Llegar Conjugation 101: Conjugate Llegar in Spanish

Among other things, Llegar primarily is used to talk about arriving somewhere and achieving goals. Since this is a common verb that beginners need to add to your vocabulary, in this guide, you’ll learn all the conjugations of llegar and some of its most main uses. 

Here is a quick overview of the topics we’ll cover:

Take Note: There are a few more tenses in Spanish than those included below. However, we don’t use them all as they’re simply old and outdated. So, in this guide, you’ll only learn the tenses you need to know to become fluent in Spanish.

Overview of Llegar

Verb CharacteristicProperty
Verb Type-AR
IrregularNo
InfinitiveLlegar
Gerund (Present Participle) FormLlegando
Past Participle FormLlegado
SynonymsVenir, alcanzar

Stem-Changes: -gar to gu

  • Preterite: llegu only for ‘yo’.
  • Present Subjunctive: llegu for all subject pronouns.
  • Affirmative Imperative: llegu only for ‘usted’ and ‘ustedes’.
  • Negative Imperative: llegu for all subject pronouns.

Indicative Conjugations of Llegar

Present tense

The present tense of llegar is used to talk about facts such as where you or someone arrives at a certain destination. For example, yo llego a las dos (I arrive at two).

PersonConjugationTranslation
YoLlegoI arrive
LlegasYou arrive
Él / Ella
Usted
LlegaHe/She arrives
You (formal) arrive
NosotrosLlegamosWe arrive
VosotrosLlegáisYou arrive
Ellos / Ellas
Ustedes
LleganThey arrive
You (plural) arrive

Preterite tense

The preterite tense conjugation of ‘llegar’ has a spelling change on the pronoun yo. With this pronoun, we must add a u to the stem to keep the pronunciation consistent (llegu-). In the preterite tense, ‘llegar’ communicates when or where you arrived at a specific moment in the past. Ayer llegamos a las 9.

PersonConjugationTranslation
YoLleguéI arrived
LlegasteYou arrived
Él / Ella
Usted
LlegóHe/She arrived
You (formal) arrived
NosotrosLlegamosWe arrived
VosotrosLlegasteisYou arrived
Ellos / Ellas
Ustedes
LlegaronThey arrived
You (plural) arrived

Imperfect tense

 In Spanish, the indicative imperfect conjugation of llegar is used to talk about past habits or past actions without a clear beginning or ending. For example, yo siempre llegaba tarde (I always used to arrive late). ‘Llegar’ imperfect conjugation means ‘arrived’ or ‘used to arrive’.

PersonConjugationTranslation
YoLlegabaI arrived
LlegabasYou arrived
Él / Ella
Usted
LlegabaHe/She arrived
You (formal) arrived
NosotrosLlegábamosWe arrived
VosotrosLlegabaisYou arrived
Ellos / Ellas
Ustedes
LlegabanThey arrived
You (plural) arrived

Near future

 The Spanish near future is used to talk about the time or places where you’ll arrive in the immediate future. For example: voy a llegar a la tienda. The formula for this tense is ir (present) + a + llegar.

PersonConjugationTranslation
YoVoy a llegarI’m going to arrive
Vas a llegarYou’re going to arrive
Él / Ella
Usted
Va a llegarHe/She is going to arrive
You (formal) is going to arrive
NosotrosVamos a llegarWe’re going to arrive
VosotrosVais a llegarYou’re going to arrive
Ellos / Ellas
Ustedes
Van a llegarThey’re going to arrive
You (plural) are going to arrive

Future simple tense

The Spanish future allows you to express that you will arrive or reach something at some point in the future. Here is an example: Julia llegará a los diez millones de seguidores en un mes.

PersonConjugationTranslation
YoLlegaréI will arrive
LlegarásYou will arrive
Él / Ella
Usted
LlegaráHe/She will arrive
You (formal) will arrive
NosotrosLlegaremosWe will arrive
VosotrosLlegaréisYou (formal) will arrive
Ellos / Ellas
Ustedes
LlegaránThey will arrive
You (plural) will arrive

Conditional tense

 The conditional form of ‘llegar’ conveys that someone would get to a place or reach a goal if certain circumstances are met. For example: si pudiera, llegaría más temprano.

PersonConjugationTranslation
YoLlegaríaI would arrive
LlegaríasYou would arrive
Él / Ella
Usted
LlegaríaHe/She would arrive
You (formal) would arrive
NosotrosLlegaríamosWe would arrive
VosotrosLlegaríaisYou would arrive
Ellos / Ellas
Ustedes
LlegaríanThey would arrive
You (plural) would arrive

Present perfect tense

Haber (present) + past participle of llegar is the formula to conjugate the present perfect in Spanish. With this tense, ‘llegar’ can be used to talk about the time or the place where you’ve arrived in a moment close to the present. For instance: todavía no ha llegado mi paquete.

PersonConjugationTranslation
YoHe llegadoI have arrived
Has llegadoYou have arrived
Él / Ella
Usted
Ha llegadoHe/She has arrived
You (formal) have arrived
NosotrosHemos llegadoWe have arrived
VosotrosHabéis llegadoYou have arrived
Ellos / Ellas
Ustedes
Han llegadoThey have arrived
You (plural) have arrived

Past perfect

To conjugate to the past perfect tense, you need to use the imperfect form of haber + llegado, which is the past participle form of ‘llegado’. The past perfect of ‘llegar’ expresses that you arrived before some other reference point in the past. Cuando me fui, Lois todavía no había llegado.

PersonConjugationTranslation
YoHabía llegadoI had arrived
Habías llegadoYou had arrived
Él / Ella
Usted
Había llegadoHe/She had arrived
You (formal) had arrived
NosotrosHabíamos llegadoWe had arrived
VosotrosHabíais llegadoYou had arrived
Ellos / Ellas
Ustedes
Habían llegadoThey had arrived
You (plural) had arrived

Future perfect

The future perfect conjugations of ‘llegar’ is built by conjugating haber to the future tense and adding llegar’s past participle (llegado). This verb in the future perfect tense communicates you will arrive somewhere by or before a certain time in the future. Sally habrá llegado para entonces.

PersonConjugationTranslation
YoHabré llegadoI will have arrived
Habrás llegadoYou will have arrived
Él / Ella
Usted
Habrá llegadoHe/She will have arrived
You (formal) will have arrived
NosotrosHabremos llegadoWe will have arrived
VosotrosHabréis llegadoYou will have arrived
Ellos / Ellas
Ustedes
Habrán llegadoThey will have arrived
You (plural) will have arrived

Conditional perfect

The conditional perfect in Spanish describes hypothetical past actions or events that would have been dependent on a past condition. For example, habrías llegado temprano si no fuera por el tráfico.

PersonConjugationTranslation
YoHabría llegadoI would have arrived
Habrías llegadoYou would have arrived
Él / Ella
Usted
Habría llegadoHe/She would have arrived
You (formal) would have arrived
NosotrosHabríamos llegadoWe would have arrived
VosotrosHabríais llegadoYou would have arrived
Ellos / Ellas
Ustedes
Habrían llegadoThey would have arrived
You (plural) would have arrived

Progressive tenses

The progressive tenses in Spanish refer to actions that are currently in progress. ‘Llegar’ expresses that someone is arriving right now. 

The structure to form these tenses is:

[‘estar’ conjugated] + [gerund form of ‘llegar’ (llegando)]

Progressive TenseFormulaTranslation Example
PresentEstar (present) + llegandoI am arriving
PreteriteEstar (preterite) + llegandoYou were arriving
ImperfectEstar (imperfect) + llegandoHe was arriving
FutureEstar (future) + llegandoWe will be arriving
ConditionalEstar (conditional) + llegandoThey would be arriving

Llegar Subjunctive Conjugations

Present subjunctive

The present subjunctive conjugations of llegar have a spelling change. Since all the endings for the present subjunctive endings start with an ‘e’, we must use the stem llegu- to retain consistent pronunciation.

In the present subjunctive, llegar can be used to request someone to arrive at a certain time or place, or to make hypotheses about an arrival. No creo que Cindy llegue temprano.

PersonConjugationTranslation
YoLlegueI arrive
LleguesYou arrive
Él / Ella
Usted
LlegueHe/She arrives
You (formal) arrive
NosotrosLleguemosWe arrive
VosotrosLleguéisYou arrive
Ellos / Ellas
Ustedes
LleguenThey arrive
You (plural) arrive

Take Note: To pronounce the letter ‘g’ in Spanish, you should keep in mind that this letter can have a soft or hard sound depending on the vowel that follows it. The verb ‘llegar’ uses the regular stem lleg- with some Spanish tenses and llegu- with others. This is done to keep the pronunciation consistent in all conjugations.

Present perfect subjunctive

Haber in the present subjunctive + llegado is the structure you should use to build the present perfect subjunctive form of ‘llegado’. In this tense, ‘llegar’ is used to talk about wishes and probabilities. For example, ¿crees que ya hayan llegado?

PersonConjugationTranslation
YoHaya llegadoI have arrived
Hayas llegadoYou have arrived
Él / Ella
Usted
Haya llegadoHe/She has arrived
You (formal) have arrived
NosotrosHayamos llegadoWe have arrived
VosotrosHayáis llegadoYou have arrived
Ellos / Ellas
Ustedes
Hayan llegadoThey have arrived
You (plural) have arrived

Imperfect subjunctive

We use the imperfect subjunctive of ‘llegar’ to talk about past requests, wishes or hypothetical situations. Si llegara más temprano, podría terminar mi trabajo.

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

Latin American Spanish version

PersonConjugationTranslation
YoLlegara
I arrived
LlegarasYou arrived
Él / Ella
Usted
LlegaraHe/She arrived
You (formal) arrived
NosotrosLlegáramosWe arrived
Ellos / Ellas
Ustedes
LlegaranThey arrived
You (plural) arrived

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

Castilian Spanish version

PersonConjugationTranslation
YoLlegaseI arrived
LlegasesYou arrived
Él / Ella
Usted
LlegaseHe/She arrived
You (formal) arrived
NosotrosLlegásemosWe arrived
VosotrosLlegaseisYou arrived
Ellos / Ellas
Ustedes
LlegasenThey arrived
You (plural) arrived

Past perfect subjunctive

The past perfect subjunctive of ‘contar’ can be used to talk about what would have happened if you had arrived somewhere or reached a certain goal. These are hypothetical situations that can no longer happen because their time has passed. For example si hubiera llegado temprano…(If I had arrived early).

PersonConjugationTranslation
YoHubiera llegadoI had arrived
Hubieras llegadoYou had arrived
Él / Ella
Usted
Hubiera llegadoHe/She had arrrived
You (formal) had arrived
NosotrosHubiéramos llegadoWe had arrived
VosotrosHubierais llegadoYou had arrived
Ellos / Ellas
Ustedes
Hubieran llegadoThey had arrived
You (plural) had arrived

Llegar Imperative Conjugations

The Spanish imperative is used to tell people what to do (affirmative commands) or what not to do (negative commands).

Affirmative commands

The affirmative imperative of ‘llegar’ has two irregular forms: usted and ustedes. With these subject pronouns, you must use the stem llegu-. These affirmative commands can be used to order people to arrive at a certain time or place. Por favor, llega temprano.

PersonConjugationTranslation
LlegaArrive
UstedLlegueArrive
VosotrosLlegadArrive
UstedesLleguenArrive

Negative commands

To form the negative imperative, use the present subjunctive conjugations of ‘llegar’. As a result, you must use the stem llegu. The negative commands of ‘llegar’ are usually applied to tell people not to arrive after a certain hour. ¡No llegues tarde!

PersonConjugationTranslation
No lleguesDon’t arrive
UstedNo llegueDon’t arrive
VosotrosNo lleguéisDon’t arrive
UstedesNo lleguenDon’t arrive

Uses of Llegar & Examples

Although it’s the direct translation of ‘to arrive’, in Spanish, llegar has multiple uses. Below are some examples of different applications and sentences using ‘llegar’ conjugations. 

Use #1: Talking about reaching or arriving at a place

[‘Llegar’ conjugated] + preposition + (place/hour) 

Juan llegará en unos días.
Juan will get here in a few days.

Lleguen temprano, por favor.
Arrive early, please.

Use #2: Referring to the age, goals and distances someone reaches

La publicación de Miriam en Instagram llegó a los dos mil likes.
Miriam’s Instagram post reached two thousand likes.

Ojalá llegue a vivir cien años.
I hope I get to live one hundred years.

Use #3: Talking about things someone receives

Cada lunes, nos llegaba el correo.
Every Monday, we received our mail.

¿Ya les llegaría el paquete que les mandé?
Has the package I sent you arrived yet?

Download Llegar 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: Llegar Conjugation

Take our ‘llegar’ conjugation quiz to practice the all the tenses! You can choose any combination of moods and tenses you wish to practice.

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

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