Fallar Conjugation in Spanish
Introduction
fallar means "to fail, to miss" in English, and it is one of the verbs you will meet constantly in everyday Spanish — for failing, missing, or not working. 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. Fallar 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 fallo el examen por poco. — "Every day, I fail the exam by a little." Once you can say that sentence confidently, try changing the person and the tense using the tables below.
Quick facts
| Infinitive | fallar |
| Translation | to fail, to miss |
| Verb type | Regular -ar verb |
| Gerund | fallando |
| Past participle | fallado |
| Auxiliary | haber (all compound tenses) |
| Irregular tenses | regular in every tense |
Full conjugation of fallar
Present indicative
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | fallo |
| tú | fallas |
| él / ella / Ud. | falla |
| nosotros / nosotras | fallamos |
| vosotros / vosotras | falláis |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | fallan |
Preterite
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | fallé |
| tú | fallaste |
| él / ella / Ud. | falló |
| nosotros / nosotras | fallamos |
| vosotros / vosotras | fallasteis |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | fallaron |
Imperfect
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | fallaba |
| tú | fallabas |
| él / ella / Ud. | fallaba |
| nosotros / nosotras | fallábamos |
| vosotros / vosotras | fallabais |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | fallaban |
Future
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | fallaré |
| tú | fallarás |
| él / ella / Ud. | fallará |
| nosotros / nosotras | fallaremos |
| vosotros / vosotras | fallaréis |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | fallarán |
Conditional
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | fallaría |
| tú | fallarías |
| él / ella / Ud. | fallaría |
| nosotros / nosotras | fallaríamos |
| vosotros / vosotras | fallaríais |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | fallarían |
Present subjunctive
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | falle |
| tú | falles |
| él / ella / Ud. | falle |
| nosotros / nosotras | fallemos |
| vosotros / vosotras | falléis |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | fallen |
Imperfect subjunctive (-ra forms)
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | fallara |
| tú | fallaras |
| él / ella / Ud. | fallara |
| nosotros / nosotras | falláramos |
| vosotros / vosotras | fallarais |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | fallaran |
Present perfect
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | he fallado |
| tú | has fallado |
| él / ella / Ud. | ha fallado |
| nosotros / nosotras | hemos fallado |
| vosotros / vosotras | habéis fallado |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | han fallado |
Pluperfect
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | había fallado |
| tú | habías fallado |
| él / ella / Ud. | había fallado |
| nosotros / nosotras | habíamos fallado |
| vosotros / vosotras | habíais fallado |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | habían fallado |
Future perfect
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | habré fallado |
| tú | habrás fallado |
| él / ella / Ud. | habrá fallado |
| nosotros / nosotras | habremos fallado |
| vosotros / vosotras | habréis fallado |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | habrán fallado |
Conditional perfect
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | habría fallado |
| tú | habrías fallado |
| él / ella / Ud. | habría fallado |
| nosotros / nosotras | habríamos fallado |
| vosotros / vosotras | habríais fallado |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | habrían fallado |
Imperative — affirmative
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| tú | falla |
| él / ella / Ud. | falle |
| nosotros / nosotras | fallemos |
| vosotros / vosotras | fallad |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | fallen |
Imperative — negative
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| tú | falles |
| él / ella / Ud. | falle |
| nosotros / nosotras | fallemos |
| vosotros / vosotras | falléis |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | fallen |
Gerund: fallando · Past participle: fallado
Fallar 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 fallo el examen por poco. — "Every day, I fail the exam by a little."
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 fallé el examen por poco. — "Yesterday, I failed the exam by a little."
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 fallaba el examen por poco. — "Before, I failed the exam by a little."
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 fallaré el examen por poco. — "Tomorrow, I will fail the exam by a little."
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 fallaría el examen por poco si tuviera la oportunidad. — "I would fail the exam by a little 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 falle el examen por poco. — "I hope she will fail the exam by a little."
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 fallara el examen por poco, todo cambiaría. — "If she failed the exam by a little, 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 fallado el motor del coche varias veces. — "I have failed the car engine 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 fallado el examen por poco antes de la reunión. — "I had failed the exam by a little 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 fallado el examen por poco. — "By tomorrow, I will have failed the exam by a little."
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 fallado el examen por poco si hubiera tenido tiempo. — "I would have failed the exam by a little 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: ¡falla el examen por poco! — "Fail the exam by a little!"
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 falles el examen por poco. — "Do not fail the exam by a little."
Example sentences with fallar
Yo fallo el examen por poco. — "I fail the exam by a little."
¿Tú fallas el motor del coche? — "Do you fail the car engine?"
Ayer, él falló el examen por poco. — "Yesterday, he failed the exam by a little."
Nosotros fallamos el motor del coche a tiempo. — "We failed the car engine on time."
Antes, ellos fallaban el examen por poco. — "Before, they failed the exam by a little."
Mañana, yo fallaré el motor del coche. — "Tomorrow, I will fail the car engine."
Nosotros fallaríamos el examen por poco si pudiéramos. — "We would fail the exam by a little if we could."
Yo he fallado el motor del coche varias veces. — "I have failed the car engine several times."
Espero que ella falle el examen por poco. — "I hope she will fail the exam by a little."
Ahora mismo, yo estoy fallando el motor del coche. — "Right now, I am failing the car engine."
Common mistakes with fallar
1. Dropping the accent on the preterite yo form
The preterite yo form is fallé — 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 fallar with acertar (to get right, to hit the target)
fallar means "to fail, to miss", while acertar means "to get right, to hit the target". They overlap in English but they are not interchangeable in Spanish: use fallar when you mean failing, missing, or not working, and acertar for its own meaning. Check the conjugation of acertar before choosing.
3. Mixing up the preterite and the imperfect
Ayer yo fallé el examen por poco (preterite: one finished event yesterday) is not the same as antes yo fallaba el examen por poco (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 fallado (haber + participle), never estoy fallado. Haber is the only auxiliary for compound tenses in Spanish.
5. Using the infinitive after a conjugated verb without a connector
When fallar is followed by another verb, check whether Spanish needs que or a preposition between them. A bare infinitive after a conjugated fallar is a common English-speaker error — say the full construction you have practised on this page.
Quiz: fallar
1. Yo ___ el examen por poco.
a. falla b. fallo c. fallan
2. Ella ___ el examen por poco.
a. fallo b. falla c. fallan
3. Ayer, yo ___ el examen por poco.
a. fallo b. fallé c. falla
4. Ellos ___ el examen por poco ayer.
a. fallo b. fallaron c. falla
5. Antes, yo ___ el examen por poco.
a. fallo b. fallaba c. falla
6. Mañana, yo ___ el examen por poco.
a. fallo b. fallaré c. falla
7. Yo ___ el examen por poco si pudiera.
a. fallo b. fallaría c. falla
8. Espero que ella ___ el examen por poco.
a. fallo b. falle c. falla
9. Ahora mismo, yo estoy ___ el motor del coche.
a. fallado b. fallando c. fallo
10. Yo he ___ el motor del coche varias veces.
a. fallando b. fallado c. fallo
Answer key
fallo — present tense, yo form.
falla — present tense, él/ella form.
fallé — preterite, yo form — a finished action yesterday.
fallaron — preterite, ellos/ellas form.
fallaba — imperfect, yo form — a past habit.
fallaré — future, yo form.
fallaría — conditional, yo form — a hypothetical.
falle — present subjunctive after 'espero que'.
fallando — gerund — the progressive is estar + gerund.
fallado — past participle — the present perfect is haber + participle.
Frequently asked questions about fallar
What does fallar mean in English?
Fallar means "to fail, to miss". It is used for failing, missing, or not working. A simple example is yo fallo el examen por poco — "I fail the exam by a little."
Is fallar regular or irregular?
Fallar 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 fallo, the preterite yo form fallé and the past participle fallado — learn those three first, then fill in the rest from the tables above.
What is the gerund and the past participle of fallar?
The gerund is fallando (used for the progressive: estoy fallando) and the past participle is fallado (used with haber in all perfect tenses: he fallado). Both forms are used constantly, so they are worth memorising on their own.
How do I say "I fail" in the past?
It depends on the meaning. For one finished action use the preterite: ayer yo fallé el examen por poco — "yesterday I failed the exam by a little". For a past habit or background use the imperfect: antes yo fallaba el examen por poco — "before, I failed the exam by a little". The mistake most learners make is using one for the other.
Does fallar take the subjunctive?
Not usually. Fallar on its own takes the indicative — yo fallo el examen por poco. You will meet the subjunctive with fallar only inside a larger construction that itself triggers it, such as no creo que or es importante que, and then the subjunctive form is falle.