Atender Conjugation in Spanish
Introduction
atender means "to attend to, to serve" in English, and it is one of the verbs you will meet constantly in everyday Spanish — for attending to customers, patients or a request. 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. Atender is a stem-changing -er verb (e → ie) verb, and it is irregular in: present, present-subjunctive, imperative-affirmative, imperative-negative. 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 atiendo a los clientes con paciencia. — "Every day, I attend to the customers patiently." Once you can say that sentence confidently, try changing the person and the tense using the tables below.
Quick facts
| Infinitive | atender |
| Translation | to attend to, to serve |
| Verb type | Stem-changing -er verb (e → ie) |
| Gerund | atendiendo |
| Past participle | atendido |
| Auxiliary | haber (all compound tenses) |
| Irregular tenses | irregular in: present, present-subjunctive, imperative-affirmative, imperative-negative |
Full conjugation of atender
Present indicative
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | atiendo |
| tú | atiendes |
| él / ella / Ud. | atiende |
| nosotros / nosotras | atendemos |
| vosotros / vosotras | atendéis |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | atienden |
Preterite
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | atendí |
| tú | atendiste |
| él / ella / Ud. | atendió |
| nosotros / nosotras | atendimos |
| vosotros / vosotras | atendisteis |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | atendieron |
Imperfect
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | atendía |
| tú | atendías |
| él / ella / Ud. | atendía |
| nosotros / nosotras | atendíamos |
| vosotros / vosotras | atendíais |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | atendían |
Future
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | atenderé |
| tú | atenderás |
| él / ella / Ud. | atenderá |
| nosotros / nosotras | atenderemos |
| vosotros / vosotras | atenderéis |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | atenderán |
Conditional
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | atendería |
| tú | atenderías |
| él / ella / Ud. | atendería |
| nosotros / nosotras | atenderíamos |
| vosotros / vosotras | atenderíais |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | atenderían |
Present subjunctive
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | atienda |
| tú | atiendas |
| él / ella / Ud. | atienda |
| nosotros / nosotras | atendamos |
| vosotros / vosotras | atendáis |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | atiendan |
Imperfect subjunctive (-ra forms)
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | atendiera |
| tú | atendieras |
| él / ella / Ud. | atendiera |
| nosotros / nosotras | atendiéramos |
| vosotros / vosotras | atendierais |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | atendieran |
Present perfect
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | he atendido |
| tú | has atendido |
| él / ella / Ud. | ha atendido |
| nosotros / nosotras | hemos atendido |
| vosotros / vosotras | habéis atendido |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | han atendido |
Pluperfect
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | había atendido |
| tú | habías atendido |
| él / ella / Ud. | había atendido |
| nosotros / nosotras | habíamos atendido |
| vosotros / vosotras | habíais atendido |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | habían atendido |
Future perfect
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | habré atendido |
| tú | habrás atendido |
| él / ella / Ud. | habrá atendido |
| nosotros / nosotras | habremos atendido |
| vosotros / vosotras | habréis atendido |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | habrán atendido |
Conditional perfect
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | habría atendido |
| tú | habrías atendido |
| él / ella / Ud. | habría atendido |
| nosotros / nosotras | habríamos atendido |
| vosotros / vosotras | habríais atendido |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | habrían atendido |
Imperative — affirmative
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| tú | atiende |
| él / ella / Ud. | atienda |
| nosotros / nosotras | atendamos |
| vosotros / vosotras | atended |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | atiendan |
Imperative — negative
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| tú | atiendas |
| él / ella / Ud. | atienda |
| nosotros / nosotras | atendamos |
| vosotros / vosotras | atendáis |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | atiendan |
Gerund: atendiendo · Past participle: atendido
Atender 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. In the present the stem changes (e → ie) in the yo, tú, él/ella and ellos/ellas forms, but not in nosotros or vosotros — compare atiendo with atendemos. Example: Cada día, yo atiendo a los clientes con paciencia. — "Every day, I attend to the customers patiently."
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 atendí a los clientes con paciencia. — "Yesterday, I attended to the customers patiently."
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 atendía a los clientes con paciencia. — "Before, I attended to the customers patiently."
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 atenderé a los clientes con paciencia. — "Tomorrow, I will attend to the customers patiently."
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 atendería a los clientes con paciencia si tuviera la oportunidad. — "I would attend to the customers patiently 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. The present subjunctive is irregular for this verb: the yo form is atienda, and all six persons follow from it. Example: Espero que ella atienda a los clientes con paciencia. — "I hope she will attend to the customers patiently."
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 atendiera a los clientes con paciencia, todo cambiaría. — "If she attended to the customers patiently, 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 atendido una llamada urgente varias veces. — "I have attended to an urgent call 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 atendido a los clientes con paciencia antes de la reunión. — "I had attended to the customers patiently 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 atendido a los clientes con paciencia. — "By tomorrow, I will have attended to the customers patiently."
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 atendido a los clientes con paciencia si hubiera tenido tiempo. — "I would have attended to the customers patiently 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. The affirmative imperative is irregular for this verb: the tú form is atiende and the formal form is atienda. Example: ¡atiende a los clientes con paciencia! — "Attend to the customers patiently!"
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 atiendas a los clientes con paciencia. — "Do not attend to the customers patiently."
Example sentences with atender
Yo atiendo a los clientes con paciencia. — "I attend to the customers patiently."
¿Tú atiendes una llamada urgente? — "Do you attend to an urgent call?"
Ayer, él atendió a los clientes con paciencia. — "Yesterday, he attended to the customers patiently."
Nosotros atendimos una llamada urgente a tiempo. — "We attended to an urgent call on time."
Antes, ellos atendían a los clientes con paciencia. — "Before, they attended to the customers patiently."
Mañana, yo atenderé una llamada urgente. — "Tomorrow, I will attend to an urgent call."
Nosotros atenderíamos a los clientes con paciencia si pudiéramos. — "We would attend to the customers patiently if we could."
Yo he atendido una llamada urgente varias veces. — "I have attended to an urgent call several times."
Espero que ella atienda a los clientes con paciencia. — "I hope she will attend to the customers patiently."
Ahora mismo, yo estoy atendiendo una llamada urgente. — "Right now, I am attending to an urgent call."
Common mistakes with atender
1. Writing ✗ atendo instead of the correct present form
The correct yo form in the present is atiendo. 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 atender with escuchar (to listen)
atender means "to attend to, to serve", while escuchar means "to listen". They overlap in English but they are not interchangeable in Spanish: use atender when you mean attending to customers, patients or a request, and escuchar for its own meaning. Check the conjugation of escuchar before choosing.
3. Mixing up the preterite and the imperfect
Ayer yo atendí a los clientes con paciencia (preterite: one finished event yesterday) is not the same as antes yo atendía a los clientes con paciencia (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 atendido (haber + participle), never estoy atendido. Haber is the only auxiliary for compound tenses in Spanish.
5. Dropping the preposition before the complement
atender takes a here: yo atiendo a los clientes con paciencia. Dropping the preposition (yo atiendo los clientes con paciencia) sounds wrong to a native speaker, so learn the verb together with its preposition.
Quiz: atender
1. Yo ___ a los clientes con paciencia.
a. atiende b. atiendo c. atienden
2. Ella ___ a los clientes con paciencia.
a. atiendo b. atiende c. atienden
3. Ayer, yo ___ a los clientes con paciencia.
a. atiendo b. atendí c. atiende
4. Ellos ___ a los clientes con paciencia ayer.
a. atiendo b. atendieron c. atiende
5. Antes, yo ___ a los clientes con paciencia.
a. atiendo b. atendía c. atiende
6. Mañana, yo ___ a los clientes con paciencia.
a. atiendo b. atenderé c. atiende
7. Yo ___ a los clientes con paciencia si pudiera.
a. atiendo b. atendería c. atiende
8. Espero que ella ___ a los clientes con paciencia.
a. atiendo b. atienda c. atiende
9. Ahora mismo, yo estoy ___ una llamada urgente.
a. atendido b. atendiendo c. atiendo
10. Yo he ___ una llamada urgente varias veces.
a. atendiendo b. atendido c. atiendo
Answer key
atiendo — present tense, yo form.
atiende — present tense, él/ella form.
atendí — preterite, yo form — a finished action yesterday.
atendieron — preterite, ellos/ellas form.
atendía — imperfect, yo form — a past habit.
atenderé — future, yo form.
atendería — conditional, yo form — a hypothetical.
atienda — present subjunctive after 'espero que'.
atendiendo — gerund — the progressive is estar + gerund.
atendido — past participle — the present perfect is haber + participle.
Frequently asked questions about atender
What does atender mean in English?
Atender means "to attend to, to serve". It is used for attending to customers, patients or a request. A simple example is yo atiendo a los clientes con paciencia — "I attend to the customers patiently."
Is atender regular or irregular?
Atender is a stem-changing -er verb (e → ie) verb, and it is irregular in: present, present-subjunctive, imperative-affirmative, imperative-negative. The forms that most often catch learners out are the present yo form atiendo, the preterite yo form atendí and the past participle atendido — learn those three first, then fill in the rest from the tables above.
What is the gerund and the past participle of atender?
The gerund is atendiendo (used for the progressive: estoy atendiendo) and the past participle is atendido (used with haber in all perfect tenses: he atendido). Both forms are used constantly, so they are worth memorising on their own.
How do I say "I attend to" in the past?
It depends on the meaning. For one finished action use the preterite: ayer yo atendí a los clientes con paciencia — "yesterday I attended to the customers patiently". For a past habit or background use the imperfect: antes yo atendía a los clientes con paciencia — "before, I attended to the customers patiently". The mistake most learners make is using one for the other.
Does atender take the subjunctive?
Not usually. Atender on its own takes the indicative — yo atiendo a los clientes con paciencia. You will meet the subjunctive with atender only inside a larger construction that itself triggers it, such as no creo que or es importante que, and then the subjunctive form is atienda.