Consolar Conjugation in Spanish
Introduction
consolar means "to console" in English, and it is one of the verbs you will meet constantly in everyday Spanish — for comforting someone who is sad. 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. Consolar is a stem-changing -ar verb (o → ue), 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 consuelo a mi amiga después de la pérdida. — "Every day, I console my friend after her loss." Once you can say that sentence confidently, try changing the person and the tense using the tables below.
Quick facts
| Infinitive | consolar |
| Translation | to console |
| Verb type | Stem-changing -ar verb (o → ue) |
| Gerund | consolando |
| Past participle | consolado |
| Auxiliary | haber (all compound tenses) |
| Irregular tenses | present, present-subjunctive, imperative-affirmative, imperative-negative |
Full conjugation of consolar
Present indicative
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | consuelo |
| tú | consuelas |
| él / ella / Ud. | consuela |
| nosotros / nosotras | consolamos |
| vosotros / vosotras | consoláis |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | consuelan |
Preterite
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | consolé |
| tú | consolaste |
| él / ella / Ud. | consoló |
| nosotros / nosotras | consolamos |
| vosotros / vosotras | consolasteis |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | consolaron |
Imperfect
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | consolaba |
| tú | consolabas |
| él / ella / Ud. | consolaba |
| nosotros / nosotras | consolábamos |
| vosotros / vosotras | consolabais |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | consolaban |
Future
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | consolaré |
| tú | consolarás |
| él / ella / Ud. | consolará |
| nosotros / nosotras | consolaremos |
| vosotros / vosotras | consolaréis |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | consolarán |
Conditional
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | consolaría |
| tú | consolarías |
| él / ella / Ud. | consolaría |
| nosotros / nosotras | consolaríamos |
| vosotros / vosotras | consolaríais |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | consolarían |
Present subjunctive
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | consuele |
| tú | consueles |
| él / ella / Ud. | consuele |
| nosotros / nosotras | consolemos |
| vosotros / vosotras | consoléis |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | consuelen |
Imperfect subjunctive (-ra forms)
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | consolara |
| tú | consolaras |
| él / ella / Ud. | consolara |
| nosotros / nosotras | consoláramos |
| vosotros / vosotras | consolarais |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | consolaran |
Present perfect
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | he consolado |
| tú | has consolado |
| él / ella / Ud. | ha consolado |
| nosotros / nosotras | hemos consolado |
| vosotros / vosotras | habéis consolado |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | han consolado |
Pluperfect
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | había consolado |
| tú | habías consolado |
| él / ella / Ud. | había consolado |
| nosotros / nosotras | habíamos consolado |
| vosotros / vosotras | habíais consolado |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | habían consolado |
Future perfect
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | habré consolado |
| tú | habrás consolado |
| él / ella / Ud. | habrá consolado |
| nosotros / nosotras | habremos consolado |
| vosotros / vosotras | habréis consolado |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | habrán consolado |
Conditional perfect
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | habría consolado |
| tú | habrías consolado |
| él / ella / Ud. | habría consolado |
| nosotros / nosotras | habríamos consolado |
| vosotros / vosotras | habríais consolado |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | habrían consolado |
Imperative — affirmative
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| tú | consuela |
| él / ella / Ud. | consuele |
| nosotros / nosotras | consolemos |
| vosotros / vosotras | consolad |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | consuelen |
Imperative — negative
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| tú | consueles |
| él / ella / Ud. | consuele |
| nosotros / nosotras | consolemos |
| vosotros / vosotras | consoléis |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | consuelen |
Gerund: consolando · Past participle: consolado
Consolar 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 (o → ue) in the yo, tú, él/ella and ellos/ellas forms, but not in nosotros or vosotros — compare consuelo with consolamos. Example: Cada día, yo consuelo a mi amiga después de la pérdida. — "Every day, I console my friend after her loss."
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 consolé a mi amiga después de la pérdida. — "Yesterday, I consoled my friend after her loss."
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 consolaba a mi amiga después de la pérdida. — "Before, I consoled my friend after her loss."
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 consolaré a mi amiga después de la pérdida. — "Tomorrow, I will console my friend after her loss."
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 consolaría a mi amiga después de la pérdida si tuviera la oportunidad. — "I would console my friend after her loss 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 stem changes o → ue in the stressed persons (consuele, consueles, consuele, consuelen); nosotros and vosotros keep the plain stem (consolemos, consoléis). Example: Espero que ella consuele a mi amiga después de la pérdida. — "I hope she will console my friend after her loss."
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 consolara a mi amiga después de la pérdida, todo cambiaría. — "If she consoled my friend after her loss, 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 consolado a los niños con un abrazo varias veces. — "I have consoled the children with a hug 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 consolado a mi amiga después de la pérdida antes de la reunión. — "I had consoled my friend after her loss 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 consolado a mi amiga después de la pérdida. — "By tomorrow, I will have consoled my friend after her loss."
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 consolado a mi amiga después de la pérdida si hubiera tenido tiempo. — "I would have consoled my friend after her loss 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: ¡consuela a mi amiga después de la pérdida! — "Console my friend after her loss!"
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 consueles a mi amiga después de la pérdida. — "Do not console my friend after her loss."
Example sentences with consolar
Yo consuelo a mi amiga después de la pérdida. — "I console my friend after her loss."
¿Tú consuelas a los niños con un abrazo? — "Do you console the children with a hug?"
Ayer, él consoló a mi amiga después de la pérdida. — "Yesterday, he consoled my friend after her loss."
Nosotros consolamos a los niños con un abrazo a tiempo. — "We consoled the children with a hug on time."
Antes, ellos consolaban a mi amiga después de la pérdida. — "Before, they consoled my friend after her loss."
Mañana, yo consolaré a los niños con un abrazo. — "Tomorrow, I will console the children with a hug."
Nosotros consolaríamos a mi amiga después de la pérdida si pudiéramos. — "We would console my friend after her loss if we could."
Yo he consolado a los niños con un abrazo varias veces. — "I have consoled the children with a hug several times."
Espero que ella consuele a mi amiga después de la pérdida. — "I hope she will console my friend after her loss."
Ahora mismo, yo estoy consolando a los niños con un abrazo. — "Right now, I am consoling the children with a hug."
Common mistakes with consolar
1. Dropping the accent on the preterite yo form
The preterite yo form is consolé — 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 consolar with apoyar (to support)
consolar means "to console", while apoyar means "to support". They overlap in English but they are not interchangeable in Spanish: use consolar when you mean comforting someone who is sad, and apoyar for its own meaning. Check the conjugation of apoyar before choosing.
3. Mixing up the preterite and the imperfect
Ayer yo consolé a mi amiga después de la pérdida (preterite: one finished event yesterday) is not the same as antes yo consolaba a mi amiga después de la pérdida (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 consolado (haber + participle), never estoy consolado. Haber is the only auxiliary for compound tenses in Spanish.
5. Dropping the preposition before the complement
consolar takes a here: yo consuelo a mi amiga después de la pérdida. Dropping the preposition (yo consuelo mi amiga después de la pérdida) sounds wrong to a native speaker, so learn the verb together with its preposition.
Quiz: consolar
1. Yo ___ a mi amiga después de la pérdida.
a. consuela b. consuelo c. consuelan
2. Ella ___ a mi amiga después de la pérdida.
a. consuelo b. consuela c. consuelan
3. Ayer, yo ___ a mi amiga después de la pérdida.
a. consuelo b. consolé c. consuela
4. Ellos ___ a mi amiga después de la pérdida ayer.
a. consuelo b. consolaron c. consuela
5. Antes, yo ___ a mi amiga después de la pérdida.
a. consuelo b. consolaba c. consuela
6. Mañana, yo ___ a mi amiga después de la pérdida.
a. consuelo b. consolaré c. consuela
7. Yo ___ a mi amiga después de la pérdida si pudiera.
a. consuelo b. consolaría c. consuela
8. Espero que ella ___ a mi amiga después de la pérdida.
a. consuelo b. consuele c. consuela
9. Ahora mismo, yo estoy ___ a los niños con un abrazo.
a. consolado b. consolando c. consuelo
10. Yo he ___ a los niños con un abrazo varias veces.
a. consolando b. consolado c. consuelo
Answer key
consuelo — present tense, yo form.
consuela — present tense, él/ella form.
consolé — preterite, yo form — a finished action yesterday.
consolaron — preterite, ellos/ellas form.
consolaba — imperfect, yo form — a past habit.
consolaré — future, yo form.
consolaría — conditional, yo form — a hypothetical.
consuele — present subjunctive after 'espero que'.
consolando — gerund — the progressive is estar + gerund.
consolado — past participle — the present perfect is haber + participle.
Frequently asked questions about consolar
What does consolar mean in English?
Consolar means "to console". It is used for comforting someone who is sad. A simple example is yo consuelo a mi amiga después de la pérdida — "I console my friend after her loss."
Is consolar regular or irregular?
Consolar is a stem-changing -ar verb (o → ue), 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 consuelo, the preterite yo form consolé and the past participle consolado — learn those three first, then fill in the rest from the tables above.
What is the gerund and the past participle of consolar?
The gerund is consolando (used for the progressive: estoy consolando) and the past participle is consolado (used with haber in all perfect tenses: he consolado). Both forms are used constantly, so they are worth memorising on their own.
How do I say "I console" in the past?
It depends on the meaning. For one finished action use the preterite: ayer yo consolé a mi amiga después de la pérdida — "yesterday I consoled my friend after her loss". For a past habit or background use the imperfect: antes yo consolaba a mi amiga después de la pérdida — "before, I consoled my friend after her loss". The mistake most learners make is using one for the other.
Does consolar take the subjunctive?
Not usually. Consolar on its own takes the indicative — yo consuelo a mi amiga después de la pérdida. You will meet the subjunctive with consolar only inside a larger construction that itself triggers it, such as no creo que or es importante que, and then the subjunctive form is consuele.