c. anima
4. Ellos ___ a mi hermano antes del partido ayer.
a. animo b. animaron c. anima
5. Antes, yo ___ a mi hermano antes del partido.
a. animo b. animaba c. anima
6. Mañana, yo ___ a mi hermano antes del partido.
a. animo b. animaré c. anima
7. Yo ___ a mi hermano antes del partido si pudiera.
a. animo b. animaría c. anima
8. Espero que ella ___ a mi hermano antes del partido.
a. animo b. anime c. anima
9. Ahora mismo, yo estoy ___ a mis amigos a seguir estudiando.
a. animado b. animando c. animo
10. Yo he ___ a mis amigos a seguir estudiando varias veces.
a. animando b. animado c. animo
Answer key
animo — present tense, yo form.
anima — present tense, él/ella form.
animé — preterite, yo form — a finished action yesterday.
animaron — preterite, ellos/ellas form.
animaba — imperfect, yo form — a past habit.
animaré — future, yo form.
animaría — conditional, yo form — a hypothetical.
anime — present subjunctive after 'espero que'.
animando — gerund — the progressive is estar + gerund.
animado — past participle — the present perfect is haber + participle.
Frequently asked questions about animar
What does animar mean in English?
Animar means "to encourage, to cheer up". It is used for encouraging someone, or cheering them up. A simple example is yo animo a mi hermano antes del partido — "I encourage my brother before the match."
Is animar regular or irregular?
Animar is a regular -ar verb verb, and it is regular in every tense. The forms that most often catch learners out are the present yo form animo, the preterite yo form animé and the past participle animado — learn those three first, then fill in the rest from the tables above.
What is the gerund and the past participle of animar?
The gerund is animando (used for the progressive: estoy animando) and the past participle is animado (used with haber in all perfect tenses: he animado). Both forms are used constantly, so they are worth memorising on their own.
How do I say "I encourage" in the past?
It depends on the meaning. For one finished action use the preterite: ayer yo animé a mi hermano antes del partido — "yesterday I encouraged my brother before the match". For a past habit or background use the imperfect: antes yo animaba a mi hermano antes del partido — "before, I encouraged my brother before the match". The mistake most learners make is using one for the other.
Does animar take the subjunctive?
Not usually. Animar on its own takes the indicative — yo animo a mi hermano antes del partido. You will meet the subjunctive with animar only inside a larger construction that itself triggers it, such as no creo que or es importante que, and then the subjunctive form is anime.