Recordar Conjugation 101: Conjugate Recordar in Spanish

Since it allows you to talk about memories and reminders, recordar is a fundamental verb for daily-life conversations. As a result, in this guide, you’ll learn the most important recordar conjugations.

Take Note: There are many tenses in Spanish. However, we don’t use them all. Some are simply old and outdated.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 Recordar

Verb CharacteristicProperty
Verb Type-AR
IrregularNo
InfinitiveRecordar
Gerund (Present Participle) FormRecordando
Past Participle FormRecordado
SynonymsAcordarse, rememorar

Stem Changes: –O to -UE

  • Present indicative & subjunctive: recuerd for ‘yo’, ‘tú’, ‘ella/él/usted’, ‘ellos/ellas/ustedes’; record for ‘nosotros’ and ‘vosotros’. 
  • Affirmative imperative: recuerd for ‘tú’, ‘usted’, ‘ustedes’
  • Negative imperative: recuerd for all subject pronouns

Recordar can be translated as ‘to remember’, ‘to recall’ or ‘to remind’. For simplicity, I’ve only included one translation in the conjugation examples included in the tables below.

Indicative Conjugations of Recordar

Present tense

With the exception of ‘nosotros’ and ‘vosotros’, the present tense conjugations for recordar have an -O to -UE stem change. With this tense, ‘recordar’ is used to talk about things you currently remember. For example: No recuerdo su nombre.

PersonConjugationTranslation
YoRecuerdoI remember
RecuerdasYou remember
Él / Ella
Usted
RecuerdaHe/She remembers
You (formal) remember
NosotrosRecordamosWe remember
VosotrosRecordáisYou remember
Ellos / Ellas
Ustedes
RecuerdanThey remember
You (plural) remember

Preterite tense

As shown in the conjugation chart below, the preterite forms of ‘recordar’ are regular. We use recordar in the preterite tense to talk about memories or things someone reminded you of something at a specific moment in the past. Chicas, ¿le recordaron a Kate de la fiesta?

PersonConjugationTranslation
YoRecordéI remembered
RecordasteYou remembered
Él / Ella
Usted
RecordóHe/She remembered
You (formal) remembered
NosotrosRecordamosWe remembered
VosotrosRecordasteisYou remembered
Ellos / Ellas
Ustedes
RecordaronThey remembered
You (plural) remembered

Imperfect tense

 The imperfect conjugations of ‘recordar’ are used to talk about things you used to remember repeatedly or memories you had at an unspecified moment in the past. No recordaba que Tina fue novia de Luis.

PersonConjugationTranslation
YoRecordabaI remembered
I used to remember
RecordabasYou remembered
You used to remember
Él / Ella
Usted
RecordabaHe/She remembered
He/She used to remember

You (formal) remembered
You (formal) used to remember
NosotrosRecordábamosWe remembered
We used to remember
VosotrosRecordabaisYou remembered
You used to remember
Ellos / Ellas
Ustedes
RecordabanThey remembered
They used to remember

You (plural) remembered
You (plural) used to remember

Near future

 The immediate future (or near future) is used to talk about things you’ll remember or remind someone of soon in the future. For example, te voy a recordar de tu tarea en unas horas. The near future is formed with ir (present tense) + a + recordar and can be translated as “going to remember”.

PersonConjugationTranslation
YoVoy a recordarI’m going to remember
Vas a recordarYou’re going to remember
Él / Ella
Usted
Va a recordarHe/She is going to remember
You (formal) are going to remember
NosotrosVamos a recordarWe’re going to remember
VosotrosVais a recordarYou’re going to remember
Ellos / Ellas
Ustedes
Van a recordarThey’re going to remember
You (plural) are going to remember

Future simple tense

The future tense communicates that a person will remember something at some point in the future. No te preocupes, no recordarás nada. 

PersonConjugationTranslation
YoRecordaréI will remember
RecordarásYou will remember
Él / Ella
Usted
RecordaráHe/She will remember
You (formal) will remember
NosotrosRecordaremosWe will remember
VosotrosRecordaréisYou (formal) will remember
Ellos / Ellas
Ustedes
RecordaránThey will remember
You (plural) will remember

Conditional tense

 We use the conditional conjugations of recordar to imply that someone would remind or remember something if certain conditions were met. Si pudiera, yo le recordaría…

PersonConjugationTranslation
YoRecordaríaI would remember
RecordaríasYou would remember
Él / Ella
Usted
RecordaríaHe/She would remember
You (formal) would remember
NosotrosRecordaríamosWe would remember
VosotrosRecordaríaisYou would remember
Ellos / Ellas
Ustedes
RecordaríanThey would remember
You (plural) would remember

Present perfect tense

The present perfect tense of ‘recordar’ is used to talk about things you have or haven’t remembered. For example, ¿has recordado lo que me querías decir? The present perfect is conjugated with the formula haber (present tense) + recordado. 

PersonConjugationTranslation
YoHe recordadoI have remembered
Has recordadoYou have remembered
Él / Ella
Usted
Ha recordadoHe/She has remembered
You (formal) have remembered
NosotrosHemos recordadoWe have remembered
VosotrosHabéis recordadoYou have remembered
Ellos / Ellas
Ustedes
Han recordadoThey have remembered
You (plural) have remembered

Past perfect

In the past perfect tense, ‘recordar’ allows you to explain that someone remembered something before some other reference point in the past. Ayer, Billy todavía no había recordado nuestra reunión. 

PersonConjugationTranslation
YoHabía recordadoI had remembered
Habías recordadoYou had remembered
Él / Ella
Usted
Había recordadoHe/She had remembered
You (formal) had remembered
NosotrosHabíamos recordadoWe had remembered
VosotrosHabíais recordadoYou had remembered
Ellos / Ellas
Ustedes
Habían recordadoThey had remembered
You (plural) had remembered

Future perfect

Recordar’s future perfect conjugations express that someone will have reminded or remembered something by or before a certain time in the future. For example, en unas horas habrás recordado lo que te dije.

PersonConjugationTranslation
YoHabré recordadoI will have remembered
Habrás recordadoYou will have remembered
Él / Ella
Usted
Habrá recordadoHe/She will have remembered
You (formal) will have remembered
NosotrosHabremos recordadoWe will have remembered
VosotrosHabréis recordadoYou will have remembered
Ellos / Ellas
Ustedes
Habrán recordadoThey will have remembered
You (plural) will have remembered

Conditional perfect

‘Recordar’ conjugated to the conditional perfect tense talks about things you would have remembered if a past condition had been met. For instance: no habría recordado esto sin tu ayuda. 

PersonConjugationTranslation
YoHabría recordadoI would have remembered
Habrías recordadoYou would have remembered
Él / Ella
Usted
Habría recordadoHe/She would have remembered
You (formal) would have remembered
NosotrosHabríamos recordadoWe would have remembered
VosotrosHabríais recordadoYou would have remembered
Ellos / Ellas
Ustedes
Habrían recordadoThey would have remembered
You (plural) would have remembered

Progressive tenses

The progressive tenses forms of ‘recordar’ imply that someone is remembering or reminding something to another at the moment of speaking. For instance: le estoy recordando a Patty de la fiesta. To form the progressive tenses, you must conjugate estar and use the gerund of ‘recordar’.

Progressive TenseFormulaTranslation Example
PresentEstar (present) + recordandoI am remembering
PreteriteEstar (preterite) + recordandoYou were remembering
ImperfectEstar (imperfect) + recordandoHe was remembering
FutureEstar (future) + recordandoWe will be remembering
ConditionalEstar (conditional) + recordandoThey would be remembering

Recordar Subjunctive Conjugations

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

Present subjunctive

Like the present indicative forms, some of the present subjunctive conjugations of recordar will have -O to -UE stem changes. We use recuerd- for all subjects except ‘nosotros’ and ‘vosotros’. In this tense, ‘recordar’ can be used to talk about the things you want people to remember or remind you. Te pido que le recuerdes a Jossie de mi dinero. 

PersonConjugationTranslation
YoRecuerdeI remember
RecuerdesYou remember
Él / Ella
Usted
RecuerdeHe/She remembers
You (formal) remember
NosotrosRecordemosWe remember
VosotrosRecordéisYou remember
Ellos / Ellas
Ustedes
RecuerdenThey remember
You (plural) remember

Present perfect subjunctive

Haber in the present subjunctive + recordado is the structure you should use to build the present perfect subjunctive form of ‘recordar’. With this tense, recordar can be used to express expectations or uncertainty about the things people remembered. Ojalá Lily le haya recordado a James. 

PersonConjugationTranslation
YoHaya recordadoI have remembered
Hayas recordadoYou have remembered
Él / Ella
Usted
Haya recordadoHe/She has remembered
You (formal) have remembered
NosotrosHayamos recordadoWe have remembered
VosotrosHayáis recordadoYou have remembered
Ellos / Ellas
Ustedes
Hayan recordadoThey have remembered
You (plural) have remembered

Imperfect subjunctive

We use the imperfect subjunctive of ‘recordar’ to talk about things we wanted someone to remember. This tense can also be used to express uncertainty about what a person remembered. For example: si recordara su nombre, todo sería más fácil. 

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

Latin American Spanish version

PersonConjugationTranslation
YoRecordaraI remembered
RecordarasYou remembered
Él / Ella
Usted
RecordaraHe/She remembered
You (formal) remembered
NosotrosRecordáramosWe remembered
Ellos / Ellas
Ustedes
RecordaranThey remembered
You (plural) remembered

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

Castilian Spanish version

PersonConjugationTranslation
YoRecordaseI remembered
RecordasesYou remembered
Él / Ella
Usted
RecordaseHe/She remembered
You (formal) remembered
NosotrosRecordásemosWe remembered
VosotrosRecordaseisYou remembered
Ellos / Ellas
Ustedes
RecordasenThey remembered
You (plural) remembered

Past perfect subjunctive

In the past perfect subjunctive, recordar communicates that someone would have remembered something if a past circumstance was met. In this tense, ‘recordar’ can also be used to make hypotheses about what would happen if someone had remembered something. For example: si me hubieras recordado a tiempo, te habría ayudado.

PersonConjugationTranslation
YoHubiera recordadoI had remembered
Hubieras recordadoYou had remembered
Él / Ella
Usted
Hubiera recordadoHe/She had remembered
You (formal) had remembered
NosotrosHubiéramos recordadoWe had remembered
VosotrosHubierais recordadoYou had remembered
Ellos / Ellas
Ustedes
Hubieran recordadoThey had remembered
You (plural) had remembered

Aprender Imperative Conjugations

Commands in Spanish allow us to tell others what to do (affirmative commands) or what not to do (negative commands).

Affirmative commands

With the exception of vosotros, all the affirmative commands of ‘recordar’ use the stem recuerd-. We use the affirmative imperative to order someone to remember or remind something to another person. Recuérdame que necesitamos leche.

PersonConjugationTranslation
RecuerdaRemember
UstedRecuerdeRemember
VosotrosRecordadRemember
UstedesRecuerdenRemember

Negative commands

Below is the conjugation chart for the negative commands of ‘recordar’. These conjugations are difficult to find in conversations because it’s uncommon to order someone to not remember something.

PersonConjugationTranslation
No recuerdesDon’t remember
UstedNo recuerdeDon’t remember
VosotrosNo recordéisDon’t remember
UstedesNo recuerdenDon’t remember

Meanings of Recordar & Examples

Below are some sentences with recordar in different tenses. You’ll also find common applications and elements you must use with this verb. 

Talking about memories and reminders 

Que yo recuerde esta no es la casa de Larry. 
As far as I remember this is not Larry’s house

¿Ya recordaste cómo se llama este lugar?
Did you already remember the name of this place?

Gracias por haberme recordado
Thank you for reminding me

Craig nos recuerda a su papá. 
Craig reminds us of his dad. 

Take Note: When using indirect object pronouns, ‘recordar’ means ‘to remind’. Do not confuse this meaning with ‘me acuerdo’! Acordarse is a synonym of ‘recordar’, but it doesn’t work with the same elements. Click here to check the difference. 

Download Recordar 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!

Practice Quiz: Recordar Conjugation

Practice your conjugation skills for ‘recordar’ by taking our verb conjugation practice quiz, where you can choose any combination of tenses you’d like to focus on.

Daniela Sanchez

¡Hola! Soy Daniela Sanchez, I've been studying Spanish professionally as well as teaching it in Mexico and online for over 10 years. I’ve taught Spanish to a wide array of foreigners from many backgrounds. Over the years, I've made it my mission to work hard on refining many challenging to understand grammar topics to make my students' learning experiences easier, faster and more enjoyable. Read More About Me

Recent Posts

Pin It on Pinterest