Imaginar Conjugation in Spanish
Introduction
imaginar means "to imagine" in English, and it is one of the verbs you will meet constantly in everyday Spanish — for imagining scenes, possibilities and what might happen. 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. Imaginar 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 imagino una casa junto al mar. — "Every day, I imagine a house by the sea." Once you can say that sentence confidently, try changing the person and the tense using the tables below.
Quick facts
| Infinitive | imaginar |
| Translation | to imagine |
| Verb type | Regular -ar verb |
| Gerund | imaginando |
| Past participle | imaginado |
| Auxiliary | haber (all compound tenses) |
| Irregular tenses | regular in every tense |
Full conjugation of imaginar
Present indicative
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | imagino |
| tú | imaginas |
| él / ella / Ud. | imagina |
| nosotros / nosotras | imaginamos |
| vosotros / vosotras | imagináis |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | imaginan |
Preterite
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | imaginé |
| tú | imaginaste |
| él / ella / Ud. | imaginó |
| nosotros / nosotras | imaginamos |
| vosotros / vosotras | imaginasteis |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | imaginaron |
Imperfect
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | imaginaba |
| tú | imaginabas |
| él / ella / Ud. | imaginaba |
| nosotros / nosotras | imaginábamos |
| vosotros / vosotras | imaginabais |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | imaginaban |
Future
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | imaginaré |
| tú | imaginarás |
| él / ella / Ud. | imaginará |
| nosotros / nosotras | imaginaremos |
| vosotros / vosotras | imaginaréis |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | imaginarán |
Conditional
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | imaginaría |
| tú | imaginarías |
| él / ella / Ud. | imaginaría |
| nosotros / nosotras | imaginaríamos |
| vosotros / vosotras | imaginaríais |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | imaginarían |
Present subjunctive
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | imagine |
| tú | imagines |
| él / ella / Ud. | imagine |
| nosotros / nosotras | imaginemos |
| vosotros / vosotras | imaginéis |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | imaginen |
Imperfect subjunctive (-ra forms)
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | imaginara |
| tú | imaginaras |
| él / ella / Ud. | imaginara |
| nosotros / nosotras | imagináramos |
| vosotros / vosotras | imaginarais |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | imaginaran |
Present perfect
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | he imaginado |
| tú | has imaginado |
| él / ella / Ud. | ha imaginado |
| nosotros / nosotras | hemos imaginado |
| vosotros / vosotras | habéis imaginado |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | han imaginado |
Pluperfect
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | había imaginado |
| tú | habías imaginado |
| él / ella / Ud. | había imaginado |
| nosotros / nosotras | habíamos imaginado |
| vosotros / vosotras | habíais imaginado |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | habían imaginado |
Future perfect
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | habré imaginado |
| tú | habrás imaginado |
| él / ella / Ud. | habrá imaginado |
| nosotros / nosotras | habremos imaginado |
| vosotros / vosotras | habréis imaginado |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | habrán imaginado |
Conditional perfect
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | habría imaginado |
| tú | habrías imaginado |
| él / ella / Ud. | habría imaginado |
| nosotros / nosotras | habríamos imaginado |
| vosotros / vosotras | habríais imaginado |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | habrían imaginado |
Imperative — affirmative
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| tú | imagina |
| él / ella / Ud. | imagine |
| nosotros / nosotras | imaginemos |
| vosotros / vosotras | imaginad |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | imaginen |
Imperative — negative
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| tú | imagines |
| él / ella / Ud. | imagine |
| nosotros / nosotras | imaginemos |
| vosotros / vosotras | imaginéis |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | imaginen |
Gerund: imaginando · Past participle: imaginado
Imaginar 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 imagino una casa junto al mar. — "Every day, I imagine a house by the sea."
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 imaginé una casa junto al mar. — "Yesterday, I imagined a house by the sea."
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 imaginaba una casa junto al mar. — "Before, I imagined a house by the sea."
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 imaginaré una casa junto al mar. — "Tomorrow, I will imagine a house by the sea."
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 imaginaría una casa junto al mar si tuviera la oportunidad. — "I would imagine a house by the sea 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 imagine una casa junto al mar. — "I hope she will imagine a house by the sea."
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 imaginara una casa junto al mar, todo cambiaría. — "If she imagined a house by the sea, 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 imaginado cómo sería la vida en otro país varias veces. — "I have imagined what life in another country would be like 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 imaginado una casa junto al mar antes de la reunión. — "I had imagined a house by the sea 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 imaginado una casa junto al mar. — "By tomorrow, I will have imagined a house by the sea."
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 imaginado una casa junto al mar si hubiera tenido tiempo. — "I would have imagined a house by the sea 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: ¡imagina una casa junto al mar! — "Imagine a house by the sea!"
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 imagines una casa junto al mar. — "Do not imagine a house by the sea."
Example sentences with imaginar
Yo imagino una casa junto al mar. — "I imagine a house by the sea."
¿Tú imaginas cómo sería la vida en otro país? — "Do you imagine what life in another country would be like?"
Ayer, él imaginó una casa junto al mar. — "Yesterday, he imagined a house by the sea."
Nosotros imaginamos cómo sería la vida en otro país a tiempo. — "We imagined what life in another country would be like on time."
Antes, ellos imaginaban una casa junto al mar. — "Before, they imagined a house by the sea."
Mañana, yo imaginaré cómo sería la vida en otro país. — "Tomorrow, I will imagine what life in another country would be like."
Nosotros imaginaríamos una casa junto al mar si pudiéramos. — "We would imagine a house by the sea if we could."
Yo he imaginado cómo sería la vida en otro país varias veces. — "I have imagined what life in another country would be like several times."
Espero que ella imagine una casa junto al mar. — "I hope she will imagine a house by the sea."
Ahora mismo, yo estoy imaginando cómo sería la vida en otro país. — "Right now, I am imagining what life in another country would be like."
Common mistakes with imaginar
1. Dropping the accent on the preterite yo form
The preterite yo form is imaginé — 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 imaginar with sonar-dream (to dream)
imaginar means "to imagine", while sonar-dream means "to dream". They overlap in English but they are not interchangeable in Spanish: use imaginar when you mean imagining scenes, possibilities and what might happen, and sonar-dream for its own meaning. Check the conjugation of sonar-dream before choosing.
3. Mixing up the preterite and the imperfect
Ayer yo imaginé una casa junto al mar (preterite: one finished event yesterday) is not the same as antes yo imaginaba una casa junto al mar (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 imaginado (haber + participle), never estoy imaginado. Haber is the only auxiliary for compound tenses in Spanish.
5. Using the infinitive after a conjugated verb without a connector
When imaginar is followed by another verb, check whether Spanish needs que or a preposition between them. A bare infinitive after a conjugated imaginar is a common English-speaker error — say the full construction you have practised on this page.
Quiz: imaginar
1. Yo ___ una casa junto al mar.
a. imagina b. imagino c. imaginan
2. Ella ___ una casa junto al mar.
a. imagino b. imagina c. imaginan
3. Ayer, yo ___ una casa junto al mar.
a. imagino b. imaginé c. imagina
4. Ellos ___ una casa junto al mar ayer.
a. imagino b. imaginaron c. imagina
5. Antes, yo ___ una casa junto al mar.
a. imagino b. imaginaba c. imagina
6. Mañana, yo ___ una casa junto al mar.
a. imagino b. imaginaré c. imagina
7. Yo ___ una casa junto al mar si pudiera.
a. imagino b. imaginaría c. imagina
8. Espero que ella ___ una casa junto al mar.
a. imagino b. imagine c. imagina
9. Ahora mismo, yo estoy ___ cómo sería la vida en otro país.
a. imaginado b. imaginando c. imagino
10. Yo he ___ cómo sería la vida en otro país varias veces.
a. imaginando b. imaginado c. imagino
Answer key
imagino — present tense, yo form.
imagina — present tense, él/ella form.
imaginé — preterite, yo form — a finished action yesterday.
imaginaron — preterite, ellos/ellas form.
imaginaba — imperfect, yo form — a past habit.
imaginaré — future, yo form.
imaginaría — conditional, yo form — a hypothetical.
imagine — present subjunctive after 'espero que'.
imaginando — gerund — the progressive is estar + gerund.
imaginado — past participle — the present perfect is haber + participle.
Frequently asked questions about imaginar
What does imaginar mean in English?
Imaginar means "to imagine". It is used for imagining scenes, possibilities and what might happen. A simple example is yo imagino una casa junto al mar — "I imagine a house by the sea."
Is imaginar regular or irregular?
Imaginar 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 imagino, the preterite yo form imaginé and the past participle imaginado — learn those three first, then fill in the rest from the tables above.
What is the gerund and the past participle of imaginar?
The gerund is imaginando (used for the progressive: estoy imaginando) and the past participle is imaginado (used with haber in all perfect tenses: he imaginado). Both forms are used constantly, so they are worth memorising on their own.
How do I say "I imagine" in the past?
It depends on the meaning. For one finished action use the preterite: ayer yo imaginé una casa junto al mar — "yesterday I imagined a house by the sea". For a past habit or background use the imperfect: antes yo imaginaba una casa junto al mar — "before, I imagined a house by the sea". The mistake most learners make is using one for the other.
Does imaginar take the subjunctive?
Not usually. Imaginar on its own takes the indicative — yo imagino una casa junto al mar. You will meet the subjunctive with imaginar only inside a larger construction that itself triggers it, such as no creo que or es importante que, and then the subjunctive form is imagine.