Calmar Conjugation in Spanish
Introduction
calmar means "to calm" in English, and it is one of the verbs you will meet constantly in everyday Spanish — for calming a person, an animal or a situation. 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. Calmar 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 calmo a mi hijo antes de dormir. — "Every day, I calm my son before bedtime." Once you can say that sentence confidently, try changing the person and the tense using the tables below.
Quick facts
| Infinitive | calmar |
| Translation | to calm |
| Verb type | Regular -ar verb |
| Gerund | calmando |
| Past participle | calmado |
| Auxiliary | haber (all compound tenses) |
| Irregular tenses | regular in every tense |
Full conjugation of calmar
Present indicative
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | calmo |
| tú | calmas |
| él / ella / Ud. | calma |
| nosotros / nosotras | calmamos |
| vosotros / vosotras | calmáis |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | calman |
Preterite
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | calmé |
| tú | calmaste |
| él / ella / Ud. | calmó |
| nosotros / nosotras | calmamos |
| vosotros / vosotras | calmasteis |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | calmaron |
Imperfect
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | calmaba |
| tú | calmabas |
| él / ella / Ud. | calmaba |
| nosotros / nosotras | calmábamos |
| vosotros / vosotras | calmabais |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | calmaban |
Future
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | calmaré |
| tú | calmarás |
| él / ella / Ud. | calmará |
| nosotros / nosotras | calmaremos |
| vosotros / vosotras | calmaréis |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | calmarán |
Conditional
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | calmaría |
| tú | calmarías |
| él / ella / Ud. | calmaría |
| nosotros / nosotras | calmaríamos |
| vosotros / vosotras | calmaríais |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | calmarían |
Present subjunctive
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | calme |
| tú | calmes |
| él / ella / Ud. | calme |
| nosotros / nosotras | calmemos |
| vosotros / vosotras | calméis |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | calmen |
Imperfect subjunctive (-ra forms)
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | calmara |
| tú | calmaras |
| él / ella / Ud. | calmara |
| nosotros / nosotras | calmáramos |
| vosotros / vosotras | calmarais |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | calmaran |
Present perfect
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | he calmado |
| tú | has calmado |
| él / ella / Ud. | ha calmado |
| nosotros / nosotras | hemos calmado |
| vosotros / vosotras | habéis calmado |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | han calmado |
Pluperfect
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | había calmado |
| tú | habías calmado |
| él / ella / Ud. | había calmado |
| nosotros / nosotras | habíamos calmado |
| vosotros / vosotras | habíais calmado |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | habían calmado |
Future perfect
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | habré calmado |
| tú | habrás calmado |
| él / ella / Ud. | habrá calmado |
| nosotros / nosotras | habremos calmado |
| vosotros / vosotras | habréis calmado |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | habrán calmado |
Conditional perfect
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | habría calmado |
| tú | habrías calmado |
| él / ella / Ud. | habría calmado |
| nosotros / nosotras | habríamos calmado |
| vosotros / vosotras | habríais calmado |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | habrían calmado |
Imperative — affirmative
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| tú | calma |
| él / ella / Ud. | calme |
| nosotros / nosotras | calmemos |
| vosotros / vosotras | calmad |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | calmen |
Imperative — negative
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| tú | calmes |
| él / ella / Ud. | calme |
| nosotros / nosotras | calmemos |
| vosotros / vosotras | calméis |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | calmen |
Gerund: calmando · Past participle: calmado
Calmar 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 calmo a mi hijo antes de dormir. — "Every day, I calm my son before bedtime."
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 calmé a mi hijo antes de dormir. — "Yesterday, I calmed my son before bedtime."
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 calmaba a mi hijo antes de dormir. — "Before, I calmed my son before bedtime."
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 calmaré a mi hijo antes de dormir. — "Tomorrow, I will calm my son before bedtime."
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 calmaría a mi hijo antes de dormir si tuviera la oportunidad. — "I would calm my son before bedtime 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 calme a mi hijo antes de dormir. — "I hope she will calm my son before bedtime."
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 calmara a mi hijo antes de dormir, todo cambiaría. — "If she calmed my son before bedtime, 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 calmado los nervios antes del examen varias veces. — "I have calmed my nerves before the exam 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 calmado a mi hijo antes de dormir antes de la reunión. — "I had calmed my son before bedtime 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 calmado a mi hijo antes de dormir. — "By tomorrow, I will have calmed my son before bedtime."
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 calmado a mi hijo antes de dormir si hubiera tenido tiempo. — "I would have calmed my son before bedtime 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: ¡calma a mi hijo antes de dormir! — "Calm my son before bedtime!"
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 calmes a mi hijo antes de dormir. — "Do not calm my son before bedtime."
Example sentences with calmar
Yo calmo a mi hijo antes de dormir. — "I calm my son before bedtime."
¿Tú calmas los nervios antes del examen? — "Do you calm my nerves before the exam?"
Ayer, él calmó a mi hijo antes de dormir. — "Yesterday, he calmed my son before bedtime."
Nosotros calmamos los nervios antes del examen a tiempo. — "We calmed my nerves before the exam on time."
Antes, ellos calmaban a mi hijo antes de dormir. — "Before, they calmed my son before bedtime."
Mañana, yo calmaré los nervios antes del examen. — "Tomorrow, I will calm my nerves before the exam."
Nosotros calmaríamos a mi hijo antes de dormir si pudiéramos. — "We would calm my son before bedtime if we could."
Yo he calmado los nervios antes del examen varias veces. — "I have calmed my nerves before the exam several times."
Espero que ella calme a mi hijo antes de dormir. — "I hope she will calm my son before bedtime."
Ahora mismo, yo estoy calmando los nervios antes del examen. — "Right now, I am calming my nerves before the exam."
Common mistakes with calmar
1. Dropping the accent on the preterite yo form
The preterite yo form is calmé — 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 calmar with tranquilizar (to reassure, to calm)
calmar means "to calm", while tranquilizar means "to reassure, to calm". They overlap in English but they are not interchangeable in Spanish: use calmar when you mean calming a person, an animal or a situation, and tranquilizar for its own meaning. Check the conjugation of tranquilizar before choosing.
3. Mixing up the preterite and the imperfect
Ayer yo calmé a mi hijo antes de dormir (preterite: one finished event yesterday) is not the same as antes yo calmaba a mi hijo antes de dormir (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 calmado (haber + participle), never estoy calmado. Haber is the only auxiliary for compound tenses in Spanish.
5. Dropping the preposition before the complement
calmar takes a here: yo calmo a mi hijo antes de dormir. Dropping the preposition (yo calmo mi hijo antes de dormir) sounds wrong to a native speaker, so learn the verb together with its preposition.
Quiz: calmar
1. Yo ___ a mi hijo antes de dormir.
a. calma b. calmo c. calman
2. Ella ___ a mi hijo antes de dormir.
a. calmo b. calma c. calman
3. Ayer, yo ___ a mi hijo antes de dormir.
a. calmo b. calmé c. calma
4. Ellos ___ a mi hijo antes de dormir ayer.
a. calmo b. calmaron c. calma
5. Antes, yo ___ a mi hijo antes de dormir.
a. calmo b. calmaba c. calma
6. Mañana, yo ___ a mi hijo antes de dormir.
a. calmo b. calmaré c. calma
7. Yo ___ a mi hijo antes de dormir si pudiera.
a. calmo b. calmaría c. calma
8. Espero que ella ___ a mi hijo antes de dormir.
a. calmo b. calme c. calma
9. Ahora mismo, yo estoy ___ los nervios antes del examen.
a. calmado b. calmando c. calmo
10. Yo he ___ los nervios antes del examen varias veces.
a. calmando b. calmado c. calmo
Answer key
calmo — present tense, yo form.
calma — present tense, él/ella form.
calmé — preterite, yo form — a finished action yesterday.
calmaron — preterite, ellos/ellas form.
calmaba — imperfect, yo form — a past habit.
calmaré — future, yo form.
calmaría — conditional, yo form — a hypothetical.
calme — present subjunctive after 'espero que'.
calmando — gerund — the progressive is estar + gerund.
calmado — past participle — the present perfect is haber + participle.
Frequently asked questions about calmar
What does calmar mean in English?
Calmar means "to calm". It is used for calming a person, an animal or a situation. A simple example is yo calmo a mi hijo antes de dormir — "I calm my son before bedtime."
Is calmar regular or irregular?
Calmar 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 calmo, the preterite yo form calmé and the past participle calmado — learn those three first, then fill in the rest from the tables above.
What is the gerund and the past participle of calmar?
The gerund is calmando (used for the progressive: estoy calmando) and the past participle is calmado (used with haber in all perfect tenses: he calmado). Both forms are used constantly, so they are worth memorising on their own.
How do I say "I calm" in the past?
It depends on the meaning. For one finished action use the preterite: ayer yo calmé a mi hijo antes de dormir — "yesterday I calmed my son before bedtime". For a past habit or background use the imperfect: antes yo calmaba a mi hijo antes de dormir — "before, I calmed my son before bedtime". The mistake most learners make is using one for the other.
Does calmar take the subjunctive?
Not usually. Calmar on its own takes the indicative — yo calmo a mi hijo antes de dormir. You will meet the subjunctive with calmar only inside a larger construction that itself triggers it, such as no creo que or es importante que, and then the subjunctive form is calme.