Costar Conjugation 101: Conjugate Costar In Spanish

Costar conjugation can help you practice the -AR verb conjugation pattern and O to UE stem changes. Seeing how necessary this verb is for daily conversations, in this guide, we’ll go over costar conjugation charts. Here is an overview of what we’ll cover: 

• Costar Overview
• Indicative Tenses of Costar 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 Costar Conjugations 
  • Present Subjunctive tense
  • Present Perfect Subjunctive tense
  • Imperfect Subjunctive tense
  • Past Perfect Subjunctive tense
• Imperative (Commands) of Costar Conjugations
• Uses & Examples
• Download Costar Conjugation Tables & Uses Cheat sheets
• Costar Conjugation Practice Quiz

Overview of Costar

The verb costar means ‘to cost’, ‘to find hard’, or ‘to struggle to do’. I have only used one translation in the conjugation charts below to keep the tables as organized and free of repetition as possible. You can learn more about the meanings of ‘costar’ in the section Uses & Meanings.

Indicative Conjugations of Costar

Present tense

Costar conjugation in the present tense has an O to UE stem change for all subjects except ‘nosotros’ and ‘vosotros’. We use the present forms of costar to refer to the current cost of things or to explain that someone struggles to do something.

For instance: Las galletas cuestan muy caras.

Preterite tense

We conjugate costar to the Spanish preterite tense to communicate the cost of things at a specific moment in the past. For example: El celular me costó $200 dólares.

Imperfect tense

Costar imperfect tense forms refer to how much things used to cost. You can also use these conjugations to talk about the things someone used to find difficult to do. For example: En ese tiempo, las televisiones costaban mucho dinero.

Near future

The Spanish near future tense is formed with ir (present tense) + a + infinitive verb (in this case, ‘costar’). We use these costar conjugations to communicate how much something is going to cost. Los boletos nos van a costar $500 dólares.

Future simple tense

Conjugate costar to the future simple tense to explain how much things will cost or what activities someone will find hard to do at some point in the future. Creo que el subjuntivo les costará un poco de trabajo.

Conditional tense

When conjugated to the Spanish conditional perfect tense, costar communicates the cost of something if a past action had been completed. Additionally, you can use these forms to make hypotheses about the cost of things. 

For instance: Si estudiaras más, las matemáticas no te costarían tanto.

Present perfect tense

Use this verb conjugated to the Spanish present perfect to talk about how much things have or haven’t cost. Haber in the present tense + costado (past participle) is the structure to form the present perfect costar conjugation. Here is an example: Su educación nos ha costado mucho dinero.

Past perfect

Use costar in the Spanish past perfect tense to talk about how much something had cost before another past action or past time frame. For example: Pensé que este carro te había costado menos. Use the imperfect form of ‘haber’ and the past participle form of ‘costar’ to form this tense.

Future perfect

In the future perfect tense, costar communicates how much things will have cost by or before a certain moment in the future. You can also use these forms to explain how much something might have cost. Estas televisiones les habrán costado mucho dinero.

Conditional perfect

When conjugated to the Spanish conditional perfect tense, costar communicates what the cost of something would have been if a past action had been completed. You can also use this tense to hypothesize about how much something cost in the past. 

For example: Si hubieran puesto atención, los verbos no les habrían costado tanto trabajo. 

Progressive tenses

The conjugations of costar in the progressive tenses are used to explain that someone is struggling to do something at the moment of speaking. For example: Este proyecto nos está costando mucho trabajo. The progressive tenses are formed with estar + costando (present participle).

Costar Subjunctive Conjugations

The subjunctive mood in Spanish is used to talk about wishes, requests, suggestions, expectations, doubts, or hypothetical situations. Below are the costar conjugation charts for the most common subjunctive tenses.

Present subjunctive

Costar present subjunctive conjugations have an O to UE stem change for all subjects except ‘nosotros’ and ‘vosotros’. In the present subjunctive, costar is used to express hopes, doubts, or desires about the current costs of things. 

For instance: No creo que te cueste más de diez pesos.

Present perfect subjunctive

To conjugate the present perfect subjunctive of costar, you must use the formula haber in the present subjunctive + costado. Use these conjugations to wonder or wish that the cost someone paid for something was high or low. For example: Ojalá que las camisas les hayan costado baratas.

Imperfect subjunctive

The imperfect subjunctive conjugations of ‘costar’ are used to talk about past suggestions, requests, doubts, or wishes someone had about the cost of something. No creí que las camisas costaran tanto. 

Depending on the type of Spanish you’re using, there are two ways to conjugate the imperfect subjunctive:

Latin American Spanish version

Note: Vostros is not used in Latin American Spanish. As a result, the previous table doesn’t include the conjugation for this pronoun.

Castilian Spanish version

Past perfect subjunctive

In the past perfect subjunctive, costar is used to talk about how much something would have cost if a past circumstance was met. Additionally, these conjugations also express regret for the price something had cost. 

For example: Si costaran más baratas, hubiéramos comprado esas flores. 

Costar Imperative Conjugations

The Spanish imperative mood conjugations are used to give orders. Since you cannot command someone about the cost of something, we never use the imperative forms of costar. 

Meanings of Costar & Examples

Now that you’ve learned how to conjugate costar, let’s check how to use and apply this verb correctly. 

Costar is a verb like gustar. In other words, its conjugation is based on the thing or activity you’re paying for. 

1. Express the cost of things

Los patines costaban muy baratos. 
The skates used to cost very little. 

¿Cuánto cuesta un boleto a México?
How much is a ticket to Mexico?

Take Note: When talking about the price of things, we usually refer to activities or singular and plural objects. As a result, the third-person forms of costar are the conjugations we use the most. 

2. Talk about activities someone struggles to do

[Indirect object pronoun] + [costar conjugated] + (trabajo/adverb)

Los verbos como gustar me cuestan mucho trabajo.
I struggle with verbs like gustar. 

Antes, cocinar nos costaba mucho. 
Before, cooking was very difficult for us. 

Download Costar Conjugation Tables & Uses Cheat sheets

You can download a copy of the free PDF cheat sheets which include all of the costar conjugation charts as well as its meanings and uses.

Download Conjugations PDF

Practice Quiz: Costar Conjugation

Now that you know how to conjugate costar in Spanish, you can solidify your knowledge of this verb by taking the costar conjugation practice quiz.

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