Fascinar Conjugation in Spanish
Introduction
fascinar means "to fascinate" in English, and it is one of the verbs you will meet constantly in everyday Spanish — for fascinating someone, or being fascinated by something. 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. Fascinar 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: A Lucía le fascina la historia de Roma. — "The the history of Rome fascinates Lucía." Once you can say that sentence confidently, try changing the person and the tense using the tables below.
Quick facts
| Infinitive | fascinar |
| Translation | to fascinate |
| Verb type | Regular -ar verb |
| Gerund | fascinando |
| Past participle | fascinado |
| Auxiliary | haber (all compound tenses) |
| Irregular tenses | regular in every tense |
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 fascina la historia de Roma). 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 fascinar
Present indicative
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | fascino |
| tú | fascinas |
| él / ella / Ud. | fascina |
| nosotros / nosotras | fascinamos |
| vosotros / vosotras | fascináis |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | fascinan |
Preterite
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | fasciné |
| tú | fascinaste |
| él / ella / Ud. | fascinó |
| nosotros / nosotras | fascinamos |
| vosotros / vosotras | fascinasteis |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | fascinaron |
Imperfect
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | fascinaba |
| tú | fascinabas |
| él / ella / Ud. | fascinaba |
| nosotros / nosotras | fascinábamos |
| vosotros / vosotras | fascinabais |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | fascinaban |
Future
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | fascinaré |
| tú | fascinarás |
| él / ella / Ud. | fascinará |
| nosotros / nosotras | fascinaremos |
| vosotros / vosotras | fascinaréis |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | fascinarán |
Conditional
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | fascinaría |
| tú | fascinarías |
| él / ella / Ud. | fascinaría |
| nosotros / nosotras | fascinaríamos |
| vosotros / vosotras | fascinaríais |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | fascinarían |
Present subjunctive
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | fascine |
| tú | fascines |
| él / ella / Ud. | fascine |
| nosotros / nosotras | fascinemos |
| vosotros / vosotras | fascinéis |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | fascinen |
Imperfect subjunctive (-ra forms)
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | fascinara |
| tú | fascinaras |
| él / ella / Ud. | fascinara |
| nosotros / nosotras | fascináramos |
| vosotros / vosotras | fascinarais |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | fascinaran |
Present perfect
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | he fascinado |
| tú | has fascinado |
| él / ella / Ud. | ha fascinado |
| nosotros / nosotras | hemos fascinado |
| vosotros / vosotras | habéis fascinado |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | han fascinado |
Pluperfect
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | había fascinado |
| tú | habías fascinado |
| él / ella / Ud. | había fascinado |
| nosotros / nosotras | habíamos fascinado |
| vosotros / vosotras | habíais fascinado |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | habían fascinado |
Future perfect
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | habré fascinado |
| tú | habrás fascinado |
| él / ella / Ud. | habrá fascinado |
| nosotros / nosotras | habremos fascinado |
| vosotros / vosotras | habréis fascinado |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | habrán fascinado |
Conditional perfect
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | habría fascinado |
| tú | habrías fascinado |
| él / ella / Ud. | habría fascinado |
| nosotros / nosotras | habríamos fascinado |
| vosotros / vosotras | habríais fascinado |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | habrían fascinado |
Imperative — affirmative
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| tú | fascina |
| él / ella / Ud. | fascine |
| nosotros / nosotras | fascinemos |
| vosotros / vosotras | fascinad |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | fascinen |
Imperative — negative
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| tú | fascines |
| él / ella / Ud. | fascine |
| nosotros / nosotras | fascinemos |
| vosotros / vosotras | fascinéis |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | fascinen |
Gerund: fascinando · Past participle: fascinado
Fascinar 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: A Lucía le fascina la historia de Roma. — "The the history of Rome fascinates 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 fascinó la historia de Roma. — "Yesterday, the the history of Rome fascinated 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 fascinaba la historia de Roma. — "Before, the the history of Rome fascinated 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 fascinará la historia de Roma. — "Tomorrow, the the history of Rome will fascinate 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 fascinaría la historia de Roma si lo viera. — "The the history of Rome would fascinate 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 fascine la historia de Roma. — "I hope the the history of Rome fascinates 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 fascinara la historia de Roma, sonreiría. — "If the the history of Rome fascinated 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 fascinado la historia de Roma. — "The the history of Rome has fascinated 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 fascinado la historia de Roma. — "The the history of Rome had fascinated 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 fascinado la historia de Roma. — "The the history of Rome will have fascinated 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 fascinado la historia de Roma. — "The the history of Rome would have fascinated 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: ¡fascine a los niños con la historia de Roma, por favor! — "Please fascinate the children with the the history of Rome!"
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 fascines a los niños con la historia de Roma. — "Do not fascinate the children with the the history of Rome."
Example sentences with fascinar
A Lucía le fascina la historia de Roma. — "The the history of Rome fascinates Lucía."
A Lucía y a Juan les fascinan los documentales de naturaleza. — "The nature documentaries fascinate Lucía and Juan."
Ayer, a Lucía le fascinó la historia de Roma. — "Yesterday, the the history of Rome fascinated Lucía."
Ayer, a todos les fascinaron los documentales de naturaleza. — "Yesterday, the nature documentaries fascinated everyone."
De niña, a Lucía le fascinaba la historia de Roma. — "As a child, the the history of Rome fascinated Lucía."
Mañana, a Lucía le fascinará los documentales de naturaleza. — "Tomorrow, the nature documentaries will fascinate Lucía."
A Lucía le fascinaría la historia de Roma si pudiera verlo. — "The the history of Rome would fascinate Lucía if she could see it."
A Lucía le ha fascinado la historia de Roma muchas veces. — "The the history of Rome has fascinated Lucía many times."
Espero que a Lucía le fascine la historia de Roma. — "I hope the the history of Rome fascinates Lucía."
La historia me está fascinando ahora mismo. — "The story is fascinating me right now."
Common mistakes with fascinar
1. Dropping the accent on the preterite yo form
The preterite yo form is fasciné — 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 fascinar with gustar (to like)
fascinar means "to fascinate", while gustar means "to like". They overlap in English but they are not interchangeable in Spanish: use fascinar when you mean fascinating someone, or being fascinated by something, and gustar for its own meaning. Check the conjugation of gustar before choosing.
3. Mixing up the preterite and the imperfect
Ayer yo fasciné la historia de Roma (preterite: one finished event yesterday) is not the same as antes yo fascinaba la historia de Roma (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 fascino when you mean the feeling
With verbs like fascinar the thing that causes the feeling is the subject, and the person is the indirect object: a Lucía le fascina la historia de Roma. Saying yo fascino la historia de Roma means you do the fascinateing, which is not what you mean here.
5. Forgetting that the verb agrees with the thing, not the person
Me fascinan los documentales de naturaleza is correct when the subject is plural — the verb agrees with nature documentaries, not with "me". Singular me fascina los documentales de naturaleza would be wrong with a plural subject.
Quiz: fascinar
1. A Lucía le ___ la historia de Roma.
a. fascino b. fascina c. fascinan
2. Ayer, a Lucía le ___ la historia de Roma.
a. fascino b. fascinó c. fascina
3. Antes, a Lucía le ___ la historia de Roma.
a. fascino b. fascinaba c. fascina
4. Mañana, a Lucía le ___ la historia de Roma.
a. fascino b. fascinará c. fascina
5. A Lucía le ___ la historia de Roma si lo viera.
a. fascino b. fascinaría c. fascina
6. Espero que a Lucía le ___ la historia de Roma.
a. fascino b. fascine c. fascina
7. A Lucía le ___ la historia de Roma varias veces.
a. fascino b. ha fascinado c. fascina
8. Me ___ los documentales de naturaleza.
a. fascino b. fascinan c. fascina
9. La historia me está ___ ahora mismo.
a. fascinado b. fascinando c. fascina
10. A Lucía le ha ___ la historia de Roma muchas veces.
a. fascinando b. fascinado c. fascina
Answer key
fascina — present tense, él/ella form — the thing is the subject.
fascinó — preterite, él/ella form — one finished event yesterday.
fascinaba — imperfect, él/ella form — a past habit or background.
fascinará — future, él/ella form.
fascinaría — conditional, él/ella form — a hypothetical.
fascine — present subjunctive after 'espero que'.
ha fascinado — present perfect, él/ella form (haber + participle).
fascinan — present tense, ellos/ellas form — plural subject, so plural verb.
fascinando — gerund — the progressive is estar + gerund.
fascinado — past participle — the present perfect is haber + participle.
Frequently asked questions about fascinar
What does fascinar mean in English?
Fascinar means "to fascinate". It is used for fascinating someone, or being fascinated by something. A simple example is yo fascino la historia de Roma — "I fascinate the history of Rome."
Is fascinar regular or irregular?
Fascinar 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 fascino, the preterite yo form fasciné and the past participle fascinado — learn those three first, then fill in the rest from the tables above.
What is the gerund and the past participle of fascinar?
The gerund is fascinando (used for the progressive: estoy fascinando) and the past participle is fascinado (used with haber in all perfect tenses: he fascinado). Both forms are used constantly, so they are worth memorising on their own.
How do I say "I fascinate" in the past?
It depends on the meaning. For one finished action use the preterite: ayer yo fasciné la historia de Roma — "yesterday I fascinated the history of Rome". For a past habit or background use the imperfect: antes yo fascinaba la historia de Roma — "before, I fascinated the history of Rome". The mistake most learners make is using one for the other.
Does fascinar take the subjunctive?
Not usually. Fascinar on its own takes the indicative — yo fascino la historia de Roma. You will meet the subjunctive with fascinar only inside a larger construction that itself triggers it, such as no creo que or es importante que, and then the subjunctive form is fascine.