Asustar Conjugation in Spanish
Introduction
asustar means "to frighten" in English, and it is one of the verbs you will meet constantly in everyday Spanish — for frightening 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. Asustar 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: A Lucía le asusta el ruido de la noche. — "The the noise in the night frightens Lucía." Once you can say that sentence confidently, try changing the person and the tense using the tables below.
Quick facts
| Infinitive | asustar |
| Translation | to frighten |
| Verb type | Regular -ar verb |
| Gerund | asustando |
| Past participle | asustado |
| Auxiliary | haber (all compound tenses) |
| Irregular tenses | regular in every tense |
Gustar-like verb: the thing that causes the feeling is the subject, and the person who feels it is the indirect object (a Lucía le asusta el ruido de la noche). The verb agrees with the thing, not with the person — that is why the él/ella form appears so often with this verb.
Full conjugation of asustar
Present indicative
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | asusto |
| tú | asustas |
| él / ella / Ud. | asusta |
| nosotros / nosotras | asustamos |
| vosotros / vosotras | asustáis |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | asustan |
Preterite
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | asusté |
| tú | asustaste |
| él / ella / Ud. | asustó |
| nosotros / nosotras | asustamos |
| vosotros / vosotras | asustasteis |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | asustaron |
Imperfect
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | asustaba |
| tú | asustabas |
| él / ella / Ud. | asustaba |
| nosotros / nosotras | asustábamos |
| vosotros / vosotras | asustabais |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | asustaban |
Future
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | asustaré |
| tú | asustarás |
| él / ella / Ud. | asustará |
| nosotros / nosotras | asustaremos |
| vosotros / vosotras | asustaréis |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | asustarán |
Conditional
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | asustaría |
| tú | asustarías |
| él / ella / Ud. | asustaría |
| nosotros / nosotras | asustaríamos |
| vosotros / vosotras | asustaríais |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | asustarían |
Present subjunctive
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | asuste |
| tú | asustes |
| él / ella / Ud. | asuste |
| nosotros / nosotras | asustemos |
| vosotros / vosotras | asustéis |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | asusten |
Imperfect subjunctive (-ra forms)
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | asustara |
| tú | asustaras |
| él / ella / Ud. | asustara |
| nosotros / nosotras | asustáramos |
| vosotros / vosotras | asustarais |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | asustaran |
Present perfect
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | he asustado |
| tú | has asustado |
| él / ella / Ud. | ha asustado |
| nosotros / nosotras | hemos asustado |
| vosotros / vosotras | habéis asustado |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | han asustado |
Pluperfect
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | había asustado |
| tú | habías asustado |
| él / ella / Ud. | había asustado |
| nosotros / nosotras | habíamos asustado |
| vosotros / vosotras | habíais asustado |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | habían asustado |
Future perfect
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | habré asustado |
| tú | habrás asustado |
| él / ella / Ud. | habrá asustado |
| nosotros / nosotras | habremos asustado |
| vosotros / vosotras | habréis asustado |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | habrán asustado |
Conditional perfect
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | habría asustado |
| tú | habrías asustado |
| él / ella / Ud. | habría asustado |
| nosotros / nosotras | habríamos asustado |
| vosotros / vosotras | habríais asustado |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | habrían asustado |
Imperative — affirmative
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| tú | asusta |
| él / ella / Ud. | asuste |
| nosotros / nosotras | asustemos |
| vosotros / vosotras | asustad |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | asusten |
Imperative — negative
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| tú | asustes |
| él / ella / Ud. | asuste |
| nosotros / nosotras | asustemos |
| vosotros / vosotras | asustéis |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | asusten |
Gerund: asustando · Past participle: asustado
Asustar 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: A Lucía le asusta el ruido de la noche. — "The the noise in the night frightens Lucía."
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, a Lucía le asustó el ruido de la noche. — "Yesterday, the the noise in the night frightened Lucía."
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, a Lucía le asustaba el ruido de la noche. — "Before, the the noise in the night frightened Lucía."
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, a Lucía le asustará el ruido de la noche. — "Tomorrow, the the noise in the night will frighten Lucía."
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: A Lucía le asustaría el ruido de la noche si lo viera. — "The the noise in the night would frighten Lucía if she saw it."
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 a Lucía le asuste el ruido de la noche. — "I hope the the noise in the night frightens Lucía."
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 a Lucía le asustara el ruido de la noche, sonreiría. — "If the the noise in the night frightened Lucía, she would smile."
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: A Lucía le ha asustado el ruido de la noche. — "The the noise in the night has frightened Lucía."
Pluperfect
The pluperfect (había + past participle) is the past of the past: something that had already happened before another past event. Example: A Lucía le había asustado el ruido de la noche. — "The the noise in the night had frightened Lucía."
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: A Lucía le habrá asustado el ruido de la noche. — "The the noise in the night will have frightened Lucía."
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: A Lucía le habría asustado el ruido de la noche. — "The the noise in the night would have frightened Lucía."
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: ¡asuste a los niños con el ruido de la noche, por favor! — "Please frighten the children with the the noise in the night!"
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 asustes a los niños con el ruido de la noche. — "Do not frighten the children with the the noise in the night."
Example sentences with asustar
A Lucía le asusta el ruido de la noche. — "The the noise in the night frightens Lucía."
A Lucía y a Juan les asustan la tormenta. — "The the storm frighten Lucía and Juan."
Ayer, a Lucía le asustó el ruido de la noche. — "Yesterday, the the noise in the night frightened Lucía."
Ayer, a todos les asustaron la tormenta. — "Yesterday, the the storm frightened everyone."
De niña, a Lucía le asustaba el ruido de la noche. — "As a child, the the noise in the night frightened Lucía."
Mañana, a Lucía le asustará la tormenta. — "Tomorrow, the the storm will frighten Lucía."
A Lucía le asustaría el ruido de la noche si pudiera verlo. — "The the noise in the night would frighten Lucía if she could see it."
A Lucía le ha asustado el ruido de la noche muchas veces. — "The the noise in the night has frightened Lucía many times."
Espero que a Lucía le asuste el ruido de la noche. — "I hope the the noise in the night frightens Lucía."
La historia me está asustando ahora mismo. — "The story is frightening me right now."
Common mistakes with asustar
1. Dropping the accent on the preterite yo form
The preterite yo form is asusté — 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 asustar with sorprender (to surprise)
asustar means "to frighten", while sorprender means "to surprise". They overlap in English but they are not interchangeable in Spanish: use asustar when you mean frightening someone, and sorprender for its own meaning. Check the conjugation of sorprender before choosing.
3. Mixing up the preterite and the imperfect
Ayer yo asusté el ruido de la noche (preterite: one finished event yesterday) is not the same as antes yo asustaba el ruido de la noche (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. Saying ✗ yo asusto when you mean the feeling
With verbs like asustar the thing that causes the feeling is the subject, and the person is the indirect object: a Lucía le asusta el ruido de la noche. Saying yo asusto el ruido de la noche means you do the frightening, which is not what you mean here.
5. Forgetting that the verb agrees with the thing, not the person
Me asustan la tormenta is correct when the subject is plural — the verb agrees with the storm, not with "me". Singular me asusta la tormenta would be wrong with a plural subject.
Quiz: asustar
1. A Lucía le ___ el ruido de la noche.
a. asusto b. asusta c. asustan
2. Ayer, a Lucía le ___ el ruido de la noche.
a. asusto b. asustó c. asusta
3. Antes, a Lucía le ___ el ruido de la noche.
a. asusto b. asustaba c. asusta
4. Mañana, a Lucía le ___ el ruido de la noche.
a. asusto b. asustará c. asusta
5. A Lucía le ___ el ruido de la noche si lo viera.
a. asusto b. asustaría c. asusta
6. Espero que a Lucía le ___ el ruido de la noche.
a. asusto b. asuste c. asusta
7. A Lucía le ___ el ruido de la noche varias veces.
a. asusto b. ha asustado c. asusta
8. Me ___ la tormenta.
a. asusto b. asustan c. asusta
9. La historia me está ___ ahora mismo.
a. asustado b. asustando c. asusta
10. A Lucía le ha ___ el ruido de la noche muchas veces.
a. asustando b. asustado c. asusta
Answer key
asusta — present tense, él/ella form — the thing is the subject.
asustó — preterite, él/ella form — one finished event yesterday.
asustaba — imperfect, él/ella form — a past habit or background.
asustará — future, él/ella form.
asustaría — conditional, él/ella form — a hypothetical.
asuste — present subjunctive after 'espero que'.
ha asustado — present perfect, él/ella form (haber + participle).
asustan — present tense, ellos/ellas form — plural subject, so plural verb.
asustando — gerund — the progressive is estar + gerund.
asustado — past participle — the present perfect is haber + participle.
Frequently asked questions about asustar
What does asustar mean in English?
Asustar means "to frighten". It is used for frightening someone. A simple example is yo asusto el ruido de la noche — "I frighten the noise in the night."
Is asustar regular or irregular?
Asustar 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 asusto, the preterite yo form asusté and the past participle asustado — learn those three first, then fill in the rest from the tables above.
What is the gerund and the past participle of asustar?
The gerund is asustando (used for the progressive: estoy asustando) and the past participle is asustado (used with haber in all perfect tenses: he asustado). Both forms are used constantly, so they are worth memorising on their own.
How do I say "I frighten" in the past?
It depends on the meaning. For one finished action use the preterite: ayer yo asusté el ruido de la noche — "yesterday I frightened the noise in the night". For a past habit or background use the imperfect: antes yo asustaba el ruido de la noche — "before, I frightened the noise in the night". The mistake most learners make is using one for the other.
Does asustar take the subjunctive?
Not usually. Asustar on its own takes the indicative — yo asusto el ruido de la noche. You will meet the subjunctive with asustar only inside a larger construction that itself triggers it, such as no creo que or es importante que, and then the subjunctive form is asuste.