Preocupar Conjugation in Spanish
Introduction
preocupar means "to worry" in English, and it is one of the verbs you will meet constantly in everyday Spanish — for worrying someone, or being worried about something. 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. Preocupar 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 preocupa la salud de su madre. — "The his mother's health worries Lucía." Once you can say that sentence confidently, try changing the person and the tense using the tables below.
Quick facts
| Infinitive | preocupar |
| Translation | to worry |
| Verb type | Regular -ar verb |
| Gerund | preocupando |
| Past participle | preocupado |
| 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 preocupa la salud de su madre). 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 preocupar
Present indicative
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | preocupo |
| tú | preocupas |
| él / ella / Ud. | preocupa |
| nosotros / nosotras | preocupamos |
| vosotros / vosotras | preocupáis |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | preocupan |
Preterite
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | preocupé |
| tú | preocupaste |
| él / ella / Ud. | preocupó |
| nosotros / nosotras | preocupamos |
| vosotros / vosotras | preocupasteis |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | preocuparon |
Imperfect
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | preocupaba |
| tú | preocupabas |
| él / ella / Ud. | preocupaba |
| nosotros / nosotras | preocupábamos |
| vosotros / vosotras | preocupabais |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | preocupaban |
Future
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | preocuparé |
| tú | preocuparás |
| él / ella / Ud. | preocupará |
| nosotros / nosotras | preocuparemos |
| vosotros / vosotras | preocuparéis |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | preocuparán |
Conditional
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | preocuparía |
| tú | preocuparías |
| él / ella / Ud. | preocuparía |
| nosotros / nosotras | preocuparíamos |
| vosotros / vosotras | preocuparíais |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | preocuparían |
Present subjunctive
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | preocupe |
| tú | preocupes |
| él / ella / Ud. | preocupe |
| nosotros / nosotras | preocupemos |
| vosotros / vosotras | preocupéis |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | preocupen |
Imperfect subjunctive (-ra forms)
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | preocupara |
| tú | preocuparas |
| él / ella / Ud. | preocupara |
| nosotros / nosotras | preocupáramos |
| vosotros / vosotras | preocuparais |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | preocuparan |
Present perfect
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | he preocupado |
| tú | has preocupado |
| él / ella / Ud. | ha preocupado |
| nosotros / nosotras | hemos preocupado |
| vosotros / vosotras | habéis preocupado |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | han preocupado |
Pluperfect
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | había preocupado |
| tú | habías preocupado |
| él / ella / Ud. | había preocupado |
| nosotros / nosotras | habíamos preocupado |
| vosotros / vosotras | habíais preocupado |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | habían preocupado |
Future perfect
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | habré preocupado |
| tú | habrás preocupado |
| él / ella / Ud. | habrá preocupado |
| nosotros / nosotras | habremos preocupado |
| vosotros / vosotras | habréis preocupado |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | habrán preocupado |
Conditional perfect
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | habría preocupado |
| tú | habrías preocupado |
| él / ella / Ud. | habría preocupado |
| nosotros / nosotras | habríamos preocupado |
| vosotros / vosotras | habríais preocupado |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | habrían preocupado |
Imperative — affirmative
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| tú | preocupa |
| él / ella / Ud. | preocupe |
| nosotros / nosotras | preocupemos |
| vosotros / vosotras | preocupad |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | preocupen |
Imperative — negative
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| tú | preocupes |
| él / ella / Ud. | preocupe |
| nosotros / nosotras | preocupemos |
| vosotros / vosotras | preocupéis |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | preocupen |
Gerund: preocupando · Past participle: preocupado
Preocupar 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 preocupa la salud de su madre. — "The his mother's health worries 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 preocupó la salud de su madre. — "Yesterday, the his mother's health worried 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 preocupaba la salud de su madre. — "Before, the his mother's health worried 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 preocupará la salud de su madre. — "Tomorrow, the his mother's health will worry 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 preocuparía la salud de su madre si lo viera. — "The his mother's health would worry 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 preocupe la salud de su madre. — "I hope the his mother's health worries 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 preocupara la salud de su madre, sonreiría. — "If the his mother's health worried 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 preocupado la salud de su madre. — "The his mother's health has worried 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 preocupado la salud de su madre. — "The his mother's health had worried 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 preocupado la salud de su madre. — "The his mother's health will have worried 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 preocupado la salud de su madre. — "The his mother's health would have worried 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: ¡preocupe a los niños con la salud de su madre, por favor! — "Please worry the children with the his mother's health!"
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 preocupes a los niños con la salud de su madre. — "Do not worry the children with the his mother's health."
Example sentences with preocupar
A Lucía le preocupa la salud de su madre. — "The his mother's health worries Lucía."
A Lucía y a Juan les preocupan el examen de mañana. — "The tomorrow's exam worry Lucía and Juan."
Ayer, a Lucía le preocupó la salud de su madre. — "Yesterday, the his mother's health worried Lucía."
Ayer, a todos les preocuparon el examen de mañana. — "Yesterday, the tomorrow's exam worried everyone."
De niña, a Lucía le preocupaba la salud de su madre. — "As a child, the his mother's health worried Lucía."
Mañana, a Lucía le preocupará el examen de mañana. — "Tomorrow, the tomorrow's exam will worry Lucía."
A Lucía le preocuparía la salud de su madre si pudiera verlo. — "The his mother's health would worry Lucía if she could see it."
A Lucía le ha preocupado la salud de su madre muchas veces. — "The his mother's health has worried Lucía many times."
Espero que a Lucía le preocupe la salud de su madre. — "I hope the his mother's health worries Lucía."
La historia me está preocupando ahora mismo. — "The story is worrying me right now."
Common mistakes with preocupar
1. Dropping the accent on the preterite yo form
The preterite yo form is preocupé — 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 preocupar with asustar (to frighten)
preocupar means "to worry", while asustar means "to frighten". They overlap in English but they are not interchangeable in Spanish: use preocupar when you mean worrying someone, or being worried about something, and asustar for its own meaning. Check the conjugation of asustar before choosing.
3. Mixing up the preterite and the imperfect
Ayer yo preocupé la salud de su madre (preterite: one finished event yesterday) is not the same as antes yo preocupaba la salud de su madre (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 preocupo when you mean the feeling
With verbs like preocupar the thing that causes the feeling is the subject, and the person is the indirect object: a Lucía le preocupa la salud de su madre. Saying yo preocupo la salud de su madre means you do the worrying, which is not what you mean here.
5. Forgetting that the verb agrees with the thing, not the person
Me preocupan el examen de mañana is correct when the subject is plural — the verb agrees with tomorrow's exam, not with "me". Singular me preocupa el examen de mañana would be wrong with a plural subject.
Quiz: preocupar
1. A Lucía le ___ la salud de su madre.
a. preocupo b. preocupa c. preocupan
2. Ayer, a Lucía le ___ la salud de su madre.
a. preocupo b. preocupó c. preocupa
3. Antes, a Lucía le ___ la salud de su madre.
a. preocupo b. preocupaba c. preocupa
4. Mañana, a Lucía le ___ la salud de su madre.
a. preocupo b. preocupará c. preocupa
5. A Lucía le ___ la salud de su madre si lo viera.
a. preocupo b. preocuparía c. preocupa
6. Espero que a Lucía le ___ la salud de su madre.
a. preocupo b. preocupe c. preocupa
7. A Lucía le ___ la salud de su madre varias veces.
a. preocupo b. ha preocupado c. preocupa
8. Me ___ el examen de mañana.
a. preocupo b. preocupan c. preocupa
9. La historia me está ___ ahora mismo.
a. preocupado b. preocupando c. preocupa
10. A Lucía le ha ___ la salud de su madre muchas veces.
a. preocupando b. preocupado c. preocupa
Answer key
preocupa — present tense, él/ella form — the thing is the subject.
preocupó — preterite, él/ella form — one finished event yesterday.
preocupaba — imperfect, él/ella form — a past habit or background.
preocupará — future, él/ella form.
preocuparía — conditional, él/ella form — a hypothetical.
preocupe — present subjunctive after 'espero que'.
ha preocupado — present perfect, él/ella form (haber + participle).
preocupan — present tense, ellos/ellas form — plural subject, so plural verb.
preocupando — gerund — the progressive is estar + gerund.
preocupado — past participle — the present perfect is haber + participle.
Frequently asked questions about preocupar
What does preocupar mean in English?
Preocupar means "to worry". It is used for worrying someone, or being worried about something. A simple example is yo preocupo la salud de su madre — "I worry his mother's health."
Is preocupar regular or irregular?
Preocupar 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 preocupo, the preterite yo form preocupé and the past participle preocupado — learn those three first, then fill in the rest from the tables above.
What is the gerund and the past participle of preocupar?
The gerund is preocupando (used for the progressive: estoy preocupando) and the past participle is preocupado (used with haber in all perfect tenses: he preocupado). Both forms are used constantly, so they are worth memorising on their own.
How do I say "I worry" in the past?
It depends on the meaning. For one finished action use the preterite: ayer yo preocupé la salud de su madre — "yesterday I worried his mother's health". For a past habit or background use the imperfect: antes yo preocupaba la salud de su madre — "before, I worried his mother's health". The mistake most learners make is using one for the other.
Does preocupar take the subjunctive?
Not usually. Preocupar on its own takes the indicative — yo preocupo la salud de su madre. You will meet the subjunctive with preocupar only inside a larger construction that itself triggers it, such as no creo que or es importante que, and then the subjunctive form is preocupe.