Apoyar Conjugation in Spanish
Introduction
apoyar means "to support" in English, and it is one of the verbs you will meet constantly in everyday Spanish — for supporting a person, a cause or an idea. 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. Apoyar 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 apoyo a mi familia en todo momento. — "Every day, I support my family at all times." Once you can say that sentence confidently, try changing the person and the tense using the tables below.
Quick facts
| Infinitive | apoyar |
| Translation | to support |
| Verb type | Regular -ar verb |
| Gerund | apoyando |
| Past participle | apoyado |
| Auxiliary | haber (all compound tenses) |
| Irregular tenses | regular in every tense |
Full conjugation of apoyar
Present indicative
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | apoyo |
| tú | apoyas |
| él / ella / Ud. | apoya |
| nosotros / nosotras | apoyamos |
| vosotros / vosotras | apoyáis |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | apoyan |
Preterite
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | apoyé |
| tú | apoyaste |
| él / ella / Ud. | apoyó |
| nosotros / nosotras | apoyamos |
| vosotros / vosotras | apoyasteis |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | apoyaron |
Imperfect
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | apoyaba |
| tú | apoyabas |
| él / ella / Ud. | apoyaba |
| nosotros / nosotras | apoyábamos |
| vosotros / vosotras | apoyabais |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | apoyaban |
Future
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | apoyaré |
| tú | apoyarás |
| él / ella / Ud. | apoyará |
| nosotros / nosotras | apoyaremos |
| vosotros / vosotras | apoyaréis |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | apoyarán |
Conditional
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | apoyaría |
| tú | apoyarías |
| él / ella / Ud. | apoyaría |
| nosotros / nosotras | apoyaríamos |
| vosotros / vosotras | apoyaríais |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | apoyarían |
Present subjunctive
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | apoye |
| tú | apoyes |
| él / ella / Ud. | apoye |
| nosotros / nosotras | apoyemos |
| vosotros / vosotras | apoyéis |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | apoyen |
Imperfect subjunctive (-ra forms)
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | apoyara |
| tú | apoyaras |
| él / ella / Ud. | apoyara |
| nosotros / nosotras | apoyáramos |
| vosotros / vosotras | apoyarais |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | apoyaran |
Present perfect
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | he apoyado |
| tú | has apoyado |
| él / ella / Ud. | ha apoyado |
| nosotros / nosotras | hemos apoyado |
| vosotros / vosotras | habéis apoyado |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | han apoyado |
Pluperfect
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | había apoyado |
| tú | habías apoyado |
| él / ella / Ud. | había apoyado |
| nosotros / nosotras | habíamos apoyado |
| vosotros / vosotras | habíais apoyado |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | habían apoyado |
Future perfect
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | habré apoyado |
| tú | habrás apoyado |
| él / ella / Ud. | habrá apoyado |
| nosotros / nosotras | habremos apoyado |
| vosotros / vosotras | habréis apoyado |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | habrán apoyado |
Conditional perfect
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | habría apoyado |
| tú | habrías apoyado |
| él / ella / Ud. | habría apoyado |
| nosotros / nosotras | habríamos apoyado |
| vosotros / vosotras | habríais apoyado |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | habrían apoyado |
Imperative — affirmative
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| tú | apoya |
| él / ella / Ud. | apoye |
| nosotros / nosotras | apoyemos |
| vosotros / vosotras | apoyad |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | apoyen |
Imperative — negative
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| tú | apoyes |
| él / ella / Ud. | apoye |
| nosotros / nosotras | apoyemos |
| vosotros / vosotras | apoyéis |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | apoyen |
Gerund: apoyando · Past participle: apoyado
Apoyar 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 apoyo a mi familia en todo momento. — "Every day, I support my family at all times."
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 apoyé a mi familia en todo momento. — "Yesterday, I supported my family at all times."
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 apoyaba a mi familia en todo momento. — "Before, I supported my family at all times."
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 apoyaré a mi familia en todo momento. — "Tomorrow, I will support my family at all times."
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 apoyaría a mi familia en todo momento si tuviera la oportunidad. — "I would support my family at all times 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 apoye a mi familia en todo momento. — "I hope she will support my family at all times."
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 apoyara a mi familia en todo momento, todo cambiaría. — "If she supported my family at all times, 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 apoyado el proyecto del barrio varias veces. — "I have supported the neighbourhood project 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 apoyado a mi familia en todo momento antes de la reunión. — "I had supported my family at all times 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 apoyado a mi familia en todo momento. — "By tomorrow, I will have supported my family at all times."
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 apoyado a mi familia en todo momento si hubiera tenido tiempo. — "I would have supported my family at all times 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: ¡apoya a mi familia en todo momento! — "Support my family at all times!"
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 apoyes a mi familia en todo momento. — "Do not support my family at all times."
Example sentences with apoyar
Yo apoyo a mi familia en todo momento. — "I support my family at all times."
¿Tú apoyas el proyecto del barrio? — "Do you support the neighbourhood project?"
Ayer, él apoyó a mi familia en todo momento. — "Yesterday, he supported my family at all times."
Nosotros apoyamos el proyecto del barrio a tiempo. — "We supported the neighbourhood project on time."
Antes, ellos apoyaban a mi familia en todo momento. — "Before, they supported my family at all times."
Mañana, yo apoyaré el proyecto del barrio. — "Tomorrow, I will support the neighbourhood project."
Nosotros apoyaríamos a mi familia en todo momento si pudiéramos. — "We would support my family at all times if we could."
Yo he apoyado el proyecto del barrio varias veces. — "I have supported the neighbourhood project several times."
Espero que ella apoye a mi familia en todo momento. — "I hope she will support my family at all times."
Ahora mismo, yo estoy apoyando el proyecto del barrio. — "Right now, I am supporting the neighbourhood project."
Common mistakes with apoyar
1. Dropping the accent on the preterite yo form
The preterite yo form is apoyé — 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 apoyar with ayudar (to help)
apoyar means "to support", while ayudar means "to help". They overlap in English but they are not interchangeable in Spanish: use apoyar when you mean supporting a person, a cause or an idea, and ayudar for its own meaning. Check the conjugation of ayudar before choosing.
3. Mixing up the preterite and the imperfect
Ayer yo apoyé a mi familia en todo momento (preterite: one finished event yesterday) is not the same as antes yo apoyaba a mi familia en todo momento (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 apoyado (haber + participle), never estoy apoyado. Haber is the only auxiliary for compound tenses in Spanish.
5. Dropping the preposition before the complement
apoyar takes a here: yo apoyo a mi familia en todo momento. Dropping the preposition (yo apoyo mi familia en todo momento) sounds wrong to a native speaker, so learn the verb together with its preposition.
Quiz: apoyar
1. Yo ___ a mi familia en todo momento.
a. apoya b. apoyo c. apoyan
2. Ella ___ a mi familia en todo momento.
a. apoyo b. apoya c. apoyan
3. Ayer, yo ___ a mi familia en todo momento.
a. apoyo b. apoyé c. apoya
4. Ellos ___ a mi familia en todo momento ayer.
a. apoyo b. apoyaron c. apoya
5. Antes, yo ___ a mi familia en todo momento.
a. apoyo b. apoyaba c. apoya
6. Mañana, yo ___ a mi familia en todo momento.
a. apoyo b. apoyaré c. apoya
7. Yo ___ a mi familia en todo momento si pudiera.
a. apoyo b. apoyaría c. apoya
8. Espero que ella ___ a mi familia en todo momento.
a. apoyo b. apoye c. apoya
9. Ahora mismo, yo estoy ___ el proyecto del barrio.
a. apoyado b. apoyando c. apoyo
10. Yo he ___ el proyecto del barrio varias veces.
a. apoyando b. apoyado c. apoyo
Answer key
apoyo — present tense, yo form.
apoya — present tense, él/ella form.
apoyé — preterite, yo form — a finished action yesterday.
apoyaron — preterite, ellos/ellas form.
apoyaba — imperfect, yo form — a past habit.
apoyaré — future, yo form.
apoyaría — conditional, yo form — a hypothetical.
apoye — present subjunctive after 'espero que'.
apoyando — gerund — the progressive is estar + gerund.
apoyado — past participle — the present perfect is haber + participle.
Frequently asked questions about apoyar
What does apoyar mean in English?
Apoyar means "to support". It is used for supporting a person, a cause or an idea. A simple example is yo apoyo a mi familia en todo momento — "I support my family at all times."
Is apoyar regular or irregular?
Apoyar 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 apoyo, the preterite yo form apoyé and the past participle apoyado — learn those three first, then fill in the rest from the tables above.
What is the gerund and the past participle of apoyar?
The gerund is apoyando (used for the progressive: estoy apoyando) and the past participle is apoyado (used with haber in all perfect tenses: he apoyado). Both forms are used constantly, so they are worth memorising on their own.
How do I say "I support" in the past?
It depends on the meaning. For one finished action use the preterite: ayer yo apoyé a mi familia en todo momento — "yesterday I supported my family at all times". For a past habit or background use the imperfect: antes yo apoyaba a mi familia en todo momento — "before, I supported my family at all times". The mistake most learners make is using one for the other.
Does apoyar take the subjunctive?
Not usually. Apoyar on its own takes the indicative — yo apoyo a mi familia en todo momento. You will meet the subjunctive with apoyar only inside a larger construction that itself triggers it, such as no creo que or es importante que, and then the subjunctive form is apoye.