Lamentar Conjugation in Spanish
Introduction
lamentar means "to regret" in English, and it is one of the verbs you will meet constantly in everyday Spanish — for regretting something, or expressing sorrow. 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. Lamentar 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 lamento no haber estudiado más. — "Every day, I regret not having studied more." Once you can say that sentence confidently, try changing the person and the tense using the tables below.
Quick facts
| Infinitive | lamentar |
| Translation | to regret |
| Verb type | Regular -ar verb |
| Gerund | lamentando |
| Past participle | lamentado |
| Auxiliary | haber (all compound tenses) |
| Irregular tenses | regular in every tense |
Full conjugation of lamentar
Present indicative
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | lamento |
| tú | lamentas |
| él / ella / Ud. | lamenta |
| nosotros / nosotras | lamentamos |
| vosotros / vosotras | lamentáis |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | lamentan |
Preterite
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | lamenté |
| tú | lamentaste |
| él / ella / Ud. | lamentó |
| nosotros / nosotras | lamentamos |
| vosotros / vosotras | lamentasteis |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | lamentaron |
Imperfect
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | lamentaba |
| tú | lamentabas |
| él / ella / Ud. | lamentaba |
| nosotros / nosotras | lamentábamos |
| vosotros / vosotras | lamentabais |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | lamentaban |
Future
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | lamentaré |
| tú | lamentarás |
| él / ella / Ud. | lamentará |
| nosotros / nosotras | lamentaremos |
| vosotros / vosotras | lamentaréis |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | lamentarán |
Conditional
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | lamentaría |
| tú | lamentarías |
| él / ella / Ud. | lamentaría |
| nosotros / nosotras | lamentaríamos |
| vosotros / vosotras | lamentaríais |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | lamentarían |
Present subjunctive
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | lamente |
| tú | lamentes |
| él / ella / Ud. | lamente |
| nosotros / nosotras | lamentemos |
| vosotros / vosotras | lamentéis |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | lamenten |
Imperfect subjunctive (-ra forms)
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | lamentara |
| tú | lamentaras |
| él / ella / Ud. | lamentara |
| nosotros / nosotras | lamentáramos |
| vosotros / vosotras | lamentarais |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | lamentaran |
Present perfect
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | he lamentado |
| tú | has lamentado |
| él / ella / Ud. | ha lamentado |
| nosotros / nosotras | hemos lamentado |
| vosotros / vosotras | habéis lamentado |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | han lamentado |
Pluperfect
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | había lamentado |
| tú | habías lamentado |
| él / ella / Ud. | había lamentado |
| nosotros / nosotras | habíamos lamentado |
| vosotros / vosotras | habíais lamentado |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | habían lamentado |
Future perfect
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | habré lamentado |
| tú | habrás lamentado |
| él / ella / Ud. | habrá lamentado |
| nosotros / nosotras | habremos lamentado |
| vosotros / vosotras | habréis lamentado |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | habrán lamentado |
Conditional perfect
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | habría lamentado |
| tú | habrías lamentado |
| él / ella / Ud. | habría lamentado |
| nosotros / nosotras | habríamos lamentado |
| vosotros / vosotras | habríais lamentado |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | habrían lamentado |
Imperative — affirmative
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| tú | lamenta |
| él / ella / Ud. | lamente |
| nosotros / nosotras | lamentemos |
| vosotros / vosotras | lamentad |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | lamenten |
Imperative — negative
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| tú | lamentes |
| él / ella / Ud. | lamente |
| nosotros / nosotras | lamentemos |
| vosotros / vosotras | lamentéis |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | lamenten |
Gerund: lamentando · Past participle: lamentado
Lamentar 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 lamento no haber estudiado más. — "Every day, I regret not having studied more."
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 lamenté no haber estudiado más. — "Yesterday, I regretted not having studied more."
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 lamentaba no haber estudiado más. — "Before, I regretted not having studied more."
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 lamentaré no haber estudiado más. — "Tomorrow, I will regret not having studied more."
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 lamentaría no haber estudiado más si tuviera la oportunidad. — "I would regret not having studied more 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 lamente no haber estudiado más. — "I hope she will regret not having studied more."
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 lamentara no haber estudiado más, todo cambiaría. — "If she regretted not having studied more, 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 lamentado la pérdida de su amigo varias veces. — "I have regretted the loss of his friend 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 lamentado no haber estudiado más antes de la reunión. — "I had regretted not having studied more 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 lamentado no haber estudiado más. — "By tomorrow, I will have regretted not having studied more."
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 lamentado no haber estudiado más si hubiera tenido tiempo. — "I would have regretted not having studied more 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: ¡lamenta no haber estudiado más! — "Regret not having studied more!"
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 lamentes no haber estudiado más. — "Do not regret not having studied more."
Example sentences with lamentar
Yo lamento no haber estudiado más. — "I regret not having studied more."
¿Tú lamentas la pérdida de su amigo? — "Do you regret the loss of his friend?"
Ayer, él lamentó no haber estudiado más. — "Yesterday, he regretted not having studied more."
Nosotros lamentamos la pérdida de su amigo a tiempo. — "We regretted the loss of his friend on time."
Antes, ellos lamentaban no haber estudiado más. — "Before, they regretted not having studied more."
Mañana, yo lamentaré la pérdida de su amigo. — "Tomorrow, I will regret the loss of his friend."
Nosotros lamentaríamos no haber estudiado más si pudiéramos. — "We would regret not having studied more if we could."
Yo he lamentado la pérdida de su amigo varias veces. — "I have regretted the loss of his friend several times."
Espero que ella lamente no haber estudiado más. — "I hope she will regret not having studied more."
Ahora mismo, yo estoy lamentando la pérdida de su amigo. — "Right now, I am regretting the loss of his friend."
Common mistakes with lamentar
1. Dropping the accent on the preterite yo form
The preterite yo form is lamenté — 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 lamentar with arrepentirse (to regret)
lamentar means "to regret", while arrepentirse means "to regret". They overlap in English but they are not interchangeable in Spanish: use lamentar when you mean regretting something, or expressing sorrow, and arrepentirse for its own meaning. Check the conjugation of arrepentirse before choosing.
3. Mixing up the preterite and the imperfect
Ayer yo lamenté no haber estudiado más (preterite: one finished event yesterday) is not the same as antes yo lamentaba no haber estudiado más (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 the indicative after lamentar + que
After lamentar, the subordinate clause takes the subjunctive: lamentar que ella lamente no haber estudiado más. The indicative (lamenta) is wrong here, because lamentar expresses a wish or a doubt, not a stated fact.
5. Using estar instead of haber in the perfect tenses
The present perfect is he lamentado (haber + participle), never estoy lamentado. Haber is the only auxiliary for compound tenses in Spanish.
Quiz: lamentar
1. Yo ___ no haber estudiado más.
a. lamenta b. lamento c. lamentan
2. Ella ___ no haber estudiado más.
a. lamento b. lamenta c. lamentan
3. Ayer, yo ___ no haber estudiado más.
a. lamento b. lamenté c. lamenta
4. Ellos ___ no haber estudiado más ayer.
a. lamento b. lamentaron c. lamenta
5. Antes, yo ___ no haber estudiado más.
a. lamento b. lamentaba c. lamenta
6. Mañana, yo ___ no haber estudiado más.
a. lamento b. lamentaré c. lamenta
7. Yo ___ no haber estudiado más si pudiera.
a. lamento b. lamentaría c. lamenta
8. Espero que ella ___ no haber estudiado más.
a. lamento b. lamente c. lamenta
9. Ahora mismo, yo estoy ___ la pérdida de su amigo.
a. lamentado b. lamentando c. lamento
10. Yo he ___ la pérdida de su amigo varias veces.
a. lamentando b. lamentado c. lamento
Answer key
lamento — present tense, yo form.
lamenta — present tense, él/ella form.
lamenté — preterite, yo form — a finished action yesterday.
lamentaron — preterite, ellos/ellas form.
lamentaba — imperfect, yo form — a past habit.
lamentaré — future, yo form.
lamentaría — conditional, yo form — a hypothetical.
lamente — present subjunctive after 'espero que'.
lamentando — gerund — the progressive is estar + gerund.
lamentado — past participle — the present perfect is haber + participle.
Frequently asked questions about lamentar
What does lamentar mean in English?
Lamentar means "to regret". It is used for regretting something, or expressing sorrow. A simple example is yo lamento no haber estudiado más — "I regret not having studied more."
Is lamentar regular or irregular?
Lamentar 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 lamento, the preterite yo form lamenté and the past participle lamentado — learn those three first, then fill in the rest from the tables above.
What is the gerund and the past participle of lamentar?
The gerund is lamentando (used for the progressive: estoy lamentando) and the past participle is lamentado (used with haber in all perfect tenses: he lamentado). Both forms are used constantly, so they are worth memorising on their own.
How do I say "I regret" in the past?
It depends on the meaning. For one finished action use the preterite: ayer yo lamenté no haber estudiado más — "yesterday I regretted not having studied more". For a past habit or background use the imperfect: antes yo lamentaba no haber estudiado más — "before, I regretted not having studied more". The mistake most learners make is using one for the other.
Does lamentar take the subjunctive?
Yes, often. After lamentar, a subordinate clause with que usually takes the subjunctive, because lamentar expresses a wish or a doubt rather than a fact: lamentar que ella lamente no haber estudiado más. If you use the indicative there, the sentence sounds wrong to a native speaker.