Recordar Conjugation 101: Conjugate Recordar in Spanish

In this lesson

    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 Some are simply old and outdated.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
    TúRecuerdasYou 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
    TúRecordasteYou 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
    TúRecordabasYou 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
    TúVas 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
    TúRecordarásYou 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
    TúRecordaríasYou 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
    TúHas 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
    TúHabías 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
    TúHabrás 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
    TúHabrías 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

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    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
    TúRecuerdesYou 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
    TúHayas 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
    TúRecordarasYou 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
    TúRecordasesYou 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
    TúHubieras 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
    TúRecuerdaRemember
    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
    TúNo 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.

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    Daniela Sanchez

    Native Spanish Teacher · Mexico · 10+ years experience

    Daniela is the founder of Tell Me In Spanish and a native Spanish speaker from Mexico. She's been teaching Spanish online since 2014 and has helped over 26,000 learners build real fluency. Her approach focuses on the patterns and vocabulary that actually matter in everyday conversation.

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