Dar Conjugation: Essential Tenses, Tables and Examples
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Dar is one of the shortest verbs in Spanish, and one of the busiest. It means “to give” and appears in everyday expressions such as dar un paseo, darse cuenta and dar igual. It is an -ar verb, but its preterite forms follow an irregular pattern that resembles the endings of -er and -ir verbs: di, diste, dio.
This guide lays out the forms of dar that learners are most likely to meet, with examples and a selection of useful expressions. You can use the first section as a short list, then return to the fuller tables as you need them.
The Dar Conjugation Hack: Learn These First
You do not need to memorise a complete conjugation table before you use dar in conversation. Begin with a small set of frequent forms.
If you learn nothing else today, learn the present tense of dar by heart:
- doy (“I give”), das (“you give”), da (“he/she gives” or formal singular “you give”), damos (“we give”), dais (informal plural “you give” in most of Spain), dan (“they give” or plural “you give”)
That row supports gift-giving, favours and many common expressions. Add the preterite (di, “I gave”) for a completed past event and the imperfect (daba, “I used to give”) for repeated or background situations. The other forms can follow as your conversations require them.
Right, now let's build the full picture.
Dar at a Glance
| Infinitive | dar |
| Gerund (-ing) | dando |
| Past participle | dado |
| Verb type | irregular |
| English meaning | “to give” |
The forms below follow the RAE and ASALE conjugation table. First, here are the pronouns used in each row:
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| yo | I |
| tú | you (informal singular) |
| él / ella / usted | he / she / you (formal singular) |
| nosotros / nosotras | we |
| vosotros / vosotras | you all (informal, used mainly in Spain) |
| ellos / ellas / ustedes | they / you all (ustedes is the usual plural “you” across Latin America and can be formal or informal) |
Dar Conjugation: Indicative Mood (Simple Tenses)
The indicative presents situations as assertions, questions or descriptions rather than through a subjunctive frame. Here are five common simple forms of dar in one place:
| Pronoun | Present | Preterite | Imperfect | Future | Conditional |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| yo | doy | di | daba | daré | daría |
| tú | das | diste | dabas | darás | darías |
| él / ella / usted | da | dio | daba | dará | daría |
| nosotros/as | damos | dimos | dábamos | daremos | daríamos |
| vosotros/as | dais | disteis | dabais | daréis | daríais |
| ellos / ellas / ustedes | dan | dieron | daban | darán | darían |
And here's each one in action:
- Present – Te doy mi palabra. – “I give you my word.”
- Preterite (a finished past event) – Le di las gracias por su ayuda. – “I thanked him for his help.”
- Imperfect (a past description or repeated action) – De niña, mi abuela siempre me daba caramelos. – “As a child, my grandmother always used to give me sweets.”
- Future – Te daré la respuesta mañana. – “I'll give you the answer tomorrow.”
- Conditional – Me daría mucha alegría verte. – “It would give me great joy to see you.”
Dar Conjugation: Indicative Mood (Compound Tenses)
Good news here: the compound tenses are the easy part. Every one of them is simply the verb haber (conjugated) plus the past participle dado. Learn haber once and these fall into place for every verb in Spanish.
| Pronoun | Present Perfect | Pluperfect | Future Perfect | Conditional Perfect |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| yo | he dado | había dado | habré dado | habría dado |
| tú | has dado | habías dado | habrás dado | habrías dado |
| él / ella / usted | ha dado | había dado | habrá dado | habría dado |
| nosotros/as | hemos dado | habíamos dado | habremos dado | habríamos dado |
| vosotros/as | habéis dado | habíais dado | habréis dado | habríais dado |
| ellos / ellas / ustedes | han dado | habían dado | habrán dado | habrían dado |
- Present perfect – Me has dado una idea genial. – “You've given me a great idea.”
- Pluperfect – Ya le había dado las llaves antes de irme. – “I had already given him the keys before I left.”
- Future perfect – Para entonces, ya habremos dado el paseo. – “By then, we'll have already taken the walk.”
- Conditional perfect – Habría dado cualquier cosa por estar allí. – “I would have given anything to be there.”
The pretérito anterior, as in hube dado, also exists. It is now rare outside formal or literary contexts, so most beginners only need to recognise it.
Dar Conjugation: Subjunctive Mood
The subjunctive appears in many clauses involving wishes, reactions, purpose, possibility and situations the speaker does not present as a straightforward assertion. The present and imperfect subjunctive are useful places to begin with dar.
| Pronoun | Present Subjunctive | Imperfect Subjunctive (-ra) | Imperfect Subjunctive (-se) |
|---|---|---|---|
| yo | dé | diera | diese |
| tú | des | dieras | dieses |
| él / ella / usted | dé | diera | diese |
| nosotros/as | demos | diéramos | diésemos |
| vosotros/as | deis | dierais | dieseis |
| ellos / ellas / ustedes | den | dieran | diesen |
Notice the accent on dé in the yo and él/ella/usted forms. Without it, de is a completely different word, the preposition meaning “of” or “from”. That little mark is doing loads of work.
The imperfect subjunctive has forms in -ra and -se. In ordinary subjunctive uses they are usually interchangeable, although their frequency and stylistic feel vary. The -ra form is more common overall, so it is a practical first choice.
- Present subjunctive – Espero que me dé una segunda oportunidad. – “I hope he gives me a second chance.”
- Imperfect subjunctive – Si me dieras la oportunidad, te sorprendería. – “If you gave me the chance, I'd surprise you.”
The subjunctive also has compound forms, built (again) from haber plus dado:
| Pronoun | Present Perfect Subj. | Pluperfect Subj. |
|---|---|---|
| yo | haya dado | hubiera / hubiese dado |
| tú | hayas dado | hubieras / hubieses dado |
| él / ella / usted | haya dado | hubiera / hubiese dado |
| nosotros/as | hayamos dado | hubiéramos / hubiésemos dado |
| vosotros/as | hayáis dado | hubierais / hubieseis dado |
| ellos / ellas / ustedes | hayan dado | hubieran / hubiesen dado |
There is also a future subjunctive (diere, dieres…). It is rare in present-day conversation but still appears in legal, administrative and literary language and in some fixed expressions. Most learners can treat it as a recognition form.
Dar Conjugation: Imperative Mood (Commands)
Telling someone to “give” something uses the imperative, and dar has one quirk worth flagging: the informal tú command and the negative tú command don't look anything alike.
| Pronoun | Affirmative | Negative |
|---|---|---|
| tú | da | no des |
| usted | dé | no dé |
| nosotros/as | demos | no demos |
| vosotros/as | dad | no deis |
| ustedes | den | no den |
- Dame el mapa, por favor. – “Give me the map, please.”
- No des tantas vueltas al asunto. – “Stop going round in circles about it.”
When to Use Dar
Dar covers literal giving, such as handing something to someone, giving a gift or giving your word. It also appears in many everyday expressions:
- Literal giving – Te doy este regalo. – “I'm giving you this present.”
- dar un paseo (“to take a walk”) – Vamos a dar un paseo por la playa. – “Let's take a walk along the beach.”
- darse cuenta (de) (“to realise”) – No me di cuenta de la hora. – “I didn't realise what time it was.”
- dar igual (“to not matter, to make no difference”) – Me da igual qué película veamos. – “It doesn't matter to me which film we watch.”
- dar a (“to face, to overlook”) – Mi ventana da al jardín. – “My window looks out onto the garden.”
- A few more worth banking: dar las gracias (to thank), dar un abrazo (to give a hug), darse prisa (to hurry up), dar con (to come across, to find).
None of these translate word for word, so treat them as vocabulary in their own right rather than trying to reconstruct them from “give” each time.
Why Is Dar Irregular?
Dar is an -ar verb, but its preterite does not follow the regular -ar pattern. The forms are di, diste, dio, dimos, disteis and dieron. Their endings resemble those of -er and -ir preterites, but di and dio carry no written accent because they are monosyllables and do not need a distinguishing accent. Older texts may show dió, but the current spelling is dio.
The present tense has its own quirk: doy ends in -oy, an ending shared by exactly three other verbs, ir (voy), ser (soy), and estar (estoy). These are sometimes taught together as “the four -oy verbs”, and once you've clocked the pattern, doy stops looking so odd.
Common Mistakes with Dar
Here are three common traps:
- Adding an accent to di or dio. Learners often reach for dí or dió by analogy with dé, but the preterite forms carry no written accent. Dí and dió are both wrong.
- Mixing up dé and de. Dé (with an accent) is the present subjunctive/formal command; de (no accent) is the preposition “of” or “from”. Espero que me dé el libro versus el libro de mi hermano look almost identical on the page but mean very different things.
- Translating the idioms literally. Dar un paseo isn't “to give a walk”, it's “to take a walk”. Learn the idiom as a fixed phrase rather than building it word by word, or you'll end up with sentences that are grammatically fine and make no sense.
Dar Conjugation FAQ
Is dar regular or irregular? Irregular. Its present tense (doy) and preterite (di, diste, dio…) both break from the standard -ar pattern.
What are the six present-tense forms of dar? Doy, das, da, damos, dais, dan, which is “I give, you give, he/she gives, we give, you all give, they give.”
How do you conjugate dar in the preterite? Di, diste, dio, dimos, disteis, dieron, note there's no written accent on di or dio, even though they're stressed on that syllable.
Why does dar's past tense look like an -er/-ir verb? Its irregular preterite uses endings that resemble the -er and -ir pattern rather than the regular -ar pattern. The forms also run parallel to the preterite of ver: vi, viste, vio, vimos, visteis, vieron.
What's the difference between dé and de? Dé (accented) is a form of the verb dar, used in the present subjunctive and as the formal command. De (no accent) is the preposition “of” or “from”. Context and that tiny accent mark are all that separate them.
¡Ya Sabes Dar!
You now have the main simple and compound forms of dar, examples of the forms learners meet most often, and a set of useful expressions. That is a solid foundation to build on.
To remember these forms, use a few of them in sentences that matter to you. You can also build them into flashcards with Anki. Our guides to ser vs estar and Spanish numbers add other useful foundations. To hear dar in recorded conversations, this SpanishPod101 review explains what the service provides.
The tables are a reference. What matters is using the verb for something real, whether you are offering un regalo, suggesting un paseo or giving tu palabra. That is the kind of speaking practice we build inside the Fluent in 3 Months Bootcamp. ¡Dale una oportunidad!
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