Perdonar Conjugation in Spanish
Introduction
perdonar means "to forgive" in English, and it is one of the verbs you will meet constantly in everyday Spanish — for forgiving someone, or forgiving an offence. 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. Perdonar 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 perdono a mi hermano por el error. — "Every day, I forgive my brother for the mistake." Once you can say that sentence confidently, try changing the person and the tense using the tables below.
Quick facts
| Infinitive | perdonar |
| Translation | to forgive |
| Verb type | Regular -ar verb |
| Gerund | perdonando |
| Past participle | perdonado |
| Auxiliary | haber (all compound tenses) |
| Irregular tenses | regular in every tense |
Full conjugation of perdonar
Present indicative
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | perdono |
| tú | perdonas |
| él / ella / Ud. | perdona |
| nosotros / nosotras | perdonamos |
| vosotros / vosotras | perdonáis |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | perdonan |
Preterite
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | perdoné |
| tú | perdonaste |
| él / ella / Ud. | perdonó |
| nosotros / nosotras | perdonamos |
| vosotros / vosotras | perdonasteis |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | perdonaron |
Imperfect
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | perdonaba |
| tú | perdonabas |
| él / ella / Ud. | perdonaba |
| nosotros / nosotras | perdonábamos |
| vosotros / vosotras | perdonabais |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | perdonaban |
Future
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | perdonaré |
| tú | perdonarás |
| él / ella / Ud. | perdonará |
| nosotros / nosotras | perdonaremos |
| vosotros / vosotras | perdonaréis |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | perdonarán |
Conditional
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | perdonaría |
| tú | perdonarías |
| él / ella / Ud. | perdonaría |
| nosotros / nosotras | perdonaríamos |
| vosotros / vosotras | perdonaríais |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | perdonarían |
Present subjunctive
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | perdone |
| tú | perdones |
| él / ella / Ud. | perdone |
| nosotros / nosotras | perdonemos |
| vosotros / vosotras | perdonéis |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | perdonen |
Imperfect subjunctive (-ra forms)
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | perdonara |
| tú | perdonaras |
| él / ella / Ud. | perdonara |
| nosotros / nosotras | perdonáramos |
| vosotros / vosotras | perdonarais |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | perdonaran |
Present perfect
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | he perdonado |
| tú | has perdonado |
| él / ella / Ud. | ha perdonado |
| nosotros / nosotras | hemos perdonado |
| vosotros / vosotras | habéis perdonado |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | han perdonado |
Pluperfect
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | había perdonado |
| tú | habías perdonado |
| él / ella / Ud. | había perdonado |
| nosotros / nosotras | habíamos perdonado |
| vosotros / vosotras | habíais perdonado |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | habían perdonado |
Future perfect
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | habré perdonado |
| tú | habrás perdonado |
| él / ella / Ud. | habrá perdonado |
| nosotros / nosotras | habremos perdonado |
| vosotros / vosotras | habréis perdonado |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | habrán perdonado |
Conditional perfect
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | habría perdonado |
| tú | habrías perdonado |
| él / ella / Ud. | habría perdonado |
| nosotros / nosotras | habríamos perdonado |
| vosotros / vosotras | habríais perdonado |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | habrían perdonado |
Imperative — affirmative
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| tú | perdona |
| él / ella / Ud. | perdone |
| nosotros / nosotras | perdonemos |
| vosotros / vosotras | perdonad |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | perdonen |
Imperative — negative
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| tú | perdones |
| él / ella / Ud. | perdone |
| nosotros / nosotras | perdonemos |
| vosotros / vosotras | perdonéis |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | perdonen |
Gerund: perdonando · Past participle: perdonado
Perdonar 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 perdono a mi hermano por el error. — "Every day, I forgive my brother for the mistake."
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 perdoné a mi hermano por el error. — "Yesterday, I forgave my brother for the mistake."
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 perdonaba a mi hermano por el error. — "Before, I forgave my brother for the mistake."
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 perdonaré a mi hermano por el error. — "Tomorrow, I will forgive my brother for the mistake."
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 perdonaría a mi hermano por el error si tuviera la oportunidad. — "I would forgive my brother for the mistake 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 perdone a mi hermano por el error. — "I hope she will forgive my brother for the mistake."
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 perdonara a mi hermano por el error, todo cambiaría. — "If she forgave my brother for the mistake, 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 perdonado la deuda a mi amigo varias veces. — "I have forgiven the debt to my 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 perdonado a mi hermano por el error antes de la reunión. — "I had forgiven my brother for the mistake 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 perdonado a mi hermano por el error. — "By tomorrow, I will have forgiven my brother for the mistake."
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 perdonado a mi hermano por el error si hubiera tenido tiempo. — "I would have forgiven my brother for the mistake 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: ¡perdona a mi hermano por el error! — "Forgive my brother for the mistake!"
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 perdones a mi hermano por el error. — "Do not forgive my brother for the mistake."
Example sentences with perdonar
Yo perdono a mi hermano por el error. — "I forgive my brother for the mistake."
¿Tú perdonas la deuda a mi amigo? — "Do you forgive the debt to my friend?"
Ayer, él perdonó a mi hermano por el error. — "Yesterday, he forgave my brother for the mistake."
Nosotros perdonamos la deuda a mi amigo a tiempo. — "We forgave the debt to my friend on time."
Antes, ellos perdonaban a mi hermano por el error. — "Before, they forgave my brother for the mistake."
Mañana, yo perdonaré la deuda a mi amigo. — "Tomorrow, I will forgive the debt to my friend."
Nosotros perdonaríamos a mi hermano por el error si pudiéramos. — "We would forgive my brother for the mistake if we could."
Yo he perdonado la deuda a mi amigo varias veces. — "I have forgiven the debt to my friend several times."
Espero que ella perdone a mi hermano por el error. — "I hope she will forgive my brother for the mistake."
Ahora mismo, yo estoy perdonando la deuda a mi amigo. — "Right now, I am forgiving the debt to my friend."
Common mistakes with perdonar
1. Dropping the accent on the preterite yo form
The preterite yo form is perdoné — 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 perdonar with disculpar (to excuse)
perdonar means "to forgive", while disculpar means "to excuse". They overlap in English but they are not interchangeable in Spanish: use perdonar when you mean forgiving someone, or forgiving an offence, and disculpar for its own meaning. Check the conjugation of disculpar before choosing.
3. Mixing up the preterite and the imperfect
Ayer yo perdoné a mi hermano por el error (preterite: one finished event yesterday) is not the same as antes yo perdonaba a mi hermano por el error (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 perdonado (haber + participle), never estoy perdonado. Haber is the only auxiliary for compound tenses in Spanish.
5. Dropping the preposition before the complement
perdonar takes a here: yo perdono a mi hermano por el error. Dropping the preposition (yo perdono mi hermano por el error) sounds wrong to a native speaker, so learn the verb together with its preposition.
Quiz: perdonar
1. Yo ___ a mi hermano por el error.
a. perdona b. perdono c. perdonan
2. Ella ___ a mi hermano por el error.
a. perdono b. perdona c. perdonan
3. Ayer, yo ___ a mi hermano por el error.
a. perdono b. perdoné c. perdona
4. Ellos ___ a mi hermano por el error ayer.
a. perdono b. perdonaron c. perdona
5. Antes, yo ___ a mi hermano por el error.
a. perdono b. perdonaba c. perdona
6. Mañana, yo ___ a mi hermano por el error.
a. perdono b. perdonaré c. perdona
7. Yo ___ a mi hermano por el error si pudiera.
a. perdono b. perdonaría c. perdona
8. Espero que ella ___ a mi hermano por el error.
a. perdono b. perdone c. perdona
9. Ahora mismo, yo estoy ___ la deuda a mi amigo.
a. perdonado b. perdonando c. perdono
10. Yo he ___ la deuda a mi amigo varias veces.
a. perdonando b. perdonado c. perdono
Answer key
perdono — present tense, yo form.
perdona — present tense, él/ella form.
perdoné — preterite, yo form — a finished action yesterday.
perdonaron — preterite, ellos/ellas form.
perdonaba — imperfect, yo form — a past habit.
perdonaré — future, yo form.
perdonaría — conditional, yo form — a hypothetical.
perdone — present subjunctive after 'espero que'.
perdonando — gerund — the progressive is estar + gerund.
perdonado — past participle — the present perfect is haber + participle.
Frequently asked questions about perdonar
What does perdonar mean in English?
Perdonar means "to forgive". It is used for forgiving someone, or forgiving an offence. A simple example is yo perdono a mi hermano por el error — "I forgive my brother for the mistake."
Is perdonar regular or irregular?
Perdonar 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 perdono, the preterite yo form perdoné and the past participle perdonado — learn those three first, then fill in the rest from the tables above.
What is the gerund and the past participle of perdonar?
The gerund is perdonando (used for the progressive: estoy perdonando) and the past participle is perdonado (used with haber in all perfect tenses: he perdonado). Both forms are used constantly, so they are worth memorising on their own.
How do I say "I forgive" in the past?
It depends on the meaning. For one finished action use the preterite: ayer yo perdoné a mi hermano por el error — "yesterday I forgave my brother for the mistake". For a past habit or background use the imperfect: antes yo perdonaba a mi hermano por el error — "before, I forgave my brother for the mistake". The mistake most learners make is using one for the other.
Does perdonar take the subjunctive?
Not usually. Perdonar on its own takes the indicative — yo perdono a mi hermano por el error. You will meet the subjunctive with perdonar only inside a larger construction that itself triggers it, such as no creo que or es importante que, and then the subjunctive form is perdone.