Cargar Examples, Sentences and Quiz in Spanish

cargar means to load, to carry, and it is a verb you will meet in everyday Spanish again and again. Cargar means to load or to carry, and it covers loading a van, carrying shopping bags, charging a phone and carrying a responsibility. It takes a direct object for the thing carried or loaded, and it is a spelling-change verb: the g becomes gu before e, so the preterite first person is cargué and the subjunctive is cargue. This page puts cargar to work: twelve example sentences in different tenses and persons, grouped by use, then two short dialogues where the verb appears naturally, then the common mistakes to avoid, and finally a ten-question quiz with explained answers. Every Spanish form on this page comes from the verified conjugation tables for cargar, and the full tables are on the cargar conjugation page if you need to check a form.

Example sentences

Everyday uses

  1. Yo cargo las maletas en el coche. — I load the suitcases into the car.
  2. Él carga la compra hasta casa. — He/she loads the shopping home.
  3. Ayer, yo cargué el móvil toda la noche. — Yesterday, I loaded the phone all night.
  4. Antes, nosotros cargábamos las cajas en el camión. — Before, we used to load the boxes onto the lorry.

In other tenses

  1. Mañana, tú cargarás las maletas en el coche. — Tomorrow, you will load the suitcases into the car.
  2. Yo cargaría la compra hasta casa. — I would load the shopping home.
  3. Él ha cargado el móvil toda la noche. — He/she has loaded the phone all night.
  4. Espero que él cargue las cajas en el camión. — I hope he/she loads the boxes onto the lorry.

With other people

  1. Nosotros cargamos las maletas en el coche. — We load the suitcases into the car.
  2. Vosotros cargáis la compra hasta casa. — You all load the shopping home.
  3. Antes, ellos cargaban el móvil toda la noche. — Before, they used to load the phone all night.
  4. Mañana, él cargará las cajas en el camión. — Tomorrow, he/she will load the boxes onto the lorry.

Cargar in context

Two short dialogues that use cargar the way people really use it. Read them aloud — the verb forms will stick much faster in a conversation than in a table.

Dialogue 1: today and yesterday

  • Ana: "Hola, ¿qué tal?" — "Hello, how are you?"
  • Luis: "Hoy cargo las maletas en el coche." — "Today I load the suitcases into the car."
  • Ana: "¿Y ayer?" — "And yesterday?"
  • Luis: "Ayer, cargué el móvil toda la noche." — "Yesterday I loaded the phone all night."
  • Ana: "¿Y mañana, tú cargarás la compra hasta casa?" — "And tomorrow, will you will load the shopping home?"
  • Luis: "Sí, claro. Y tú también." — "Yes, of course. And you too."

Dialogue 2: making plans

  • Marta: "Mañana, nosotros cargamos las cajas en el camión." — "Tomorrow we load the boxes onto the lorry."
  • Carlos: "Perfecto. Yo cargaría la compra hasta casa si tuviera más tiempo." — "Perfect. I would would load the shopping home if I had more time."
  • Marta: "Espero que él cargue las maletas en el coche." — "I hope he loads the suitcases into the car."
  • Carlos: "Seguro que sí. Él ya ha cargado el móvil toda la noche." — "Surely. He has already has loaded the phone all night."
  • Marta: "Vale, nos vemos mañana." — "OK, see you tomorrow."

Notice how the same verb changes with the tense: the present for the plan, the conditional for the wish, the subjunctive after espero que, and the present perfect for what has already happened. That is the whole point of learning a verb across its tenses, not just in one form.

Common mistakes

  1. Wrong: Yo carga las maletas en el coche. — Right: Yo cargo las maletas en el coche. — The person matters: carga is the él/ella/Ud. form, while the yo form is cargo. Using the third-person form with yo is one of the most common beginner errors.
  2. Wrong: Yo cargé la compra hasta casa. — Right: Yo cargué la compra hasta casa. — In the preterite, the correct first-person form is cargué, not cargé. cargar is a spelling-change verb: g becomes gu before e, so the written form changes to keep the same sound. The regular-looking form is wrong.
  3. Wrong: Treating cargar and llevar as identical in every context. — Right: Cargar means to load, to carry, while llevar means to carry or take something somewhere. — They overlap, but each has uses the other does not: cargar fits sentences such as Cargo las maletas en el coche, while llevar belongs in a different sentence. Check the meaning you want before choosing.
  4. Wrong: Yo soy cargado la compra hasta casa. — Right: Yo he cargado la compra hasta casa. — Spanish perfect tenses use haber, not ser: he cargado, has cargado, ha cargado. Ser plus the participle makes a passive, not a perfect tense.
  5. Wrong: De niño, yo cargué el móvil toda la noche todos los días. — Right: De niño, yo cargaba el móvil toda la noche todos los días. — For a repeated habit in the past, use the imperfect (cargaba), not the preterite. The preterite (cargué) is for one finished action.

Quiz: test yourself

Ten questions on cargar: four on the forms, three on the meaning, and three on spotting the correct sentence. Check the answer key below.

  1. Complete the sentence: Yo ___ las maletas en el coche. (present tense) A. cargo B. cargas C. carga D. cargamos

  2. Complete the sentence: Él ___ la compra hasta casa. (preterite tense) A. cargué B. cargaste C. cargamos D. cargó

  3. Complete the sentence: Tú ___ el móvil toda la noche. (future tense) A. cargará B. cargaremos C. cargarás D. cargaré

  4. Complete the sentence: Nosotros ___ las cajas en el camión. (imperfect tense) A. cargabais B. cargábamos C. cargaba D. cargabas

  5. What does "Yo cargo las maletas en el coche." mean in English? A. I load the suitcases into the car. B. I load the shopping home. C. I load the phone all night. D. I load the boxes onto the lorry.

  6. What does "Él cargó la compra hasta casa." mean in English? A. He/she loaded the suitcases into the car. B. He/she loaded the phone all night. C. He/she loaded the boxes onto the lorry. D. He/she loaded the shopping home.

  7. What does "Nosotros cargaremos el móvil toda la noche." mean in English? A. We will load the shopping home. B. We will load the boxes onto the lorry. C. We will load the phone all night. D. We will load the suitcases into the car.

  8. Which sentence is correct? A. Yo cargan la compra hasta casa. B. Yo carga la compra hasta casa. C. Yo cargo la compra hasta casa.

  9. Which sentence is correct? A. Él cargué el móvil toda la noche. B. Él cargó el móvil toda la noche. C. Él cargaron el móvil toda la noche.

  10. Which sentence is correct? A. Espero que yo cargue las cajas en el camión. B. Yo carge las cajas en el camión. C. Yo cargue las cajas en el camión.

Answer key

  1. cargo — The yo present form of cargar is cargo.
  2. cargó — The el preterite form of cargar is cargó.
  3. cargarás — The tu future form of cargar is cargarás.
  4. cargábamos — The nosotros imperfect form of cargar is cargábamos.
  5. I load the suitcases into the car. — The Spanish sentence uses the present form cargo, so the English is "I load the suitcases into the car." The other options use a different object or situation.
  6. He/she loaded the shopping home. — The Spanish sentence uses the preterite form cargó, so the English is "He/she loaded the shopping home." The other options use a different object or situation.
  7. We will load the phone all night. — The Spanish sentence uses the future form cargaremos, so the English is "We will load the phone all night." The other options use a different object or situation.
  8. Yo cargo la compra hasta casa. — The correct sentence is "Yo cargo la compra hasta casa." The other sentences use the wrong form or the wrong person for the subject.
  9. Él cargó el móvil toda la noche. — The correct sentence is "Él cargó el móvil toda la noche." The other sentences use the wrong form or the wrong person for the subject.
  10. Espero que yo cargue las cajas en el camión. — The correct sentence is "Espero que yo cargue las cajas en el camión." The other sentences use the wrong form or the wrong person for the subject.

Frequently asked questions

What does cargar mean, and when do I use it?

Cargar means to load, to carry. Cargar means to load or to carry, and it covers loading a van, carrying shopping bags, charging a phone and carrying a responsibility. It takes a direct object for the thing carried or loaded, and it is a spelling-change verb: the g becomes gu before e, so the preterite first person is cargué and the subjunctive is cargue. A good first sentence to remember is Yo cargo las maletas en el coche. — "I load the suitcases into the car."

What is the difference between cargar and llevar?

Cargar means to load, to carry, while llevar means to carry or take something somewhere. They appear in similar situations, but they are not interchangeable: use cargar when you mean to load, to carry, as in Yo cargo la compra hasta casa., and use llevar for to carry or take something somewhere.

How do I say "I load" in the past?

For one finished action, use the preterite: Yo cargué la compra hasta casa.. For a repeated habit or background in the past, use the imperfect: Yo cargaba el móvil toda la noche.. For something that has just happened, use the present perfect: Yo he cargado la compra hasta casa..

How do I practise cargar?

Start with the cargar conjugation page for the full tables, then the cargar in the present tense page for the tense in focus, and use the Spanish Verb Quiz to test the forms under pressure. Spelling change: g becomes gu before e, so the preterite is cargué and the subjunctive is cargue, never cargé or carge.

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