Molestar Conjugation in Spanish
Introduction
molestar means "to bother, to annoy" in English, and it is one of the verbs you will meet constantly in everyday Spanish — for bothering or annoying 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. Molestar 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 molesta el ruido de la calle. — "The the street noise bothers Lucía." Once you can say that sentence confidently, try changing the person and the tense using the tables below.
Quick facts
| Infinitive | molestar |
| Translation | to bother, to annoy |
| Verb type | Regular -ar verb |
| Gerund | molestando |
| Past participle | molestado |
| 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 molesta el ruido de la calle). 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 molestar
Present indicative
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | molesto |
| tú | molestas |
| él / ella / Ud. | molesta |
| nosotros / nosotras | molestamos |
| vosotros / vosotras | molestáis |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | molestan |
Preterite
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | molesté |
| tú | molestaste |
| él / ella / Ud. | molestó |
| nosotros / nosotras | molestamos |
| vosotros / vosotras | molestasteis |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | molestaron |
Imperfect
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | molestaba |
| tú | molestabas |
| él / ella / Ud. | molestaba |
| nosotros / nosotras | molestábamos |
| vosotros / vosotras | molestabais |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | molestaban |
Future
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | molestaré |
| tú | molestarás |
| él / ella / Ud. | molestará |
| nosotros / nosotras | molestaremos |
| vosotros / vosotras | molestaréis |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | molestarán |
Conditional
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | molestaría |
| tú | molestarías |
| él / ella / Ud. | molestaría |
| nosotros / nosotras | molestaríamos |
| vosotros / vosotras | molestaríais |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | molestarían |
Present subjunctive
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | moleste |
| tú | molestes |
| él / ella / Ud. | moleste |
| nosotros / nosotras | molestemos |
| vosotros / vosotras | molestéis |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | molesten |
Imperfect subjunctive (-ra forms)
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | molestara |
| tú | molestaras |
| él / ella / Ud. | molestara |
| nosotros / nosotras | molestáramos |
| vosotros / vosotras | molestarais |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | molestaran |
Present perfect
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | he molestado |
| tú | has molestado |
| él / ella / Ud. | ha molestado |
| nosotros / nosotras | hemos molestado |
| vosotros / vosotras | habéis molestado |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | han molestado |
Pluperfect
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | había molestado |
| tú | habías molestado |
| él / ella / Ud. | había molestado |
| nosotros / nosotras | habíamos molestado |
| vosotros / vosotras | habíais molestado |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | habían molestado |
Future perfect
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | habré molestado |
| tú | habrás molestado |
| él / ella / Ud. | habrá molestado |
| nosotros / nosotras | habremos molestado |
| vosotros / vosotras | habréis molestado |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | habrán molestado |
Conditional perfect
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | habría molestado |
| tú | habrías molestado |
| él / ella / Ud. | habría molestado |
| nosotros / nosotras | habríamos molestado |
| vosotros / vosotras | habríais molestado |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | habrían molestado |
Imperative — affirmative
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| tú | molesta |
| él / ella / Ud. | moleste |
| nosotros / nosotras | molestemos |
| vosotros / vosotras | molestad |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | molesten |
Imperative — negative
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| tú | molestes |
| él / ella / Ud. | moleste |
| nosotros / nosotras | molestemos |
| vosotros / vosotras | molestéis |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | molesten |
Gerund: molestando · Past participle: molestado
Molestar 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 molesta el ruido de la calle. — "The the street noise bothers 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 molestó el ruido de la calle. — "Yesterday, the the street noise bothered 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 molestaba el ruido de la calle. — "Before, the the street noise bothered 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 molestará el ruido de la calle. — "Tomorrow, the the street noise will bother 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 molestaría el ruido de la calle si lo viera. — "The the street noise would bother 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 moleste el ruido de la calle. — "I hope the the street noise bothers 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 molestara el ruido de la calle, sonreiría. — "If the the street noise bothered 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 molestado el ruido de la calle. — "The the street noise has bothered 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 molestado el ruido de la calle. — "The the street noise had bothered 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 molestado el ruido de la calle. — "The the street noise will have bothered 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 molestado el ruido de la calle. — "The the street noise would have bothered 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: ¡moleste a los niños con el ruido de la calle, por favor! — "Please bother the children with the the street noise!"
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 molestes a los niños con el ruido de la calle. — "Do not bother the children with the the street noise."
Example sentences with molestar
A Lucía le molesta el ruido de la calle. — "The the street noise bothers Lucía."
A Lucía y a Juan les molestan las preguntas constantes. — "The the constant questions bother Lucía and Juan."
Ayer, a Lucía le molestó el ruido de la calle. — "Yesterday, the the street noise bothered Lucía."
Ayer, a todos les molestaron las preguntas constantes. — "Yesterday, the the constant questions bothered everyone."
De niña, a Lucía le molestaba el ruido de la calle. — "As a child, the the street noise bothered Lucía."
Mañana, a Lucía le molestará las preguntas constantes. — "Tomorrow, the the constant questions will bother Lucía."
A Lucía le molestaría el ruido de la calle si pudiera verlo. — "The the street noise would bother Lucía if she could see it."
A Lucía le ha molestado el ruido de la calle muchas veces. — "The the street noise has bothered Lucía many times."
Espero que a Lucía le moleste el ruido de la calle. — "I hope the the street noise bothers Lucía."
La historia me está molestando ahora mismo. — "The story is bothering me right now."
Common mistakes with molestar
1. Dropping the accent on the preterite yo form
The preterite yo form is molesté — 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 molestar with enojar (to anger)
molestar means "to bother, to annoy", while enojar means "to anger". They overlap in English but they are not interchangeable in Spanish: use molestar when you mean bothering or annoying someone, and enojar for its own meaning. Check the conjugation of enojar before choosing.
3. Mixing up the preterite and the imperfect
Ayer yo molesté el ruido de la calle (preterite: one finished event yesterday) is not the same as antes yo molestaba el ruido de la calle (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 molesto when you mean the feeling
With verbs like molestar the thing that causes the feeling is the subject, and the person is the indirect object: a Lucía le molesta el ruido de la calle. Saying yo molesto el ruido de la calle means you do the bothering, which is not what you mean here.
5. Forgetting that the verb agrees with the thing, not the person
Me molestan las preguntas constantes is correct when the subject is plural — the verb agrees with the constant questions, not with "me". Singular me molesta las preguntas constantes would be wrong with a plural subject.
Quiz: molestar
1. A Lucía le ___ el ruido de la calle.
a. molesto b. molesta c. molestan
2. Ayer, a Lucía le ___ el ruido de la calle.
a. molesto b. molestó c. molesta
3. Antes, a Lucía le ___ el ruido de la calle.
a. molesto b. molestaba c. molesta
4. Mañana, a Lucía le ___ el ruido de la calle.
a. molesto b. molestará c. molesta
5. A Lucía le ___ el ruido de la calle si lo viera.
a. molesto b. molestaría c. molesta
6. Espero que a Lucía le ___ el ruido de la calle.
a. molesto b. moleste c. molesta
7. A Lucía le ___ el ruido de la calle varias veces.
a. molesto b. ha molestado c. molesta
8. Me ___ las preguntas constantes.
a. molesto b. molestan c. molesta
9. La historia me está ___ ahora mismo.
a. molestado b. molestando c. molesta
10. A Lucía le ha ___ el ruido de la calle muchas veces.
a. molestando b. molestado c. molesta
Answer key
molesta — present tense, él/ella form — the thing is the subject.
molestó — preterite, él/ella form — one finished event yesterday.
molestaba — imperfect, él/ella form — a past habit or background.
molestará — future, él/ella form.
molestaría — conditional, él/ella form — a hypothetical.
moleste — present subjunctive after 'espero que'.
ha molestado — present perfect, él/ella form (haber + participle).
molestan — present tense, ellos/ellas form — plural subject, so plural verb.
molestando — gerund — the progressive is estar + gerund.
molestado — past participle — the present perfect is haber + participle.
Frequently asked questions about molestar
What does molestar mean in English?
Molestar means "to bother, to annoy". It is used for bothering or annoying someone. A simple example is yo molesto el ruido de la calle — "I bother the street noise."
Is molestar regular or irregular?
Molestar 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 molesto, the preterite yo form molesté and the past participle molestado — learn those three first, then fill in the rest from the tables above.
What is the gerund and the past participle of molestar?
The gerund is molestando (used for the progressive: estoy molestando) and the past participle is molestado (used with haber in all perfect tenses: he molestado). Both forms are used constantly, so they are worth memorising on their own.
How do I say "I bother" in the past?
It depends on the meaning. For one finished action use the preterite: ayer yo molesté el ruido de la calle — "yesterday I bothered the street noise". For a past habit or background use the imperfect: antes yo molestaba el ruido de la calle — "before, I bothered the street noise". The mistake most learners make is using one for the other.
Does molestar take the subjunctive?
Not usually. Molestar on its own takes the indicative — yo molesto el ruido de la calle. You will meet the subjunctive with molestar only inside a larger construction that itself triggers it, such as no creo que or es importante que, and then the subjunctive form is moleste.