Respetar Conjugation in Spanish
Introduction
respetar means "to respect" in English, and it is one of the verbs you will meet constantly in everyday Spanish — for showing respect for people, rules and opinions. 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. Respetar 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 respeto a mis mayores. — "Every day, I respect my elders." Once you can say that sentence confidently, try changing the person and the tense using the tables below.
Quick facts
| Infinitive | respetar |
| Translation | to respect |
| Verb type | Regular -ar verb |
| Gerund | respetando |
| Past participle | respetado |
| Auxiliary | haber (all compound tenses) |
| Irregular tenses | regular in every tense |
Full conjugation of respetar
Present indicative
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | respeto |
| tú | respetas |
| él / ella / Ud. | respeta |
| nosotros / nosotras | respetamos |
| vosotros / vosotras | respetáis |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | respetan |
Preterite
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | respeté |
| tú | respetaste |
| él / ella / Ud. | respetó |
| nosotros / nosotras | respetamos |
| vosotros / vosotras | respetasteis |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | respetaron |
Imperfect
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | respetaba |
| tú | respetabas |
| él / ella / Ud. | respetaba |
| nosotros / nosotras | respetábamos |
| vosotros / vosotras | respetabais |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | respetaban |
Future
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | respetaré |
| tú | respetarás |
| él / ella / Ud. | respetará |
| nosotros / nosotras | respetaremos |
| vosotros / vosotras | respetaréis |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | respetarán |
Conditional
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | respetaría |
| tú | respetarías |
| él / ella / Ud. | respetaría |
| nosotros / nosotras | respetaríamos |
| vosotros / vosotras | respetaríais |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | respetarían |
Present subjunctive
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | respete |
| tú | respetes |
| él / ella / Ud. | respete |
| nosotros / nosotras | respetemos |
| vosotros / vosotras | respetéis |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | respeten |
Imperfect subjunctive (-ra forms)
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | respetara |
| tú | respetaras |
| él / ella / Ud. | respetara |
| nosotros / nosotras | respetáramos |
| vosotros / vosotras | respetarais |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | respetaran |
Present perfect
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | he respetado |
| tú | has respetado |
| él / ella / Ud. | ha respetado |
| nosotros / nosotras | hemos respetado |
| vosotros / vosotras | habéis respetado |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | han respetado |
Pluperfect
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | había respetado |
| tú | habías respetado |
| él / ella / Ud. | había respetado |
| nosotros / nosotras | habíamos respetado |
| vosotros / vosotras | habíais respetado |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | habían respetado |
Future perfect
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | habré respetado |
| tú | habrás respetado |
| él / ella / Ud. | habrá respetado |
| nosotros / nosotras | habremos respetado |
| vosotros / vosotras | habréis respetado |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | habrán respetado |
Conditional perfect
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | habría respetado |
| tú | habrías respetado |
| él / ella / Ud. | habría respetado |
| nosotros / nosotras | habríamos respetado |
| vosotros / vosotras | habríais respetado |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | habrían respetado |
Imperative — affirmative
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| tú | respeta |
| él / ella / Ud. | respete |
| nosotros / nosotras | respetemos |
| vosotros / vosotras | respetad |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | respeten |
Imperative — negative
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| tú | respetes |
| él / ella / Ud. | respete |
| nosotros / nosotras | respetemos |
| vosotros / vosotras | respetéis |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | respeten |
Gerund: respetando · Past participle: respetado
Respetar 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 respeto a mis mayores. — "Every day, I respect my elders."
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 respeté a mis mayores. — "Yesterday, I respected my elders."
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 respetaba a mis mayores. — "Before, I respected my elders."
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 respetaré a mis mayores. — "Tomorrow, I will respect my elders."
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 respetaría a mis mayores si tuviera la oportunidad. — "I would respect my elders 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 respete a mis mayores. — "I hope she will respect my elders."
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 respetara a mis mayores, todo cambiaría. — "If she respected my elders, 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 respetado las normas de la casa varias veces. — "I have respected the house rules 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 respetado a mis mayores antes de la reunión. — "I had respected my elders 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 respetado a mis mayores. — "By tomorrow, I will have respected my elders."
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 respetado a mis mayores si hubiera tenido tiempo. — "I would have respected my elders 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: ¡respeta a mis mayores! — "Respect my elders!"
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 respetes a mis mayores. — "Do not respect my elders."
Example sentences with respetar
Yo respeto a mis mayores. — "I respect my elders."
¿Tú respetas las normas de la casa? — "Do you respect the house rules?"
Ayer, él respetó a mis mayores. — "Yesterday, he respected my elders."
Nosotros respetamos las normas de la casa a tiempo. — "We respected the house rules on time."
Antes, ellos respetaban a mis mayores. — "Before, they respected my elders."
Mañana, yo respetaré las normas de la casa. — "Tomorrow, I will respect the house rules."
Nosotros respetaríamos a mis mayores si pudiéramos. — "We would respect my elders if we could."
Yo he respetado las normas de la casa varias veces. — "I have respected the house rules several times."
Espero que ella respete a mis mayores. — "I hope she will respect my elders."
Ahora mismo, yo estoy respetando las normas de la casa. — "Right now, I am respecting the house rules."
Common mistakes with respetar
1. Dropping the accent on the preterite yo form
The preterite yo form is respeté — 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 respetar with admirar (to admire)
respetar means "to respect", while admirar means "to admire". They overlap in English but they are not interchangeable in Spanish: use respetar when you mean showing respect for people, rules and opinions, and admirar for its own meaning. Check the conjugation of admirar before choosing.
3. Mixing up the preterite and the imperfect
Ayer yo respeté a mis mayores (preterite: one finished event yesterday) is not the same as antes yo respetaba a mis mayores (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 respetado (haber + participle), never estoy respetado. Haber is the only auxiliary for compound tenses in Spanish.
5. Dropping the preposition before the complement
respetar takes a here: yo respeto a mis mayores. Dropping the preposition (yo respeto mis mayores) sounds wrong to a native speaker, so learn the verb together with its preposition.
Quiz: respetar
1. Yo ___ a mis mayores.
a. respeta b. respeto c. respetan
2. Ella ___ a mis mayores.
a. respeto b. respeta c. respetan
3. Ayer, yo ___ a mis mayores.
a. respeto b. respeté c. respeta
4. Ellos ___ a mis mayores ayer.
a. respeto b. respetaron c. respeta
5. Antes, yo ___ a mis mayores.
a. respeto b. respetaba c. respeta
6. Mañana, yo ___ a mis mayores.
a. respeto b. respetaré c. respeta
7. Yo ___ a mis mayores si pudiera.
a. respeto b. respetaría c. respeta
8. Espero que ella ___ a mis mayores.
a. respeto b. respete c. respeta
9. Ahora mismo, yo estoy ___ las normas de la casa.
a. respetado b. respetando c. respeto
10. Yo he ___ las normas de la casa varias veces.
a. respetando b. respetado c. respeto
Answer key
respeto — present tense, yo form.
respeta — present tense, él/ella form.
respeté — preterite, yo form — a finished action yesterday.
respetaron — preterite, ellos/ellas form.
respetaba — imperfect, yo form — a past habit.
respetaré — future, yo form.
respetaría — conditional, yo form — a hypothetical.
respete — present subjunctive after 'espero que'.
respetando — gerund — the progressive is estar + gerund.
respetado — past participle — the present perfect is haber + participle.
Frequently asked questions about respetar
What does respetar mean in English?
Respetar means "to respect". It is used for showing respect for people, rules and opinions. A simple example is yo respeto a mis mayores — "I respect my elders."
Is respetar regular or irregular?
Respetar 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 respeto, the preterite yo form respeté and the past participle respetado — learn those three first, then fill in the rest from the tables above.
What is the gerund and the past participle of respetar?
The gerund is respetando (used for the progressive: estoy respetando) and the past participle is respetado (used with haber in all perfect tenses: he respetado). Both forms are used constantly, so they are worth memorising on their own.
How do I say "I respect" in the past?
It depends on the meaning. For one finished action use the preterite: ayer yo respeté a mis mayores — "yesterday I respected my elders". For a past habit or background use the imperfect: antes yo respetaba a mis mayores — "before, I respected my elders". The mistake most learners make is using one for the other.
Does respetar take the subjunctive?
Not usually. Respetar on its own takes the indicative — yo respeto a mis mayores. You will meet the subjunctive with respetar only inside a larger construction that itself triggers it, such as no creo que or es importante que, and then the subjunctive form is respete.