“Perder” Conjugation in Spanish: Let’s Get Lost!

Do you often lose your keys or misplace your phone? Well, you’ve come to the right place. We won’t be able to help you find them, but we’ll teach you how to explain the situation to your Spanish-speaking friends. In this article, we’ll go over the perder conjugation.

We’ll start by looking at what type of verb it is and its verbals. We’ll then move on to perder conjugation basics and move on to more advanced tenses. We’ll finish off with some fun phrases that include this verb. Let’s get to it!

What kind of verb is perder?

Perder is a stem-changing verb. Therefore, it doesn’t follow the standard conjugation for verbs ending in “-er.” But don’t stress! You’ll dominate the perder irregularities in no time.

As you probably know by now, in Spanish, verbs end either in “-ar,” “-er,” or “ir.” The other part of the verb is called a stem. Stem-changing verbs are those that change the last vowel of the stem in some conjugations. Perder sometimes changes the “e” for an “ie” in some cases, as we’ll see below.

If you are unclear about stem-changing verbs, you can find more information in this article.

Verbals of perder: infinitive, gerund and participle

Now that we know what type of verb perder is, let’s dig into its conjugation. We’ll start by looking at its verbals: the infinitive, the gerund and the participle. These verbals function as nouns, adjectives and adverbs instead of actual verbs. This may sound tricky, but we promise it’s pretty straightforward, as you’ll see with the examples below.

Infinitive

Perder (to lose/misplace)

• Vamos a perder el partido. (We’re going to lose the match.)
• Perdí mis zapatos rojos. (I’ve misplaced my red shoes.)

Gerund

Perdiendo (losing)

• Estamos perdiendo mucho dinero en este negocio. (We’re losing a lot of money in this deal.)

Participle

Perdido (lost/misplaced)

• He perdido todos mis alfileres. (I’ve lost all of my pins.)
• Si no hubiese perdido mis llaves, no te hubiese llamado. (Had I not misplaced my keys, I wouldn’t have called you.)

Perder conjugation for all levels

Have I lost you? Perder conjugation for beginners

As you’re probably tired of hearing by now, the Spanish indicative mood has ten tenses. We’ll first go over the most common and simplest forms of the perder conjugation of the indicative mood: presente (present), pretérito imperfecto (imperfect preterite, a form of the past tense), pretérito perfecto (perfect preterite, another form of the past tense) and futuro (future).

Subject	Present	Imperfect Preterite	Perfect Preterite	Future
Yo (I)	pierdo	perdía	perdí	perderé
Tu (You) Vos (Latin America)	pierdes perdés	perdías	perdiste	perderás
Usted (You, formal) El/Ella (He/She/It)	pierde	perdía	perdió	perderá
Nosotros (We)	perdemos	perdíamos	perdimos	perderemos
Vosotros (You, plural) Ustedes (Latin America)	perdéis pierden	perdíais perdían	perdisteis perdieron	perderéis perderán
Ellos (Them)	pierden	perdían	perdieron	perderán

Perder conjugation examples for beginners

• Present: Ustedes se lo pierden. (It’s your loss.)
• Imperfect preterite: Hace años que no perdían un partido. (They hadn’t lost a match in years.)
• Perfect preterite: ¿Perdiste tus gafas? (Have you lost your glasses?)
• Future: Cuando sea grande, no perderé mi sentido del humor como tú. (When I grow up, I won’t lose my sense of humor like you have.)

Are you losing it? Perder conjugation for intermediate students

We’ve got the basics down. It’s time to kick things up a notch! In this section, we’ll focus on the compound tenses of the perder conjugation in the indicative mood.

The key to learning these tenses is mastering the haber conjugation. The only form of perder that is actually used here is the participle “perdido ”. Why? Well, compound tenses in Spanish are formed with the correct form of the verb haber + the past participle of the verb in question (i.e., perdido), which is the one that carries the meaning.

In the table below you’ll find the pretérito perfecto (preterite perfect), pluscuamperfecto (pluperfect) and futuro compuesto (future perfect) tenses for perder. You might consider looking at our article on the haber conjugation for some extra help.

Subject	Preterite Perfect	Pluperfect	Future Perfect
Yo (I)	he perdido	había perdido	habré perdido
Tu/Vos (You)	has perdido	habías perdido	habrás perdido
Usted (You, formal) El/Ella (He/She/It)	ha perdido	había perdido	habrá perdido
Nosotros (We)	hemos perdido	habíamos perdido	habremos perdido
Vosotros (You, plural) Ustedes (Latin America)	habéis perdido han perdido	habíais perdido habían perdido	habréis perdido habrán perdido
Ellos (Them)	han perdido	habían perdido	habrán perdido

Perder conjugation examples for intermediate level

• Preterite perfect: Mónica ha perdido todos sus lápices. (Mónica has lost all of her pencils.)
• Pluperfect: Habías perdido tanto tiempo en esto. (You had lost so much time doing this.)
• Future perfect: ¿Habremos perdido la cordura? (Would we have lost our sanity?)

Losing your head: perder conjugation for advanced learners

Are you ready to lose it all? In this section, we’ll cover the subjunctive mood. This Spanish mood is indeed quite moody as it is used to express doubts, emotions, desires, and the unknown! In this section, we’ll cover the presente (present), imperfecto (imperfect) and futuro (future) tenses for the perder conjugation.

Subject	Present	Imperfect	Future
Yo (I)	pierda	perdiera o perdiese	perdiere
Tu (You) Vos (Latin America)	pierdas	perdieras o perdieses	perdieres
Usted (You, formal) El/Ella (He/She/It)	pierda	perdiera o perdiese	perdiere
Nosotros (We)	perdamos	perdiéramos o perdiésemos	perdiéremos
Vosotros (You, plural) Ustedes (Latin America)	perdáis pierdan	perdierais o perdieseis perdieran o perdiesen	perdiereis perdieren
Ellos (Them)	pierdan	perdieran o perdiesen	perdieren

Perder conjugation examples for advanced learners

• Present: ¡Ojalá no pierdan el tren! (I hope they don’t miss their train!)
• Imperfect: Si perdiera mis notas, no pasaría el examen. (If I lost my notes, I would fail my exam.)

The subjunctive future is rarely heard in conversation nowadays. This tense has been relegated mainly to literature or legal contexts. That is why we haven’t added a conjugation example for the perder subjunctive future here. However, we still think knowing what it looks like is important.

Don’t lose heart! Conditional tenses and imperative

Are you confident in your abilities? So are we! That is why, in this section, we’ll cover three more tenses: the condicional simple (simple conditional), the condicional compuesto (conditional perfect), and the imperative.

Subject	Simple Conditional	Conditional Perfect	Imperative
Yo (I)	perdería	habré perdido
Tu (You) Vos (Latin America)	perderías	habrás perdido	¡pierde! ¡perdé!
Usted (You, formal) El/Ella (He/She/It)	perdería	habrá perdido	¡pierda!
Nosotros (We)	perderíamos	habremos perdido	¡perdamos!
Vosotros (You, plural) Ustedes (Latin America)	perderíais perderían	habréis perdido habrán perdido	¡perded! ¡pierdan!
Ellos (Them)	perderían	habrán perdido	¡pierdan!

Perder conjugation examples in the conditional tenses

• Simple conditional: Si prestaras atención, no perderías tu móvil todo el tiempo. (If you paid attention, you wouldn’t misplace your phone all the time.)
• Conditional perfect: Si Marcos no hubiese perdido su billetera, podríamos haber salido a cenar. (If Marcos had not lost his wallet, we could’ve gone out for dinner.)

If you want more information on conditional tenses, you should read this article.

Although you can use perder in the imperative, it sounds a bit off. Well, unless you are willing the other football team to lose a match by yelling “¡Pierdan!” (Lose!) to the TV.

It’s unlikely you’ll use the verb in this conjugation unless we are talking about its pronominal form, which we’ll see below.

The pronominal form: perderse

The verb perder also has a pronominal form. While “perder” means to lose or waste something, “perderse” means to get lost or miss out on something. Let’s take a look at a couple of examples.

• Llegué tarde a casa y me perdí la novela. (I got home late and missed my soap.)
• Mi hija se perdió en el supermercado. (My daughter got lost in the supermarket.)
• ¡Siempre nos perdemos toda la diversión! (We always miss all the fun!)

Pronominal verbs just add the reflexive pronoun. You can learn more about these pronouns here.

Idioms and expressions related to perder

Now that we’ve found all of your conjugation skills, we’ll move on to some extra vocabulary that may come in handy. Here are some idioms and set phrases related to the verb perder.

El tiempo es oro

This phrase is the equivalent of “time is money” in English. It warns not to waste your time, as it is very valuable.

No saber perder

This one is the equivalent of the English “to be a sore loser.” Do you know any of those? We think it’s best to avoid them.

Echar(se) a perder

This means to spoil something or for something to get spoiled. For example, “Julia hecho a perder su oportunidad.” (Julia wasted her opportunity.) or “La sopa se ha echado a perder.” (The soup is gone bad.)

Perder de vista

We use this phrase when we’ve lost sight of someone or something: ¿Has visto a Juancito? Lo he perdido de vista. (Have you seen Juancito? I can’t find him.)

Perder el hilo

This phrase translates beautifully to “lose the thread.” Have you ever lost the thread of a conversation? Or of a Spanish conjugation article?

We hope this guide on the perder conjugation has answered your questions regarding this verb and its different meanings. If you want more information on Spanish conjugations, feel free to check out our overview of Spanish tenses. Also, if someone is helping you find your lost keys, you might want to learn how to thank them in this article.