Felicitar Conjugation in Spanish
Introduction
felicitar means "to congratulate" in English, and it is one of the verbs you will meet constantly in everyday Spanish — for congratulating 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. Felicitar 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 felicito a mi hermana por su graduación. — "Every day, I congratulate my sister on her graduation." Once you can say that sentence confidently, try changing the person and the tense using the tables below.
Quick facts
| Infinitive | felicitar |
| Translation | to congratulate |
| Verb type | Regular -ar verb |
| Gerund | felicitando |
| Past participle | felicitado |
| Auxiliary | haber (all compound tenses) |
| Irregular tenses | regular in every tense |
Full conjugation of felicitar
Present indicative
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | felicito |
| tú | felicitas |
| él / ella / Ud. | felicita |
| nosotros / nosotras | felicitamos |
| vosotros / vosotras | felicitáis |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | felicitan |
Preterite
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | felicité |
| tú | felicitaste |
| él / ella / Ud. | felicitó |
| nosotros / nosotras | felicitamos |
| vosotros / vosotras | felicitasteis |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | felicitaron |
Imperfect
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | felicitaba |
| tú | felicitabas |
| él / ella / Ud. | felicitaba |
| nosotros / nosotras | felicitábamos |
| vosotros / vosotras | felicitabais |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | felicitaban |
Future
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | felicitaré |
| tú | felicitarás |
| él / ella / Ud. | felicitará |
| nosotros / nosotras | felicitaremos |
| vosotros / vosotras | felicitaréis |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | felicitarán |
Conditional
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | felicitaría |
| tú | felicitarías |
| él / ella / Ud. | felicitaría |
| nosotros / nosotras | felicitaríamos |
| vosotros / vosotras | felicitaríais |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | felicitarían |
Present subjunctive
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | felicite |
| tú | felicites |
| él / ella / Ud. | felicite |
| nosotros / nosotras | felicitemos |
| vosotros / vosotras | felicitéis |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | feliciten |
Imperfect subjunctive (-ra forms)
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | felicitara |
| tú | felicitaras |
| él / ella / Ud. | felicitara |
| nosotros / nosotras | felicitáramos |
| vosotros / vosotras | felicitarais |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | felicitaran |
Present perfect
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | he felicitado |
| tú | has felicitado |
| él / ella / Ud. | ha felicitado |
| nosotros / nosotras | hemos felicitado |
| vosotros / vosotras | habéis felicitado |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | han felicitado |
Pluperfect
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | había felicitado |
| tú | habías felicitado |
| él / ella / Ud. | había felicitado |
| nosotros / nosotras | habíamos felicitado |
| vosotros / vosotras | habíais felicitado |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | habían felicitado |
Future perfect
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | habré felicitado |
| tú | habrás felicitado |
| él / ella / Ud. | habrá felicitado |
| nosotros / nosotras | habremos felicitado |
| vosotros / vosotras | habréis felicitado |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | habrán felicitado |
Conditional perfect
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | habría felicitado |
| tú | habrías felicitado |
| él / ella / Ud. | habría felicitado |
| nosotros / nosotras | habríamos felicitado |
| vosotros / vosotras | habríais felicitado |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | habrían felicitado |
Imperative — affirmative
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| tú | felicita |
| él / ella / Ud. | felicite |
| nosotros / nosotras | felicitemos |
| vosotros / vosotras | felicitad |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | feliciten |
Imperative — negative
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| tú | felicites |
| él / ella / Ud. | felicite |
| nosotros / nosotras | felicitemos |
| vosotros / vosotras | felicitéis |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | feliciten |
Gerund: felicitando · Past participle: felicitado
Felicitar 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 felicito a mi hermana por su graduación. — "Every day, I congratulate my sister on her graduation."
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 felicité a mi hermana por su graduación. — "Yesterday, I congratulated my sister on her graduation."
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 felicitaba a mi hermana por su graduación. — "Before, I congratulated my sister on her graduation."
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 felicitaré a mi hermana por su graduación. — "Tomorrow, I will congratulate my sister on her graduation."
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 felicitaría a mi hermana por su graduación si tuviera la oportunidad. — "I would congratulate my sister on her graduation 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 felicite a mi hermana por su graduación. — "I hope she will congratulate my sister on her graduation."
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 felicitara a mi hermana por su graduación, todo cambiaría. — "If she congratulated my sister on her graduation, 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 felicitado a los ganadores del concurso varias veces. — "I have congratulated the winners of the competition 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 felicitado a mi hermana por su graduación antes de la reunión. — "I had congratulated my sister on her graduation 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 felicitado a mi hermana por su graduación. — "By tomorrow, I will have congratulated my sister on her graduation."
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 felicitado a mi hermana por su graduación si hubiera tenido tiempo. — "I would have congratulated my sister on her graduation 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: ¡felicita a mi hermana por su graduación! — "Congratulate my sister on her graduation!"
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 felicites a mi hermana por su graduación. — "Do not congratulate my sister on her graduation."
Example sentences with felicitar
Yo felicito a mi hermana por su graduación. — "I congratulate my sister on her graduation."
¿Tú felicitas a los ganadores del concurso? — "Do you congratulate the winners of the competition?"
Ayer, él felicitó a mi hermana por su graduación. — "Yesterday, he congratulated my sister on her graduation."
Nosotros felicitamos a los ganadores del concurso a tiempo. — "We congratulated the winners of the competition on time."
Antes, ellos felicitaban a mi hermana por su graduación. — "Before, they congratulated my sister on her graduation."
Mañana, yo felicitaré a los ganadores del concurso. — "Tomorrow, I will congratulate the winners of the competition."
Nosotros felicitaríamos a mi hermana por su graduación si pudiéramos. — "We would congratulate my sister on her graduation if we could."
Yo he felicitado a los ganadores del concurso varias veces. — "I have congratulated the winners of the competition several times."
Espero que ella felicite a mi hermana por su graduación. — "I hope she will congratulate my sister on her graduation."
Ahora mismo, yo estoy felicitando a los ganadores del concurso. — "Right now, I am congratulating the winners of the competition."
Common mistakes with felicitar
1. Dropping the accent on the preterite yo form
The preterite yo form is felicité — 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 felicitar with agradecer (to thank)
felicitar means "to congratulate", while agradecer means "to thank". They overlap in English but they are not interchangeable in Spanish: use felicitar when you mean congratulating someone, and agradecer for its own meaning. Check the conjugation of agradecer before choosing.
3. Mixing up the preterite and the imperfect
Ayer yo felicité a mi hermana por su graduación (preterite: one finished event yesterday) is not the same as antes yo felicitaba a mi hermana por su graduación (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 felicitado (haber + participle), never estoy felicitado. Haber is the only auxiliary for compound tenses in Spanish.
5. Dropping the preposition before the complement
felicitar takes a here: yo felicito a mi hermana por su graduación. Dropping the preposition (yo felicito mi hermana por su graduación) sounds wrong to a native speaker, so learn the verb together with its preposition.
Quiz: felicitar
1. Yo ___ a mi hermana por su graduación.
a. felicita b. felicito c. felicitan
2. Ella ___ a mi hermana por su graduación.
a. felicito b. felicita c. felicitan
3. Ayer, yo ___ a mi hermana por su graduación.
a. felicito b. felicité c. felicita
4. Ellos ___ a mi hermana por su graduación ayer.
a. felicito b. felicitaron c. felicita
5. Antes, yo ___ a mi hermana por su graduación.
a. felicito b. felicitaba c. felicita
6. Mañana, yo ___ a mi hermana por su graduación.
a. felicito b. felicitaré c. felicita
7. Yo ___ a mi hermana por su graduación si pudiera.
a. felicito b. felicitaría c. felicita
8. Espero que ella ___ a mi hermana por su graduación.
a. felicito b. felicite c. felicita
9. Ahora mismo, yo estoy ___ a los ganadores del concurso.
a. felicitado b. felicitando c. felicito
10. Yo he ___ a los ganadores del concurso varias veces.
a. felicitando b. felicitado c. felicito
Answer key
felicito — present tense, yo form.
felicita — present tense, él/ella form.
felicité — preterite, yo form — a finished action yesterday.
felicitaron — preterite, ellos/ellas form.
felicitaba — imperfect, yo form — a past habit.
felicitaré — future, yo form.
felicitaría — conditional, yo form — a hypothetical.
felicite — present subjunctive after 'espero que'.
felicitando — gerund — the progressive is estar + gerund.
felicitado — past participle — the present perfect is haber + participle.
Frequently asked questions about felicitar
What does felicitar mean in English?
Felicitar means "to congratulate". It is used for congratulating someone. A simple example is yo felicito a mi hermana por su graduación — "I congratulate my sister on her graduation."
Is felicitar regular or irregular?
Felicitar 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 felicito, the preterite yo form felicité and the past participle felicitado — learn those three first, then fill in the rest from the tables above.
What is the gerund and the past participle of felicitar?
The gerund is felicitando (used for the progressive: estoy felicitando) and the past participle is felicitado (used with haber in all perfect tenses: he felicitado). Both forms are used constantly, so they are worth memorising on their own.
How do I say "I congratulate" in the past?
It depends on the meaning. For one finished action use the preterite: ayer yo felicité a mi hermana por su graduación — "yesterday I congratulated my sister on her graduation". For a past habit or background use the imperfect: antes yo felicitaba a mi hermana por su graduación — "before, I congratulated my sister on her graduation". The mistake most learners make is using one for the other.
Does felicitar take the subjunctive?
Not usually. Felicitar on its own takes the indicative — yo felicito a mi hermana por su graduación. You will meet the subjunctive with felicitar only inside a larger construction that itself triggers it, such as no creo que or es importante que, and then the subjunctive form is felicite.