Parti-what?

Don’t be intimidated by the mouthful of grammatical terms! The past participle is crucial for using compound tenses in Spanish, but luckily it is very easy to master. Present and past participles are a form of a verb that doesn’t change to show tense (when something occurred). Participles are used in several different ways in Spanish, including as an adjective, noun, and in conjunction with other verbs.

The equivalent of the present participle in Spanish (called a “gerund” or “gerundio”) usually ends with either -ando or -iendo in Spanish and -ing in English. The past participle (called the “participio”) is very commonly used as an adjective or in conjunction with the auxiliary (“helping”) verb haber, when forming past tense forms.

Example: “to run”Infinitive: correr

Present participle: corriendo (“running”)Past participle: corrido (“run”)

In English, the past tense form of a verb is often used as the past participle, which makes it a little more tricky to recognize when the verb is simply in past tense and when it’s being used as a past participle. Usually, past tense verbs in English end in “-ed,” but many are irregular (such as “to run” above).

I jumped [past tense].I have jumped [past participle].

I gave [past tense] a gift.I have given [past participle] a gift.

Irregular English past participles that end in “-en” (given, broken, seen, broken, driven) are easier to spot.

He dado muchos regalos.(I have given many presents.)

Just like English, Spanish uses the past participle as both an adjective and in compound forms with “have.”

Has construido una bonita casa.You have built [compound verb] a nice house.

Una casa bien construida sobrevivirá a la tormenta.The well-built [adjective] house will survive the storm.

The past participle is also used in passive forms after “is” or “was.” A passive sentence talks about an action without specifying who did it.

La casa fue construida hace muchos años.The house was built many years ago.

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Past Participle as a Verb

Though the past participle starts from the infinitive of a verb, it isn’t like other verb tenses or moods, which change to show when the action took place and who was responsible for it. These two pieces of information are instead expressed by the auxiliary verb haber that comes before the past participle in perfect tenses in the indicative mood, such as future perfect indicative, conditional perfect indicative, present perfect and past perfect indicative.

Hemos aprendido demasiado para un día.We have learned too much for one day.

Auxiliary verb in present (when), nosotros (who): hemosPast participle: aprendido

Has corrido mucho hoy.You have run so much today.

Auxiliary verb in present (when), tú (who): hasPast participle: corrido

To form the past participle of the verb, simply drop the -ar, -ir, or -er ending, and add the appropriate ending:

-AR verbs-IR/-ER verbs-ado-idoex: olvidar = olvidadoex: partir = partido

When the past participle is combined with haber, it doesn’t need to change its form to show gender/number at all.

Common Irregular Past Participles

Unfortunately, not all verbs follow the pattern above. These irregular verbs need to be memorized.

Irregulars ending in -to:

Infinitive verbPast participlePP English translationescribirescritowrittenromperrotobrokenvolvervueltoturnedmorirmuertodeadabrirabiertoopenedabsolverabsueltoabsolvedcubrircubiertocoveredfreírfritofriedponerpuestoputresolverresueltoresolvedvervistoseen

Irregulars ending in -cho:

Infinitive verbPast participlePP English translationhacerhechodid/madedecirdichosaidsatisfacersatisfechosatisfied

Verbs with Multiple Past Participle Forms

Some verbs have two versions of their past participle. These may vary depending on the regional Spanish customs, such as descripto** being used in Uruguay and Argentina. In some cases, one is used as the adjective version (noted with a * ) and the other is used to combine with haber in compound forms. Those that are interchangeable are noted with *** .

Past participle formsInfinitive verbPP English translationatendido, atento*atenderattentivebendecido, bendito*bendecirblessedconfundido, confuso*confundirconfusedconvencido, convicto*convencerconvincedcorrompido, corrupto*corromperspoiled, corrupteddescrito, descripto**describirdescribeddespertado, despierto*despertarawakeneddivididodividirdivided, splitelegido, electo***elegirelectedfreído, frito***freírfriedimprimido, impreso***imprimirprintedmaldecido, maldito*maldecirto curseposeído, poseso*poseerpossessed, ownedprendido, presoprenderfastenedprescrito, prescriptoprescribirprescribedpresumido, presunto*presumirpresumedproveído, provisto***proveerprovidedsoltado, sueltosoltarreleasedsuspendido, suspenso*suspenderhung, suspended

Past Participle as an Adjective

The past participle is used as an adjective when describing past events, similarly to English. Like other adjectives in Spanish, the past-participle-as-adjective needs to change its ending to match the gender and number of the noun it’s describing. In Spanish, each noun has a “gender,” which doesn’t contribute to the meaning of the noun (i.e., it’s a random M/F assignment).

¿Puedes cambiar el espejo roto con uno nuevo por favor?Can you replace the broken mirror with a new one please?

¿Puedes cambiar las sillas rotas por unas nuevas por favor?Can you replace the broken chairs with new ones please?

Infinitive verb: romperPast participle (irregular): rotoFeminine past participle: rotaPlural past participle: rotosFeminine plural past participle: rotas

Past Participle as a Noun

In some cases, a past participle can be used as a noun for something that has that specific quality. It’s easiest to think of the adjective usage of the past participle becoming a noun, since we do this with other adjectives in both English and Spanish.

Take a look at this familiar example in English with a past participle used as a noun, an adjective used as a noun, and a past participle used as an adjective:

Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses…

Hacer – el hechoEl hecho de que no vinieras me preocupó.The fact that you didn’t come worried me.

Estar – el estadoEl estado del enfermo es bastante crítico.The patient’s condition is quite serious.

Here are a few other examples:

Decir – el dicho (the saying)Estar – el estado (the state of being / condition)Herir – el herido (the injured)Morir – el muerto (the dead person)Poner – el puesto (a post/position)Acusar – el acusado (the accused)Volver – la vuelta (the turn / a walk / the return)

Not as scary as it seemed, right? Once you’ve learned to recognize the past participle, using it is easy. Plus, any tense that uses the past participle is like a “get out of jail free” card for conjugation – you only need to memorize the different forms of haber to use it! Sign up for Lingvist’s online Spanish course for more practice using past participles, including those tricky irregular forms.

Dar Conjugation: The Complete Guide on How to Conjugate Dar in Spanish

If you’ve ever heard Pitbull yell “¡Dale!” in one of his songs, then you have most certainly interacted with the Spanish verb dar. Dar (to give) is one of the most common verbs in Spanish, yet one of the most misunderstood! This is why the verb dar deserves its own personal guide. In this guide you’ll learn everything you need to know about dar conjugation and how to conjugate dar in Spanish.

If you’re an avid language learner like me, then you’d agree that just scanning conjugation tables is impersonal and overwhelming. We tend to overthink language, and while it is infinitely complex, there are really only six different ways we use verbs on a daily basis. They range from very simple matters-of-fact to more hypothetical scenarios, such as:

• “I go, I went, I will go, I used to go…”
• “If I went, I would…”
• “If I had gone, I would have….”

For the verb dar, I laid out the most commonplace uses by difficulty level:

BEGINNER (One Verb)

1. I give (yo doy)
2. I gave (yo di)
3. I will give (yo daré)
4. I used to give (yo daba)

INTERMEDIATE (Two Verbs)

5. If I gave, I would… (si diera, daría…)

ADVANCED (Four verbs)

6. If I had given, I would have… (si hubiera dado, habría dado)

In this article, I have a created a powerful outline for you to learn the most common conjugations of the Spanish verb dar in the different tenses above, plus definitions and practical colloquial expressions of dar that you can ACTUALLY use.

Now let’s break down the secrets of the world of conjugation!

The Verb Dar – Meaning and Origin

Are you familiar with the antiquated term dowry, or the amount of money or property brought to her husband upon marriage?

Yep, you guessed it- that’s where we get our beloved verb dar, to give! The Indo-European root do– eventually became dare in Latin, and from here we inherit lots of fun words- donors, donation, data, and adoption. Actually, the Spanish word don means a gift, such as “Tienes un don por los idiomas”or “You have a gift for languages”!

Funny enough, “bien dotado” or gifted used to mean a husband who inherited a lot of land and cattle. Today, on the other hand, it has taken on a more intimate meaning as in blessed or well endowed in a more… physical way!

Spanish Conjugation of Dar for Beginners

In Beginners dar, we will start with the conjugations of the most commonplace tenses (I give, I gave, I’ll give, and I used to give…) Then, we will show example sentences with one verb construction.

First, take a look at the first two columns to see how to use dar in the present tense (yo doy) as well as how to use the verb dar in the past tense (yo di).

*Irregular in bold

SubjectPresentPreteriteFutureImperfectyodoydidarédabatúdasdistedarásdabasél, ella, Usteddadiodarádabanosotrosdamosdimosdaremosdábamosvosotrosdaisdisteisdaréisdabaisellos, ellas, ustedesdandierondarándaban

Dar is one of the most common verbs in Spanish, which makes it susceptible to irregularities in its conjugation. As shown in the green text in our chart above, you will find most of the irregularities in the present tense and past preterite tense of dar. (For more on irregular verbs using dar, check out the scary red text in the link attached.)

Next, skip over to the conjugation of the verb dar in the future tense in the third column – not too scary I hope. There is an important note here, however, so take a look at some additional information below about the notion of the future tense in Spanish.

NOTE: It is important to remember that the auxiliary verbs will and would do not exist in Spanish. Instead, the infinitive verb is modified to include the notion of future and conditional (I’ll give = daré, He would give = daría).

Lastly, check out the conjugation of the verb dar in the imperfect tense in the final column. Most English speakers struggle when trying to use this tense correctly. To make sure you are not confusing your tenses, we break down an important concept of time when it comes to using the verb dar in the past tense.

HERE’S THE DEAL: The imperfect implies that a certain action took place over an extended period of time in the past. Di and daba both mean I gave but the first is a concrete period in time (I gave her my homework) and the latter occurs over a longer period of time (I gave private lessons in high school). Daba can also mean “I used to give..”

The above four tenses cover some of the most basic conversation skills. Again, they only require the use of one conjugated verb (I give, I gave, I’ll give, and I used to give…)

Beginner Example Sentences Using Dar

Let’s put what we just learned in practice. Check out these example sentences of the verb dar below and then try some on your own!

1. Le doy mucha atención (I give him/her a lot of attention)
2. Te dio

    una carta? (

   Did he give you a card

   ?)

3. Daremos

   cien dólares a la iglesia (

   We will give 100 dollars to the church

   )

4. Daba

   clases de inglés en la Universidad (

   I used to give English classes at the university

   )

There you have it! You have graduated from beginner dar usage to intermediate dar usage. Let’s start theory classes on the next level of using dar and keep practicing.

Spanish Conjugation of Dar for Intermediate

In Intermediate dar, we will look at some of the more underground conjugations to create two verb sentences that enable us to talk about hypothetical situations. We will go over using the verb dar in the imperfect subjunctive tense as well as the verb dar in the conditional tense.

*Irregular in bold

SubjectImperfect Subjunctive
(if I) gave…Conditional
(I) would give…yodieradaríatúdierasdaríasél, ella, Usteddieradaríanosotrosdiéramosdaríamosvosotrosdieraisdaríaisellos, ellas, ustedesdierandarían

In Intermediate Spanish, we move up from one conjugated verb per sentence to two conjugated verbs. The tenses Imperfect Subjunctive and Conditional are like two peas in a pod in the grammar world- they go everywhere together!

Imagine you just won the lottery. In a hypothetical situation, you would say:

“If I had a million dollars, I would buy a Ferrari”

In English, the Imperfect Subjunctive is had, and the Conditional is would buy, as seen above. For the verb dar, the Imperfect Subjunctive is gave (diera), and the Conditional is would give (daría).

The best way to learn the conjugations at this level is by putting it in practice. Let’s take a look at some example sentences below.

Intermediate Example Sentences Using Dar

The following sentences show how the two magical verbs above form hypothetical sentences:

1. Si no le diera mi dinero, le daría mi tiempo (If I didn’t give her my money, I would give her my time)
2. Si su madre no le diera

   todo, se

   daría

   cuenta que la vida es difícil (

   If her mother didn’t give her everything, she would realize that life is difficult

   )

3. Si el profesor nos diera

   menos tareas, le

   daría

   un regalo (

   If the teacher gave us less homework, I would give him a present

   )

KEY TAKEAWAY: The Imperfect Subjunctive and the Conditional ALWAYS go together, no matter what verb you’re working with! Remember this powerful mnemonic device: Imperfect Love is Subjective and Conditional!!!

Spanish Conjugation of Dar for Advanced

In Advanced dar, we cover more advanced conjugations of the verb dar in the Past Perfect Subjunctive and the Perfect Conditional tense. We break down their meanings and give supplemental example sentences in this next section.

SubjectPast Perfect Subjunctive
(if I) had given…Perfect Conditional
(I) would have given…yohubiera dadohabría dadotúhubieras dadohabrías dadoél, ella, Ustedhubiera dadohabría dadonosotroshubieramos dadohabríamos dadovosotroshubierais dadohabríais dadoellos, ellas, ustedeshubieran dadohabrían dado

In Advanced Spanish, we move up from two verbs per sentence to four, and dive into the major “What if’s?” of life. These are the shoulda coulda wouldas of Spanish. It’s the perfect combination of perfect tenses- Past Perfect Subjunctive and Perfect Conditional.

In these tenses, we use the verb haber as an auxiliary verb, and the verb dar in it’s past participle -dado (see our other guide for more on Spanish past participles).

Using Perfect tenses are great because we just need to remember how to conjugate haber and then throw a past participle in the mix. This is an example with the verb dar, but any verb can follow this pattern.

“Si hubiera dado, hubiera hablado, si hubiera hecho…”
(If I had given, if I had spoken, if I had done…)

“Yo habría dado, habría hablado, habría hecho…”
(I would have given, would have spoken, I would have done…)

Again, once you start getting into the more intense levels of Spanish, nothing beats practicing the tenses to really get a grasp on them. Keep reading to get some examples of how to use dar using a combination of these advanced tenses.

Advanced Example Sentences Using Dar

Take a look at these advanced examples of dar below and try some on your own!

1. Si no le hubiera dado las respuestas, no las habría dado a la profe (If I hadn’t given her the answers, she wouldn’t have given them to the professor)
2. Si le hubiera dado

   tu número, lo

   habría dado

   a todo el mundo (

   If you had given him your number, he would have given it to everyone

   )

3. Si el profesor nos hubiera dado

   menos tareas, le

   habríamos dado

   un regalo (

   If the teacher had given us less homework, we would have given him a present

   )

THE BEST PART? In some Latin American countries, people use the Past Perfect Subjunctive twice to form a sentence, even though it is technically incorrect. Take the above sentence for example: “Si le hubiera dado tu número, lo hubiera dado a todo el mundo”. Do not be surprised if you hear locals speaking like this or even stress about adopting it, because it is more colloquial and easier to conjugate- like the English shortening of should have to shoulda.

Most Popular Colloquial Expressions Using Dar

Some expressions in Spanish don’t translate directly, and the verb dar seems to be present in many of these. Many times dar is used in lieu of the English verb to make (i.e. it makes me anxious = me da ansias, it makes me jealous = me da celos!) See some of the most common expressions with dar below:

• ¡Dale¡ – This can mean a variety of things – Hurry up! or Alright, let’s go! or Come on!
• Dar asco

  (

  me da asco

  !) – It makes me sick! Literally, it gives me disgust.

• Dar celos

  (

  me da celos

  !) – It makes me jealous.

• Dar cuerda 

  – To encourage someone, or to lead someone on.

• Dar de comer 

  – To feed

• Dar la cara por alguien 

  – To stand up to someone

• Dar en el clavo 

  – To hit the nail on the head

• Dar igual

  (

  me da igual

  !) – It doesn’t matter or It’s the same to me

• Dar ganas de

  (

  me da ganas de salir

  !) – I’m in the mood to… I’m in the mood to go out

• Dar las gracias 

  – To thank someone

• Dar a luz 

  – To give birth

• Dar una vuelta 

  – To go for a walk

• Darse cuenta de (me di cuenta!) 

  – To realize, come to the realization

• Darse por vencido

  (

  nunca me daré por vencido

  !) – To give up, I will never give up!

HERE’S THE CATCH: The Spanish verb realizar is a false cognate to the English verb realize. Cognate is the grammar equivalent of cousins. However, in Spanish, to realize something would be darse cuenta. For example, “Me di cuenta que tengo mucha suerte!” or I realized I am very lucky! The verb realizar can mean to bring to fruition, whether that be a dream or even a movie.

Key Takeaways of Dar

Today, we didn’t merely scan conjugation tables, but we looked at the six most common ways that you can ACTUALLY use the verb dar, from one verb per sentence to four:

1. I give (yo doy)
2. I gave (yo di)
3. I will give (yo daré)
4. I used to give (yo daba)
5. If I give, I would… (si yo diera, daría)
6. If I had given, I would have… (si hubiera dado, habría dado)

REMEMBER VERBAL PARTNERS THAT ALWAYS GO TOGETHER:

• Imperfect Subjunctive + Conditional (Imperfect Love is Subjective and Conditional!)
• Past Perfect Subjunctive + Perfect Conditional (Perfect Pals!)

Finally, we covered colloquial expressions with the verb dar and identified pesky false cognates! You should be a Dar master by now!

Click here to read our comprehensive guide to all Spanish tenses!

Additional Resources

Dale! If you want to practice your mastery of the verb dar, head to Clozemaster and get your grammar gaming on.

Practice conjugating dar and hundreds of other Spanish verbs in context with Clozemaster!