Merecer: Full Conjugation

Merecer means "to deserve" or "to be worthy of." It belongs to the family of -cer verbs that end in a vowel plus -cer, which take the -zco spelling change in the yo form of the present and throughout the present subjunctive. This is the same pattern you see in conocer, parecer, and pertenecer.

Outside of that one spelling shift, merecer is otherwise regular. The change exists purely to preserve the soft "s" sound of c before e and i: without the z, yo merecco would clash with Spanish phonology.

Present Indicative

Preterite

The preterite is fully regular — no -zco here, because the ending begins with i, which doesn't trigger the spelling change.

Imperfect

Future

Conditional

Present Subjunctive

The -zc- spelling appears in all six forms of the present subjunctive, because they all come from the yo form of the present indicative.

Imperfect Subjunctive (-ra forms)

Imperative

The imperative is rare for this verb — you don't usually tell someone to "deserve" something — but it's grammatically possible, especially in negative commands.

Non-Finite Forms

• Infinitive: merecer
• Gerund: mereciendo
• Past participle: merecido

Common Uses

Merecer is frequently used reflexively: merecerse algo carries roughly the same meaning as merecer algo, but with added emotional emphasis. Te mereces un descanso is warmer and more personal than mereces un descanso.