cansar means: to fatigue, to fordo, to get tired, to haze, to pall, to tire, to tucker, to weary
Click to see all conjugation charts of cansar in every tense

In this Spanish conjugation lesson we will learn how to conjugate the verb cansar in the Imperfecto tense of the Indicativo mood. It means we will see step by step how to create and translate forms of each grammatical person.

This lesson is specifically about the cansar verb conjugation. For an overview of all the Simple Tenses conjugation check our Simple Tenses Conjugation Chart.

We also have a Video Presentation on how to conjugate verbs in Imperfecto. It’s embedded below, but using the above link you will get more detailed information on conjugation in this tense as well as explanation of special cases and exceptions.

How to translate Imperfecto to English

Note that the phrases in English provided below next to each conjugation are not direct translations from Spanish to English. They are usually the closest general equivalents. The example differences are:

• In Spanish conjugation, there is the form usted in the third person singular. But this person does not translate to the English third person singular. It translates to the so called formal you and uses the inflected form which is most often represented as he/she/it in English conjugation charts.
• Similar situation happens in the third person plural, where ustedes translates to the English plural formal you but uses the form which corresponds to the they form in English.
• Tenses are used differently in Spanish and English, so the actual translation should always take into account the context and focus on translating the meaning, not just words.
• In both languages each verb may have multiple meanings and not every meaning translates directly to the other language. Here also, the context and focusing on the particular meaning helps to create the most accurate translation.

Note the timeline

The ability to properly locate the desired position on the timeline is an important skill for proper choice of tenses. So pay attention to the timeline in our lessons and visualize it while listening, speaking, writing and reading. After a bit practice you will be able to select the right tense to use much easier.

Step by step instructions

Imperfecto belongs to the simple tenses group, which means that all of its inflected forms are one word long. There are also compound (compuesto) tenses in the Spanish language, where each conjugated form consists of two words.The verb cansar has an entirely regular conjugation in the Imperfecto tense of the Indicativo mood. It means that this verb simply follows the general rules for its conjugation group (-ar) without any exceptions or spelling corrections. This tense is really easy, because there are only three exceptions! The basis for this conjugation is the stem of the verb, so we start by splitting the infinitive into a stem and an ending. It’s really easy to do. Simply remove two letters from the end of the infinitive and you have the ending — one of -ar, -er or -ir. What’s left is the stem. So in case of our verb:

• the stem is: cans-
• and the ending is: -ar

Use the stem cans- in each person as the basis for conjugation, the common prefix or root that each of the forms begins with. Next, add to this regular stem the endings specific to each person. Analyze the image showing all six endings. Note both the colors and shapes of the letters. They are arranged to help you find patterns and make it easier to remember these endings.Each grammatical person has a specific ending in each of the three conjugation groups -ar, -er, -ir. Add the regular ending -aba for the first person singular to create cansaba:

• yo cansaba – I fatigued

Similarly add the regular ending -abas for the second person singular to create cansabas:

• tú cansabas – you fatigued

Also as in the previous case add the regular ending -aba for the third person singular to create cansaba:

• él cansaba – he fatigued
• ella cansaba – she fatigued
• usted cansaba – (formal) you fatigued

Again add the regular ending -ábamos for the first person plural to create cansábamos. Note difference in spelling

Only the first person plural has an accent here.

This difference exists only in case of the verbs from the -ar group. Other groups always have an accented i in the ending in this tense.So add the accent to get cansábamos:

• nosotros cansábamos – we fatigued
• nosotras cansábamos – (feminine) we fatigued

Similarly add the regular ending -abais for the second person plural to create cansabais:

• vosotros cansabais – (plural) you fatigued
• vosotras cansabais – (feminine, plural) you fatigued

And once more add the regular ending -aban for the third person plural to create cansaban:

• ellos cansaban – they fatigued
• ellas cansaban – (feminine) they fatigued
• ustedes cansaban – (formal, plural) you fatigued

This is it! The conjugation is now complete. That’s the final result:

yo	cansaba	I fatigued
tú	cansabas	you fatigued
él/ella/usted	cansaba	he/she/it fatigued
nosotros/nosotras	cansábamos	we fatigued
vosotros/vosotras	cansabais	you fatigued
ellos/ellas/ustedes	cansaban	they fatigued

Click to see all conjugation charts of cansar in every tense
But do not end your session yet – it is very important to repeat and practice the material in order to retain it. Check below for some links.

Next Steps to Perfection To practice this conjugation and test yourself check this Conjugation Exercise or the Memory Game To see other conjugation lessons for this verb choose another tense: PresentePretéritoCondicionalFuturoPretérito Perfecto CompuestoPretérito PluscuamperfectoFuturo PerfectoCondicional PerfectoPretérito Perfecto Compuesto (subjuntivo)Pretérito Pluscuamperfecto A (subjuntivo)Pretérito Pluscuamperfecto B (subjuntivo)Futuro Perfecto (subjuntivo)  For exercises and examples related to cansar visit our Exercise section To see conjugation charts in all tenses for cansar visit the Conjugator To explore other learning materials visit the Study section

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