Recoger Conjugation in Spanish
Introduction
recoger means "to pick up, to collect" in English, and it is one of the verbs you will meet constantly in everyday Spanish — for picking up or collecting something, or 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. Recoger is a irregular -er verb; g → j spelling change before o and a verb, and it is regular in its endings, with a spelling change. 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 recojo a los niños del colegio. — "Every day, I pick up the children from school." Once you can say that sentence confidently, try changing the person and the tense using the tables below.
Quick facts
| Infinitive | recoger |
| Translation | to pick up, to collect |
| Verb type | Irregular -er verb; g → j spelling change before o and a |
| Gerund | recogiendo |
| Past participle | recogido |
| Auxiliary | haber (all compound tenses) |
| Irregular tenses | regular in its endings, with a spelling change |
Full conjugation of recoger
Present indicative
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | recojo |
| tú | recoges |
| él / ella / Ud. | recoge |
| nosotros / nosotras | recogemos |
| vosotros / vosotras | recogéis |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | recogen |
Preterite
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | recogí |
| tú | recogiste |
| él / ella / Ud. | recogió |
| nosotros / nosotras | recogimos |
| vosotros / vosotras | recogisteis |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | recogieron |
Imperfect
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | recogía |
| tú | recogías |
| él / ella / Ud. | recogía |
| nosotros / nosotras | recogíamos |
| vosotros / vosotras | recogíais |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | recogían |
Future
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | recogeré |
| tú | recogerás |
| él / ella / Ud. | recogerá |
| nosotros / nosotras | recogeremos |
| vosotros / vosotras | recogeréis |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | recogerán |
Conditional
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | recogería |
| tú | recogerías |
| él / ella / Ud. | recogería |
| nosotros / nosotras | recogeríamos |
| vosotros / vosotras | recogeríais |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | recogerían |
Present subjunctive
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | recoja |
| tú | recojas |
| él / ella / Ud. | recoja |
| nosotros / nosotras | recojamos |
| vosotros / vosotras | recogáis |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | recojan |
Imperfect subjunctive (-ra forms)
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | recogiera |
| tú | recogieras |
| él / ella / Ud. | recogiera |
| nosotros / nosotras | recogiéramos |
| vosotros / vosotras | recogierais |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | recogieran |
Present perfect
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | he recogido |
| tú | has recogido |
| él / ella / Ud. | ha recogido |
| nosotros / nosotras | hemos recogido |
| vosotros / vosotras | habéis recogido |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | han recogido |
Pluperfect
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | había recogido |
| tú | habías recogido |
| él / ella / Ud. | había recogido |
| nosotros / nosotras | habíamos recogido |
| vosotros / vosotras | habíais recogido |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | habían recogido |
Future perfect
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | habré recogido |
| tú | habrás recogido |
| él / ella / Ud. | habrá recogido |
| nosotros / nosotras | habremos recogido |
| vosotros / vosotras | habréis recogido |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | habrán recogido |
Conditional perfect
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | habría recogido |
| tú | habrías recogido |
| él / ella / Ud. | habría recogido |
| nosotros / nosotras | habríamos recogido |
| vosotros / vosotras | habríais recogido |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | habrían recogido |
Imperative — affirmative
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| tú | recoge |
| él / ella / Ud. | recoja |
| nosotros / nosotras | recojamos |
| vosotros / vosotras | recoged |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | recojan |
Imperative — negative
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| tú | recojas |
| él / ella / Ud. | recoja |
| nosotros / nosotras | recojamos |
| vosotros / vosotras | recogáis |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | recojan |
Gerund: recogiendo · Past participle: recogido
Recoger 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. Watch the spelling in the present: g becomes j before o, so the yo form is recojo. Example: Cada día, yo recojo a los niños del colegio. — "Every day, I pick up the children from school."
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 recogí a los niños del colegio. — "Yesterday, I picked up the children from school."
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 recogía a los niños del colegio. — "Before, I picked up the children from school."
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 recogeré a los niños del colegio. — "Tomorrow, I will pick up the children from school."
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 recogería a los niños del colegio si tuviera la oportunidad. — "I would pick up the children from school 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 recoja a los niños del colegio. — "I hope she will pick up the children from school."
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 recogiera a los niños del colegio, todo cambiaría. — "If she picked up the children from school, 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 recogido las flores del jardín varias veces. — "I have picked up the flowers from the garden 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 recogido a los niños del colegio antes de la reunión. — "I had picked up the children from school 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 recogido a los niños del colegio. — "By tomorrow, I will have picked up the children from school."
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 recogido a los niños del colegio si hubiera tenido tiempo. — "I would have picked up the children from school 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: ¡recoge a los niños del colegio! — "Pick up the children from school!"
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 recojas a los niños del colegio. — "Do not pick up the children from school."
Example sentences with recoger
Yo recojo a los niños del colegio. — "I pick up the children from school."
¿Tú recoges las flores del jardín? — "Do you pick up the flowers from the garden?"
Ayer, él recogió a los niños del colegio. — "Yesterday, he picked up the children from school."
Nosotros recogimos las flores del jardín a tiempo. — "We picked up the flowers from the garden on time."
Antes, ellos recogían a los niños del colegio. — "Before, they picked up the children from school."
Mañana, yo recogeré las flores del jardín. — "Tomorrow, I will pick up the flowers from the garden."
Nosotros recogeríamos a los niños del colegio si pudiéramos. — "We would pick up the children from school if we could."
Yo he recogido las flores del jardín varias veces. — "I have picked up the flowers from the garden several times."
Espero que ella recoja a los niños del colegio. — "I hope she will pick up the children from school."
Ahora mismo, yo estoy recogiendo las flores del jardín. — "Right now, I am picking up the flowers from the garden."
Common mistakes with recoger
1. Writing ✗ recogo instead of the correct present form
The correct yo form in the present is recojo. Learners often build it straight from the infinitive, but this verb changes its stem or spelling in the present, so memorise the yo form — the present subjunctive and the formal imperative are built from it.
2. Confusing recoger with traer (to bring)
recoger means "to pick up, to collect", while traer means "to bring". They overlap in English but they are not interchangeable in Spanish: use recoger when you mean picking up or collecting something, or someone, and traer for its own meaning. Check the conjugation of traer before choosing.
3. Mixing up the preterite and the imperfect
Ayer yo recogí a los niños del colegio (preterite: one finished event yesterday) is not the same as antes yo recogía a los niños del colegio (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 recogido (haber + participle), never estoy recogido. Haber is the only auxiliary for compound tenses in Spanish.
5. Dropping the preposition before the complement
recoger takes a here: yo recojo a los niños del colegio. Dropping the preposition (yo recojo los niños del colegio) sounds wrong to a native speaker, so learn the verb together with its preposition.
Quiz: recoger
1. Yo ___ a los niños del colegio.
a. recoge b. recojo c. recogen
2. Ella ___ a los niños del colegio.
a. recojo b. recoge c. recogen
3. Ayer, yo ___ a los niños del colegio.
a. recojo b. recogí c. recoge
4. Ellos ___ a los niños del colegio ayer.
a. recojo b. recogieron c. recoge
5. Antes, yo ___ a los niños del colegio.
a. recojo b. recogía c. recoge
6. Mañana, yo ___ a los niños del colegio.
a. recojo b. recogeré c. recoge
7. Yo ___ a los niños del colegio si pudiera.
a. recojo b. recogería c. recoge
8. Espero que ella ___ a los niños del colegio.
a. recojo b. recoja c. recoge
9. Ahora mismo, yo estoy ___ las flores del jardín.
a. recogido b. recogiendo c. recojo
10. Yo he ___ las flores del jardín varias veces.
a. recogiendo b. recogido c. recojo
Answer key
recojo — present tense, yo form.
recoge — present tense, él/ella form.
recogí — preterite, yo form — a finished action yesterday.
recogieron — preterite, ellos/ellas form.
recogía — imperfect, yo form — a past habit.
recogeré — future, yo form.
recogería — conditional, yo form — a hypothetical.
recoja — present subjunctive after 'espero que'.
recogiendo — gerund — the progressive is estar + gerund.
recogido — past participle — the present perfect is haber + participle.
Frequently asked questions about recoger
What does recoger mean in English?
Recoger means "to pick up, to collect". It is used for picking up or collecting something, or someone. A simple example is yo recojo a los niños del colegio — "I pick up the children from school."
Is recoger regular or irregular?
Recoger is a irregular -er verb; g → j spelling change before o and a verb, and it is regular in its endings, with a spelling change. The forms that most often catch learners out are the present yo form recojo, the preterite yo form recogí and the past participle recogido — learn those three first, then fill in the rest from the tables above.
What is the gerund and the past participle of recoger?
The gerund is recogiendo (used for the progressive: estoy recogiendo) and the past participle is recogido (used with haber in all perfect tenses: he recogido). Both forms are used constantly, so they are worth memorising on their own.
How do I say "I pick up" in the past?
It depends on the meaning. For one finished action use the preterite: ayer yo recogí a los niños del colegio — "yesterday I picked up the children from school". For a past habit or background use the imperfect: antes yo recogía a los niños del colegio — "before, I picked up the children from school". The mistake most learners make is using one for the other.
Does recoger take the subjunctive?
Not usually. Recoger on its own takes the indicative — yo recojo a los niños del colegio. You will meet the subjunctive with recoger only inside a larger construction that itself triggers it, such as no creo que or es importante que, and then the subjunctive form is recoja.