Graduarse Conjugation in Spanish

Learning to conjugate graduarse — «to graduate» — opens up a whole set of sentences you will use every day. It is a regular -ar verb, reflexive verb, and this page covers it completely: thirteen tenses, the gerund graduando and the past participle graduado, example sentences in every tense, the common mistakes and a quiz with an answer key. A good first sentence to learn is «Me gradúo todos los días» — I graduate every day. Once you can say that, the rest of the table falls into place person by person.

Quick facts

  • Infinitive: graduarse
  • English: to graduate
  • Verb type: regular -ar verb, reflexive
  • Ending: -ar
  • Gerund: graduando
  • Past participle: graduado
  • Auxiliary verb: haber (all perfect tenses are formed with haber + graduado)
  • Reflexive pronouns: me, te, se, nos, os, se — one before every conjugated form, matching the person.

Pronunciation is not listed on this page: the verified tables do not include IPA for graduarse, so no pronunciation is given rather than an invented one.

graduarse is reflexive: Me gradúo todos los días; te gradúas todos los días. Without the pronoun, the verb means doing the action to someone else rather than to yourself, so keep the pronoun with the form.

Full conjugation tables

Every form below comes from the verified conjugation tables for graduarse. The imperfect subjunctive is shown in its -ra forms; the -se forms use the same stem. For reflexive verbs, the pronoun column shows the reflexive pronoun that goes before each form.

Gerund: graduando · Past participle: graduado

Present Indicative

Person Pronoun Form
yo me gradúo
tú te gradúas
él/ella/Ud. se gradúa
nosotros/as nos graduamos
vosotros/as os graduáis
ellos/ellas/Uds. se gradúan

The present is the tense you will use most with graduarse. It covers daily routines, permanent facts and actions in progress. Learn the yo form gradúo first, then the tú and él forms, which are the ones that change the stem in stem-changing verbs.

Preterite

Person Pronoun Form
yo me gradué
tú te graduaste
él/ella/Ud. se graduó
nosotros/as nos graduamos
vosotros/as os graduasteis
ellos/ellas/Uds. se graduaron

The preterite of graduarse reports what happened. «Ayer yo gradué por la tarde» places the action firmly in finished time. It is the tense of stories and reports, not of background description.

Imperfect

Person Pronoun Form
yo me graduaba
tú te graduabas
él/ella/Ud. se graduaba
nosotros/as nos graduábamos
vosotros/as os graduabais
ellos/ellas/Uds. se graduaban

The imperfect of graduarse paints the background of a past scene: repeated actions, states and descriptions. «Antes, yo graduaba todos los días» is the pattern. Pair it with the preterite when one event interrupts another.

Future

Person Pronoun Form
yo me graduaré
tú te graduarás
él/ella/Ud. se graduará
nosotros/as nos graduaremos
vosotros/as os graduaréis
ellos/ellas/Uds. se graduarán

The future of graduarse looks forward: what will happen tomorrow, next week or next year. «Mañana yo graduaré sin falta» is the pattern. Remember that the future can also express probability about the present in Spanish.

Conditional

Person Pronoun Form
yo me graduaría
tú te graduarías
él/ella/Ud. se graduaría
nosotros/as nos graduaríamos
vosotros/as os graduaríais
ellos/ellas/Uds. se graduarían

The conditional of graduarse is the tense of «would»: what you would do, what would happen, what you would like. «Si pudiera, yo graduaría sin dudarlo» shows the pattern. It is built on the infinitive, just like the future.

Present Perfect

Person Pronoun Form
yo me he graduado
tú te has graduado
él/ella/Ud. se ha graduado
nosotros/as nos hemos graduado
vosotros/as os habéis graduado
ellos/ellas/Uds. se han graduado

The present perfect of graduarse says «have done»: the action is finished but its result still matters now. «Hoy yo he graduado dos veces» is the pattern. Learn the participle graduado well — every perfect tense depends on it.

Pluperfect

Person Pronoun Form
yo me había graduado
tú te habías graduado
él/ella/Ud. se había graduado
nosotros/as nos habíamos graduado
vosotros/as os habíais graduado
ellos/ellas/Uds. se habían graduado

The pluperfect of graduarse steps one event further back than the preterite. «Antes de salir, yo había graduado» is the pattern: first this happened, then the story moved on. It is haber in the imperfect plus graduado.

Future Perfect

Person Pronoun Form
yo me habré graduado
tú te habrás graduado
él/ella/Ud. se habrá graduado
nosotros/as nos habremos graduado
vosotros/as os habréis graduado
ellos/ellas/Uds. se habrán graduado

The future perfect of graduarse combines the future of haber with graduado. «Para el viernes, yo habré graduado ya» is the pattern. Use it when the completion matters more than the action itself.

Conditional Perfect

Person Pronoun Form
yo me habría graduado
tú te habrías graduado
él/ella/Ud. se habría graduado
nosotros/as nos habríamos graduado
vosotros/as os habríais graduado
ellos/ellas/Uds. se habrían graduado

The conditional perfect of graduarse is the tense of «would have done». «Yo habría graduado si hubiera podido» is the pattern. It is built from haber in the conditional plus graduado.

Present Subjunctive

Person Pronoun Form
yo me gradúe
tú te gradúes
él/ella/Ud. se gradúe
nosotros/as nos graduemos
vosotros/as os graduéis
ellos/ellas/Uds. se gradúen

The present subjunctive of graduarse is the mood of what is wished, doubted or demanded rather than stated as fact. «Espero que tú gradúes» is the pattern. If the trigger is in the past, switch to the imperfect subjunctive instead.

Imperfect Subjunctive (-ra forms)

Person Pronoun Form
yo me graduara
tú te graduaras
él/ella/Ud. se graduara
nosotros/as nos graduáramos
vosotros/as os graduarais
ellos/ellas/Uds. se graduaran

The imperfect subjunctive of graduarse handles the hypothetical past and the polite conditional. «Ojalá yo graduara más a menudo» is the pattern. The -ra forms in the table are the standard ones; the -se forms use the same stem with -se endings.

Imperative — Affirmative

Person Pronoun Form
tú te gradúa
él/ella/Ud. se gradúe
nosotros/as nos graduemos
vosotros/as os graduad
ellos/ellas/Uds. se gradúen

There is no yo form in the imperative — you cannot command yourself.

In real speech the reflexive pronoun attaches to the end of an affirmative command; the table shows the pronoun and the form separately so you can see both parts.

The affirmative imperative of graduarse is for orders and instructions. «¡gradúa, por favor!» is the pattern. Remember there is no yo form in the imperative, and the nosotros form doubles as a suggestion: «¡graduemos!» means «let's do it».

Imperative — Negative

Person Pronoun Form
tú te gradúes
él/ella/Ud. se gradúe
nosotros/as nos graduemos
vosotros/as os graduéis
ellos/ellas/Uds. se gradúen

There is no yo form in the imperative — you cannot command yourself.

In real speech the reflexive pronoun attaches to the end of an affirmative command; the table shows the pronoun and the form separately so you can see both parts.

The negative imperative of graduarse is built on the present subjunctive: «¡No gradúes!». Learn it as a set with the subjunctive table above, and never follow no with the affirmative command form.

Example sentences

  1. Me gradúo todos los días. — I graduate every day.
  2. Ayer me gradué por la tarde. — Yesterday I graduated in the afternoon.
  3. Antes, me graduaba todos los días. — In the past, I used to graduate every day.
  4. Mañana me graduaré sin falta. — Tomorrow I will graduate without fail.
  5. Si tuviera más tiempo, me graduaría ahora mismo. — If I had more time, I would graduate right now.
  6. Hoy me he graduado dos veces. — Today I have graduated twice.
  7. Espero que te gradúes pronto. — I hope You graduate soon.
  8. Si me graduara, todo sería distinto. — If I graduated, everything would be different.
  9. Ahora mismo me estoy graduando. — Right now I am graduating.
  10. ¡No te gradúes! — Don't graduate!

Common mistakes

1. Forgetting the reflexive pronoun

Wrong: yo gradúo todos los días.

Right: me gradúo todos los días.

graduarse is reflexive: the pronoun me belongs before every conjugated form. Without it, you are using the non-reflexive verb, which means something different — doing the action to someone else instead of to yourself.

2. Using the imperfect for a finished event

Wrong: Ayer me graduaba.

Right: Ayer me gradué.

Yesterday's finished action needs the preterite, gradué. The imperfect graduaba describes what used to happen or what was going on, not a single completed event.

3. Using the indicative after a subjunctive trigger

Wrong: Espero que te gradúas.

Right: Espero que te gradúes.

After espero que, Spanish requires the subjunctive: gradúes, not the indicative gradúas. Wishes, hopes and doubts all trigger this change.

4. Using the affirmative imperative after no

Wrong: No te gradúa.

Right: No te gradúes.

Negative commands use the subjunctive-based forms: no gradúes. The affirmative gradúa can never follow no.

5. Confusing the gerund with the past participle

Wrong: He graduando.

Right: He graduado.

The perfect tenses use haber plus the past participle: he graduado. The gerund graduando goes with estar for actions in progress («Estoy graduando»), never with haber.

Quiz

Test yourself on the forms above. Choose the correct answer, then check the key below.

1. What is the él/ella/Ud. form of graduarse in the present indicative?

- (a) gradúo
- (b) gradúa
- (c) gradúas
- (d) graduamos

2. What is the nosotros/as form of graduarse in the preterite?

- (a) graduamos
- (b) gradué
- (c) graduaste
- (d) graduó

3. What is the vosotros/as form of graduarse in the imperfect?

- (a) graduaba
- (b) graduabais
- (c) graduabas
- (d) graduaba

4. What is the ellos/ellas/Uds. form of graduarse in the future?

- (a) graduarán
- (b) graduarás
- (c) graduará
- (d) graduaré

5. What is the yo form of graduarse in the conditional?

- (a) graduaríamos
- (b) graduarías
- (c) graduaría
- (d) graduaría

6. What is the tú form of graduarse in the present perfect?

- (a) hemos graduado
- (b) he graduado
- (c) has graduado
- (d) ha graduado

7. What is the él/ella/Ud. form of graduarse in the present subjunctive?

- (a) gradúes
- (b) gradúe
- (c) gradúe
- (d) graduemos

8. What is the nosotros/as form of graduarse in the imperfect subjunctive (-ra forms)?

- (a) graduara
- (b) graduaras
- (c) graduáramos
- (d) graduara

9. What is the gerund of graduarse?

- (a) graduando
- (b) gradúo
- (c) graduado
- (d) graduarse

10. What is the past participle of graduarse?

- (a) graduando
- (b) graduarse
- (c) graduado
- (d) gradué

Answer key

1. (b) — In the present indicative, the él/ella/Ud. form of graduarse is gradúa. The other options are the same tense but different persons. 2. (a) — In the preterite, the nosotros/as form of graduarse is graduamos. The other options are the same tense but different persons. 3. (b) — In the imperfect, the vosotros/as form of graduarse is graduabais. The other options are the same tense but different persons. 4. (a) — In the future, the ellos/ellas/Uds. form of graduarse is graduarán. The other options are the same tense but different persons. 5. (c) — In the conditional, the yo form of graduarse is graduaría. The other options are the same tense but different persons. 6. (c) — In the present perfect, the tú form of graduarse is has graduado. The other options are the same tense but different persons. 7. (b) — In the present subjunctive, the él/ella/Ud. form of graduarse is gradúe. The other options are the same tense but different persons. 8. (c) — In the imperfect subjunctive (-ra forms), the nosotros/as form of graduarse is graduáramos. The other options are the same tense but different persons. 9. (a) — The gerund of graduarse is graduando. It is used with estar for the progressive: «Estoy graduando». 10. (c) — The past participle of graduarse is graduado. It follows haber in all the perfect tenses: «he graduado».

Frequently asked questions

Is graduarse regular or irregular?

Yes — graduarse is a regular -ar verb and reflexive. Learn the endings once and they work in every tense, with the stem gradu unchanged throughout.

What are the gerund and past participle of graduarse?

The gerund is graduando and the past participle is graduado. Use the gerund with estar for actions in progress («Estoy graduando») and the participle with haber for the perfect tenses («he graduado»).

How do I say «I graduate» in Spanish?

Say «Me gradúo todos los días». That is the yo form of the present tense, the form you need for talking about yourself right now.

What is the difference between the preterite and the imperfect of graduarse?

Use the preterite (gradué) for a single finished event and the imperfect (graduaba) for habits and background. «Ayer yo gradué» reports something that happened and ended; «Antes, yo graduaba» describes what used to happen.

When do I use the subjunctive with graduarse?

Use the subjunctive after wishes, doubts, emotions and impersonal expressions — for example «Espero que tú gradúes». The trigger sits in the main clause; once it is there, the subjunctive form is required, not a stylistic choice.

What does the -se in graduarse mean?

The -se marks graduarse as reflexive: the action comes back to the subject. You always pair the form with its pronoun — me, te, se, nos, os, se — placed before the conjugated verb. Dropping the pronoun changes the meaning, so treat the pronoun as part of the verb.

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