Buscar Conjugation 101: Conjugate Buscar in Spanish

Like other verbs ending with –car, there are certain consonant changes you must follow when conjugating buscar. To help you get familiar with these changes, in this guide, you’ll find charts with the most frequently used buscar conjugations. 

Here’s a summary of what you’ll find:

• Buscar Overview 
• Indicative Tenses of Buscar Conjugations
  • Present tense
  • Preterite tense
  • Imperfect tense
  • Near Future tense
  • Future tense
  • Conditional tense
  • Present Perfect tense
  • Past Perfect tense
  • Future Perfect tense
  • Conditional Perfect tense
  • Progressive tenses
• Subjunctive Tenses of Buscar Conjugations 
  • Present Subjunctive tense
  • Present Perfect Subjunctive tense
  • Imperfect Subjunctive tense
  • Past Perfect Subjunctive tense
• Imperative (Commands) of Buscar Conjugations
  • Affirmative Commands
  • Negative Commands
• Uses & Examples
• Download Buscar Conjugation Tables & Uses Cheat sheets
• Buscar Conjugation Practice Quiz

Take Note: There are many tenses in Spanish. However, we don’t use them all. Many are simply old and outdated. As a result, in this guide, you’ll only learn the tenses you need to know to become fluent in Spanish. 

Overview of Buscar

Indicative Conjugations of Buscar

Present tense

The present tense conjugations of buscar are regular. With this tense, ‘buscar’ refers to things people are currently looking for. For example: ¿qué buscas?

Preterite tense

In the preterite tense, buscar has a stem change when conjugating to the first person form, yo. As shown in the conjugation chart below, this pronoun uses the stem ‘busq-’. The preterite conjugations of ‘buscar’ refer to things someone searched at a specific moment in the past. Busqué en todos lados.

Imperfect tense

 The imperfect conjugations of ‘buscar’ allow you to talk about things people used to search repeatedly in the past. In conversational Spanish, the imperfect forms of buscar are a polite way to let clerks know what you’re looking for. Hola, buscaba un control universal.

Near future

 For the verb ‘buscar’, the Spanish immediate future is used to talk about the things you’ll search or look for soon in the future. En la tarde, vamos a ir a buscar los regalos. The near future of ‘buscar’ is formed with ir (present) + a + buscar and can be translated as “going to search/look/find”.

Future simple tense

Buscar’s future conjugations are regular. We use the future tense of ‘buscar’ to talk about things or people we plan to search or look for at some point in the future. For instance: en unos meses buscaremos otro departamento.

Conditional tense

 Buscar in the conditional tense is used to talk about the things you would search or look for if a certain circumstance was met. Si fuera tú, yo buscaría mi cartera hasta encontrarla.

Present perfect tense

The formula to conjugate the present perfect of ‘buscar’ is haber + buscado. In the present tense, ‘buscar’ is used to talk about things you have or haven’t looked for. ¿Dónde estabas? Te he buscado por todos lados.

Past perfect

Buscar conjugated to the past perfect tense communicates that someone searched or looked for something before some other reference point in the past. Te dije que ya había buscado aquí. The formula for the past perfect is haber (imperfect form) + buscado (past participle).

Future perfect

To form the future perfect of ‘buscar’, you must conjugate haber to the future tense and add buscado (the past participle of ‘buscar’). With this tense, ‘buscar’ is used to talk about the things for which someone will have searched by or before a certain time in the future. For instance: ¿crees que para el lunes ya habrás buscado mi libro?

Conditional perfect

‘Buscar’ to the conditional tense refers to things you would have searched or looked for if a past circumstance had been met. For example: si hubiera tenido más tiempo, habría buscado mejor.

Progressive tenses

The progressive tenses’ forms of ‘buscar’ are used to express that a person is searching or looking for something at the moment of speaking. For instance: cuando llegaste, estaba buscando mis llaves. The present progressive tenses of ‘buscar’ are formed with the structure estar + buscando.

Buscar Subjunctive Conjugations

In Spanish, the subjunctive mood is used to talk about wishes, hypothetical situations or express uncertainty. The conjugation charts below show the subjunctive forms of buscar.

Present subjunctive

All buscar subjunctive conjugations are irregular. To conjugate buscar to the subjunctive tense, you must use the stem ‘busqu-’. With this tense, ‘buscar’ is used to tell people what you want them to search for. For example: quiero que busques mis llaves.

Present perfect subjunctive

The present perfect subjunctive of ‘buscar’ is used to communicate hypotheses or express uncertainty about what people have searched. Haber in the present subjunctive + buscado is the structure you should use to build this tense. ¿Crees que Clive haya buscado tu celular?

Imperfect subjunctive

The imperfect subjunctive forms of ‘buscar’ can be used to talk about past requests to search something. For example, Cathy me pidió que buscara otro vuelo. 

The imperfect subjunctive has two conjugation models depending on which type of Spanish you’re speaking:

Latin American Spanish version

Note: The table above doesn’t include the conjugation for vosotros because this pronoun is not used in Latin American Spanish.

Castilian Spanish version

Past perfect subjunctive

In the past perfect subjunctive, buscar is used to talk about things you might have searched for if a past circumstance was met. This tense can also express regrets for things you wished you had searched for. For instance: me hubieras dicho y hubiéramos buscado tu cartera antes de irnos.

Buscar Imperative Conjugations

Spanish commands allow you to tell people what to do (affirmative commands) or what not to do (negative commands).

Affirmative commands

To conjugate the affirmative imperative of ‘buscar’ you must use the stem ‘busqu-’ for ‘usted’ and ‘ustedes’. With these conjugations, you can order people to search or look for something. For example: Emma, Luis, busque las llaves, por favor.

Negative commands

All the negative commands of ‘buscar’ use the stem ‘busqu-’. We use the negative imperative to order someone to not look or search for something. Por favor, no busques en mi bolsa.

Meanings of Buscar & Examples

Now that you’ve checked the conjugation charts for buscar, you should learn how to use this verb correctly. 

1. Talking about searching or looking for people or things

Buenas tardes, estoy buscando a Donna. 
Good afternoon, I’m looking for Donna. 

Todavía no hemos buscado aquí. 
We still haven’t searched here. 

Michelle quiere que busquemos el libro que nos prestó. 
Michelle wants us to look for the book we borrowed from her. 

Take Note: The prepositions a and en are frequently used with the verb ‘buscar’. A is used with people and en to imply that you’re searching for something in a room or enclosed space.

2. Expressing you’re picking up someone 

[Buscar conjugated] + a + [person]

Ahorita venimos, vamos a buscar a Lety. 
We’ll be right back, we’re picking Letty up. 

¿A qué hora van a buscar a los niños?
What time are you guys going to pick up the kids?

Download Buscar Conjugation Tables & Uses Cheat sheets

I’ve created a PDF for you to download containing all of the conjugation tables, verb characteristics, and uses so you can study it at your own pace!

Download Conjugations PDF

Practice Quiz: Buscar Conjugation

Take our buscar conjugations practice quiz to put your conjugation skills to the test and improve your use of this essential verb.