Sorprender Conjugation in Spanish
Introduction
sorprender means "to surprise" in English, and it is one of the verbs you will meet constantly in everyday Spanish — for surprising 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. Sorprender is a regular -er 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 sorprende la noticia. — "The the news surprises Lucía." Once you can say that sentence confidently, try changing the person and the tense using the tables below.
Quick facts
| Infinitive | sorprender |
| Translation | to surprise |
| Verb type | Regular -er verb |
| Gerund | sorprendiendo |
| Past participle | sorprendido |
| 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 sorprende la noticia). 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 sorprender
Present indicative
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | sorprendo |
| tú | sorprendes |
| él / ella / Ud. | sorprende |
| nosotros / nosotras | sorprendemos |
| vosotros / vosotras | sorprendéis |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | sorprenden |
Preterite
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | sorprendí |
| tú | sorprendiste |
| él / ella / Ud. | sorprendió |
| nosotros / nosotras | sorprendimos |
| vosotros / vosotras | sorprendisteis |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | sorprendieron |
Imperfect
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | sorprendía |
| tú | sorprendías |
| él / ella / Ud. | sorprendía |
| nosotros / nosotras | sorprendíamos |
| vosotros / vosotras | sorprendíais |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | sorprendían |
Future
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | sorprenderé |
| tú | sorprenderás |
| él / ella / Ud. | sorprenderá |
| nosotros / nosotras | sorprenderemos |
| vosotros / vosotras | sorprenderéis |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | sorprenderán |
Conditional
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | sorprendería |
| tú | sorprenderías |
| él / ella / Ud. | sorprendería |
| nosotros / nosotras | sorprenderíamos |
| vosotros / vosotras | sorprenderíais |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | sorprenderían |
Present subjunctive
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | sorprenda |
| tú | sorprendas |
| él / ella / Ud. | sorprenda |
| nosotros / nosotras | sorprendamos |
| vosotros / vosotras | sorprendáis |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | sorprendan |
Imperfect subjunctive (-ra forms)
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | sorprendiera |
| tú | sorprendieras |
| él / ella / Ud. | sorprendiera |
| nosotros / nosotras | sorprendiéramos |
| vosotros / vosotras | sorprendierais |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | sorprendieran |
Present perfect
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | he sorprendido |
| tú | has sorprendido |
| él / ella / Ud. | ha sorprendido |
| nosotros / nosotras | hemos sorprendido |
| vosotros / vosotras | habéis sorprendido |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | han sorprendido |
Pluperfect
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | había sorprendido |
| tú | habías sorprendido |
| él / ella / Ud. | había sorprendido |
| nosotros / nosotras | habíamos sorprendido |
| vosotros / vosotras | habíais sorprendido |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | habían sorprendido |
Future perfect
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | habré sorprendido |
| tú | habrás sorprendido |
| él / ella / Ud. | habrá sorprendido |
| nosotros / nosotras | habremos sorprendido |
| vosotros / vosotras | habréis sorprendido |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | habrán sorprendido |
Conditional perfect
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | habría sorprendido |
| tú | habrías sorprendido |
| él / ella / Ud. | habría sorprendido |
| nosotros / nosotras | habríamos sorprendido |
| vosotros / vosotras | habríais sorprendido |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | habrían sorprendido |
Imperative — affirmative
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| tú | sorprende |
| él / ella / Ud. | sorprenda |
| nosotros / nosotras | sorprendamos |
| vosotros / vosotras | sorprended |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | sorprendan |
Imperative — negative
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| tú | sorprendas |
| él / ella / Ud. | sorprenda |
| nosotros / nosotras | sorprendamos |
| vosotros / vosotras | sorprendáis |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | sorprendan |
Gerund: sorprendiendo · Past participle: sorprendido
Sorprender 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 sorprende la noticia. — "The the news surprises 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 sorprendió la noticia. — "Yesterday, the the news surprised 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 sorprendía la noticia. — "Before, the the news surprised 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 sorprenderá la noticia. — "Tomorrow, the the news will surprise 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 sorprendería la noticia si lo viera. — "The the news would surprise 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 sorprenda la noticia. — "I hope the the news surprises 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 sorprendiera la noticia, sonreiría. — "If the the news surprised 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 sorprendido la noticia. — "The the news has surprised 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 sorprendido la noticia. — "The the news had surprised 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 sorprendido la noticia. — "The the news will have surprised 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 sorprendido la noticia. — "The the news would have surprised 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: ¡sorprenda a los niños con la noticia, por favor! — "Please surprise the children with the the news!"
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 sorprendas a los niños con la noticia. — "Do not surprise the children with the the news."
Example sentences with sorprender
A Lucía le sorprende la noticia. — "The the news surprises Lucía."
A Lucía y a Juan les sorprenden su reacción tan rápida. — "The her very quick reaction surprise Lucía and Juan."
Ayer, a Lucía le sorprendió la noticia. — "Yesterday, the the news surprised Lucía."
Ayer, a todos les sorprendieron su reacción tan rápida. — "Yesterday, the her very quick reaction surprised everyone."
De niña, a Lucía le sorprendía la noticia. — "As a child, the the news surprised Lucía."
Mañana, a Lucía le sorprenderá su reacción tan rápida. — "Tomorrow, the her very quick reaction will surprise Lucía."
A Lucía le sorprendería la noticia si pudiera verlo. — "The the news would surprise Lucía if she could see it."
A Lucía le ha sorprendido la noticia muchas veces. — "The the news has surprised Lucía many times."
Espero que a Lucía le sorprenda la noticia. — "I hope the the news surprises Lucía."
La historia me está sorprendiendo ahora mismo. — "The story is surprising me right now."
Common mistakes with sorprender
1. Dropping the accent on the preterite yo form
The preterite yo form is sorprendí — 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 sorprender with asustar (to frighten)
sorprender means "to surprise", while asustar means "to frighten". They overlap in English but they are not interchangeable in Spanish: use sorprender when you mean surprising someone, and asustar for its own meaning. Check the conjugation of asustar before choosing.
3. Mixing up the preterite and the imperfect
Ayer yo sorprendí la noticia (preterite: one finished event yesterday) is not the same as antes yo sorprendía la noticia (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 sorprendo when you mean the feeling
With verbs like sorprender the thing that causes the feeling is the subject, and the person is the indirect object: a Lucía le sorprende la noticia. Saying yo sorprendo la noticia means you do the surpriseing, which is not what you mean here.
5. Forgetting that the verb agrees with the thing, not the person
Me sorprenden su reacción tan rápida is correct when the subject is plural — the verb agrees with her very quick reaction, not with "me". Singular me sorprende su reacción tan rápida would be wrong with a plural subject.
Quiz: sorprender
1. A Lucía le ___ la noticia.
a. sorprendo b. sorprende c. sorprenden
2. Ayer, a Lucía le ___ la noticia.
a. sorprendo b. sorprendió c. sorprende
3. Antes, a Lucía le ___ la noticia.
a. sorprendo b. sorprendía c. sorprende
4. Mañana, a Lucía le ___ la noticia.
a. sorprendo b. sorprenderá c. sorprende
5. A Lucía le ___ la noticia si lo viera.
a. sorprendo b. sorprendería c. sorprende
6. Espero que a Lucía le ___ la noticia.
a. sorprendo b. sorprenda c. sorprende
7. A Lucía le ___ la noticia varias veces.
a. sorprendo b. ha sorprendido c. sorprende
8. Me ___ su reacción tan rápida.
a. sorprendo b. sorprenden c. sorprende
9. La historia me está ___ ahora mismo.
a. sorprendido b. sorprendiendo c. sorprende
10. A Lucía le ha ___ la noticia muchas veces.
a. sorprendiendo b. sorprendido c. sorprende
Answer key
sorprende — present tense, él/ella form — the thing is the subject.
sorprendió — preterite, él/ella form — one finished event yesterday.
sorprendía — imperfect, él/ella form — a past habit or background.
sorprenderá — future, él/ella form.
sorprendería — conditional, él/ella form — a hypothetical.
sorprenda — present subjunctive after 'espero que'.
ha sorprendido — present perfect, él/ella form (haber + participle).
sorprenden — present tense, ellos/ellas form — plural subject, so plural verb.
sorprendiendo — gerund — the progressive is estar + gerund.
sorprendido — past participle — the present perfect is haber + participle.
Frequently asked questions about sorprender
What does sorprender mean in English?
Sorprender means "to surprise". It is used for surprising someone. A simple example is yo sorprendo la noticia — "I surprise the news."
Is sorprender regular or irregular?
Sorprender is a regular -er verb verb, and it is regular in every tense. The forms that most often catch learners out are the present yo form sorprendo, the preterite yo form sorprendí and the past participle sorprendido — learn those three first, then fill in the rest from the tables above.
What is the gerund and the past participle of sorprender?
The gerund is sorprendiendo (used for the progressive: estoy sorprendiendo) and the past participle is sorprendido (used with haber in all perfect tenses: he sorprendido). Both forms are used constantly, so they are worth memorising on their own.
How do I say "I surprise" in the past?
It depends on the meaning. For one finished action use the preterite: ayer yo sorprendí la noticia — "yesterday I surprised the news". For a past habit or background use the imperfect: antes yo sorprendía la noticia — "before, I surprised the news". The mistake most learners make is using one for the other.
Does sorprender take the subjunctive?
Not usually. Sorprender on its own takes the indicative — yo sorprendo la noticia. You will meet the subjunctive with sorprender only inside a larger construction that itself triggers it, such as no creo que or es importante que, and then the subjunctive form is sorprenda.