Entristecer Conjugation in Spanish
Introduction
entristecer means "to sadden" in English, and it is one of the verbs you will meet constantly in everyday Spanish — for saddening 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. Entristecer is a irregular -er verb; c → zc spelling change before o and a verb, and it is regular in its endings, with a spelling change. 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 entristece la despedida. — "The the farewell saddens Lucía." Once you can say that sentence confidently, try changing the person and the tense using the tables below.
Quick facts
| Infinitive | entristecer |
| Translation | to sadden |
| Verb type | Irregular -er verb; c → zc spelling change before o and a |
| Gerund | entristeciendo |
| Past participle | entristecido |
| Auxiliary | haber (all compound tenses) |
| Irregular tenses | regular in its endings, with a spelling change |
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 entristece la despedida). 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 entristecer
Present indicative
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | entristezco |
| tú | entristeces |
| él / ella / Ud. | entristece |
| nosotros / nosotras | entristecemos |
| vosotros / vosotras | entristecéis |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | entristecen |
Preterite
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | entristecí |
| tú | entristeciste |
| él / ella / Ud. | entristeció |
| nosotros / nosotras | entristecimos |
| vosotros / vosotras | entristecisteis |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | entristecieron |
Imperfect
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | entristecía |
| tú | entristecías |
| él / ella / Ud. | entristecía |
| nosotros / nosotras | entristecíamos |
| vosotros / vosotras | entristecíais |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | entristecían |
Future
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | entristeceré |
| tú | entristecerás |
| él / ella / Ud. | entristecerá |
| nosotros / nosotras | entristeceremos |
| vosotros / vosotras | entristeceréis |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | entristecerán |
Conditional
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | entristecería |
| tú | entristecerías |
| él / ella / Ud. | entristecería |
| nosotros / nosotras | entristeceríamos |
| vosotros / vosotras | entristeceríais |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | entristecerían |
Present subjunctive
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | entristezca |
| tú | entristezcas |
| él / ella / Ud. | entristezca |
| nosotros / nosotras | entristezcamos |
| vosotros / vosotras | entristecáis |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | entristezcan |
Imperfect subjunctive (-ra forms)
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | entristeciera |
| tú | entristecieras |
| él / ella / Ud. | entristeciera |
| nosotros / nosotras | entristeciéramos |
| vosotros / vosotras | entristecierais |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | entristecieran |
Present perfect
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | he entristecido |
| tú | has entristecido |
| él / ella / Ud. | ha entristecido |
| nosotros / nosotras | hemos entristecido |
| vosotros / vosotras | habéis entristecido |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | han entristecido |
Pluperfect
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | había entristecido |
| tú | habías entristecido |
| él / ella / Ud. | había entristecido |
| nosotros / nosotras | habíamos entristecido |
| vosotros / vosotras | habíais entristecido |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | habían entristecido |
Future perfect
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | habré entristecido |
| tú | habrás entristecido |
| él / ella / Ud. | habrá entristecido |
| nosotros / nosotras | habremos entristecido |
| vosotros / vosotras | habréis entristecido |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | habrán entristecido |
Conditional perfect
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | habría entristecido |
| tú | habrías entristecido |
| él / ella / Ud. | habría entristecido |
| nosotros / nosotras | habríamos entristecido |
| vosotros / vosotras | habríais entristecido |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | habrían entristecido |
Imperative — affirmative
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| tú | entristece |
| él / ella / Ud. | entristezca |
| nosotros / nosotras | entristezcamos |
| vosotros / vosotras | entristeced |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | entristezcan |
Imperative — negative
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| tú | entristezcas |
| él / ella / Ud. | entristezca |
| nosotros / nosotras | entristezcamos |
| vosotros / vosotras | entristecáis |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | entristezcan |
Gerund: entristeciendo · Past participle: entristecido
Entristecer 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. Watch the spelling in the present: c becomes zc before o, so the yo form is entristezco, not the form you would expect from the infinitive. Example: A Lucía le entristece la despedida. — "The the farewell saddens 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 entristeció la despedida. — "Yesterday, the the farewell saddened 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 entristecía la despedida. — "Before, the the farewell saddened 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 entristecerá la despedida. — "Tomorrow, the the farewell will sadden 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 entristecería la despedida si lo viera. — "The the farewell would sadden 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 entristezca la despedida. — "I hope the the farewell saddens 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 entristeciera la despedida, sonreiría. — "If the the farewell saddened 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 entristecido la despedida. — "The the farewell has saddened 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 entristecido la despedida. — "The the farewell had saddened 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 entristecido la despedida. — "The the farewell will have saddened 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 entristecido la despedida. — "The the farewell would have saddened 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: ¡entristezca a los niños con la despedida, por favor! — "Please sadden the children with the the farewell!"
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 entristezcas a los niños con la despedida. — "Do not sadden the children with the the farewell."
Example sentences with entristecer
A Lucía le entristece la despedida. — "The the farewell saddens Lucía."
A Lucía y a Juan les entristecen la noticia triste. — "The the sad news sadden Lucía and Juan."
Ayer, a Lucía le entristeció la despedida. — "Yesterday, the the farewell saddened Lucía."
Ayer, a todos les entristecieron la noticia triste. — "Yesterday, the the sad news saddened everyone."
De niña, a Lucía le entristecía la despedida. — "As a child, the the farewell saddened Lucía."
Mañana, a Lucía le entristecerá la noticia triste. — "Tomorrow, the the sad news will sadden Lucía."
A Lucía le entristecería la despedida si pudiera verlo. — "The the farewell would sadden Lucía if she could see it."
A Lucía le ha entristecido la despedida muchas veces. — "The the farewell has saddened Lucía many times."
Espero que a Lucía le entristezca la despedida. — "I hope the the farewell saddens Lucía."
La historia me está entristeciendo ahora mismo. — "The story is saddening me right now."
Common mistakes with entristecer
1. Writing ✗ entristeco instead of the correct present form
The correct yo form in the present is entristezco. 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 entristecer with alegrar (to make happy)
entristecer means "to sadden", while alegrar means "to make happy". They overlap in English but they are not interchangeable in Spanish: use entristecer when you mean saddening someone, and alegrar for its own meaning. Check the conjugation of alegrar before choosing.
3. Mixing up the preterite and the imperfect
Ayer yo entristecí la despedida (preterite: one finished event yesterday) is not the same as antes yo entristecía la despedida (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 entristezco when you mean the feeling
With verbs like entristecer the thing that causes the feeling is the subject, and the person is the indirect object: a Lucía le entristece la despedida. Saying yo entristezco la despedida means you do the saddening, which is not what you mean here.
5. Forgetting that the verb agrees with the thing, not the person
Me entristecen la noticia triste is correct when the subject is plural — the verb agrees with the sad news, not with "me". Singular me entristece la noticia triste would be wrong with a plural subject.
Quiz: entristecer
1. A Lucía le ___ la despedida.
a. entristezco b. entristece c. entristecen
2. Ayer, a Lucía le ___ la despedida.
a. entristezco b. entristeció c. entristece
3. Antes, a Lucía le ___ la despedida.
a. entristezco b. entristecía c. entristece
4. Mañana, a Lucía le ___ la despedida.
a. entristezco b. entristecerá c. entristece
5. A Lucía le ___ la despedida si lo viera.
a. entristezco b. entristecería c. entristece
6. Espero que a Lucía le ___ la despedida.
a. entristezco b. entristezca c. entristece
7. A Lucía le ___ la despedida varias veces.
a. entristezco b. ha entristecido c. entristece
8. Me ___ la noticia triste.
a. entristezco b. entristecen c. entristece
9. La historia me está ___ ahora mismo.
a. entristecido b. entristeciendo c. entristece
10. A Lucía le ha ___ la despedida muchas veces.
a. entristeciendo b. entristecido c. entristece
Answer key
entristece — present tense, él/ella form — the thing is the subject.
entristeció — preterite, él/ella form — one finished event yesterday.
entristecía — imperfect, él/ella form — a past habit or background.
entristecerá — future, él/ella form.
entristecería — conditional, él/ella form — a hypothetical.
entristezca — present subjunctive after 'espero que'.
ha entristecido — present perfect, él/ella form (haber + participle).
entristecen — present tense, ellos/ellas form — plural subject, so plural verb.
entristeciendo — gerund — the progressive is estar + gerund.
entristecido — past participle — the present perfect is haber + participle.
Frequently asked questions about entristecer
What does entristecer mean in English?
Entristecer means "to sadden". It is used for saddening someone. A simple example is yo entristezco la despedida — "I sadden the farewell."
Is entristecer regular or irregular?
Entristecer is a irregular -er verb; c → zc spelling change before o and a verb, and it is regular in its endings, with a spelling change. The forms that most often catch learners out are the present yo form entristezco, the preterite yo form entristecí and the past participle entristecido — learn those three first, then fill in the rest from the tables above.
What is the gerund and the past participle of entristecer?
The gerund is entristeciendo (used for the progressive: estoy entristeciendo) and the past participle is entristecido (used with haber in all perfect tenses: he entristecido). Both forms are used constantly, so they are worth memorising on their own.
How do I say "I sadden" in the past?
It depends on the meaning. For one finished action use the preterite: ayer yo entristecí la despedida — "yesterday I saddened the farewell". For a past habit or background use the imperfect: antes yo entristecía la despedida — "before, I saddened the farewell". The mistake most learners make is using one for the other.
Does entristecer take the subjunctive?
Not usually. Entristecer on its own takes the indicative — yo entristezco la despedida. You will meet the subjunctive with entristecer only inside a larger construction that itself triggers it, such as no creo que or es importante que, and then the subjunctive form is entristezca.