Cantar — "to sing" — is one of the cleanest regular -ar verbs in Spanish. There are no stem changes, no spelling shifts, no irregular forms. What makes it pedagogically valuable, beyond its regularity, is its astonishing idiomatic range in peninsular speech: it covers not just musical singing but also revealing a secret, confessing to the police, smelling bad, and a noisy clash of colors. A page on cantar is therefore both a model paradigm for -ar conjugation and a small lesson in how Spanish stretches one verb across many figurative domains.
Non-finite forms
| Form | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Infinitivo | cantar | to sing |
| Infinitivo compuesto | haber cantado | to have sung |
| Gerundio | cantando | singing |
| Gerundio compuesto | habiendo cantado | having sung |
| Participio | cantado (regular) | sung |
Indicative — simple tenses
Presente
| yo | tú | él/ella/usted | nosotros | vosotros | ellos/ellas/ustedes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| canto | cantas | canta | cantamos | cantáis | cantan |
Mi hermana canta en un coro los miércoles por la tarde.
My sister sings in a choir on Wednesday evenings.
Pretérito perfecto simple
| yo | tú | él | nosotros | vosotros | ellos |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| canté | cantaste | cantó | cantamos | cantasteis | cantaron |
The accents on canté and cantó are non-negotiable: without them you change the form entirely. Canto is "I sing"; cantó is "he/she sang." Note that cantamos is identical in present and preterite — context determines tense.
Anoche cantaron flamenco hasta las tantas en el bar de Lola.
Last night they sang flamenco until the small hours at Lola's bar.
Pretérito imperfecto
| yo | tú | él | nosotros | vosotros | ellos |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| cantaba | cantabas | cantaba | cantábamos | cantabais | cantaban |
De pequeño mi padre me cantaba una nana que se inventaba sobre la marcha.
When I was little, my dad used to sing me a lullaby he made up as he went.
Futuro simple
| yo | tú | él | nosotros | vosotros | ellos |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| cantaré | cantarás | cantará | cantaremos | cantaréis | cantarán |
En la boda cantaremos todos juntos esa canción que tanto le gustaba a la abuela.
At the wedding we'll all sing together that song that grandma loved so much.
Condicional
| yo | tú | él | nosotros | vosotros | ellos |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| cantaría | cantarías | cantaría | cantaríamos | cantaríais | cantarían |
Yo cantaría algo, pero me da una vergüenza horrible delante de tanta gente.
I'd sing something, but I'm horribly embarrassed in front of so many people.
Indicative — compound tenses
All compound tenses pair haber with the regular participle cantado.
Pretérito perfecto compuesto
| yo | tú | él | nosotros | vosotros | ellos |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| he cantado | has cantado | ha cantado | hemos cantado | habéis cantado | han cantado |
Esta mañana he cantado en la ducha como si estuviera en el Liceu.
This morning I sang in the shower as if I were at the Liceu opera house.
Pretérito pluscuamperfecto
| yo | tú | él | nosotros | vosotros | ellos |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| había cantado | habías cantado | había cantado | habíamos cantado | habíais cantado | habían cantado |
Cuando le pidieron que repitiera el bis, ya había cantado tres veces la misma copla.
When they asked her to do the encore, she'd already sung the same copla three times.
Futuro compuesto
| yo | tú | él | nosotros | vosotros | ellos |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| habré cantado | habrás cantado | habrá cantado | habremos cantado | habréis cantado | habrán cantado |
Para cuando empiece el postre, ya habrán cantado el cumpleaños feliz dos veces.
By the time dessert starts, they'll have sung 'Happy Birthday' twice already.
Condicional compuesto
| yo | tú | él | nosotros | vosotros | ellos |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| habría cantado | habrías cantado | habría cantado | habríamos cantado | habríais cantado | habrían cantado |
Habría cantado contigo, pero estaba afónica desde la fiesta del sábado.
I would have sung with you, but I'd lost my voice since Saturday's party.
Subjunctive — simple tenses
Presente de subjuntivo
| yo | tú | él | nosotros | vosotros | ellos |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| cante | cantes | cante | cantemos | cantéis | canten |
Quiero que cantéis todos a la vez cuando salga la novia.
I want you all to sing at the same time when the bride comes out.
Imperfecto de subjuntivo (-ra / -se)
| yo | tú | él | nosotros | vosotros | ellos | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| -ra | cantara | cantaras | cantara | cantáramos | cantarais | cantaran |
| -se | cantase | cantases | cantase | cantásemos | cantaseis | cantasen |
In Spain the -ra set dominates in speech; -se survives in formal writing, journalism, and literary registers. Either is correct.
Le pedí que cantara algo en gallego, pero se puso colorada y se negó.
I asked her to sing something in Galician, but she blushed and refused.
Subjunctive — compound tenses
Pretérito perfecto de subjuntivo
| yo | tú | él | nosotros | vosotros | ellos |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| haya cantado | hayas cantado | haya cantado | hayamos cantado | hayáis cantado | hayan cantado |
Es increíble que haya cantado tan bien con la garganta así.
It's incredible she's sung so well with her throat like that.
Pluscuamperfecto de subjuntivo
| yo | tú | él | nosotros | vosotros | ellos | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| -ra | hubiera cantado | hubieras cantado | hubiera cantado | hubiéramos cantado | hubierais cantado | hubieran cantado |
| -se | hubiese cantado | hubieses cantado | hubiese cantado | hubiésemos cantado | hubieseis cantado | hubiesen cantado |
Si hubieras cantado en la audición, te habrían cogido seguro.
If you'd sung at the audition, they'd definitely have taken you.
Imperative
The peninsular vosotros affirmative — cantad — is the only correct affirmative form in Spain. You will hear cantar in very casual speech, but that infinitive-as-imperative is non-standard. The negative imperative across all persons uses the present subjunctive.
| Form | Affirmative | Negative |
|---|---|---|
| tú | canta | no cantes |
| usted | cante | no cante |
| nosotros | cantemos | no cantemos |
| vosotros | cantad | no cantéis |
| ustedes | canten | no canten |
Canta más alto, que no se te oye desde aquí.
Sing louder — we can't hear you from over here.
No cantéis victoria todavía, que el partido no ha terminado.
Don't (you all) declare victory yet — the match isn't over.
When pronouns attach to an affirmative imperative, write them as one word and add a written accent if needed: cántala ("sing it"), cantádsela ("sing it to him/her, you all"), cantémosla. With nosotros + -nos, the final -s drops: cantémonos.
The figurative life of cantar
This is where cantar gets interesting. Outside of music, the verb shows up in a remarkable number of everyday peninsular contexts.
| Meaning | Example |
|---|---|
| to sing (music) | Canta en un grupo de rock. |
| to crow, chirp (animals) | El gallo canta al amanecer. |
| to confess, to spill the beans (informal) | El detenido cantó en cuanto vio al juez. |
| to stand out / be obvious (Spain, informal) | Esa peluca canta a la legua. |
| to clash (colors) | El rojo y el rosa cantan mucho juntos. |
| to smell bad (informal, Spain) | Estos calcetines cantan que da gusto. |
| to announce / call out (bingo, lottery) | Cantaron el gordo a las nueve de la mañana. |
| to recite / list mechanically | Cantar la tabla del siete. |
Al final cantó toda la verdad delante del juez.
In the end he spilled the whole truth in front of the judge.
Ese acento te canta muchísimo, eres del norte fijo.
That accent of yours really stands out — you must be from the north.
Abre la ventana, que estos zapatos cantan un poco.
Open the window — these shoes smell a bit.
Cuando cantan el gordo de la lotería de Navidad, se para España entera.
When they announce the Christmas lottery jackpot, the whole of Spain stops.
High-frequency collocations from peninsular Spanish
| Phrase | Translation |
|---|---|
| cantar las cuarenta a alguien | to give someone a piece of one's mind (from the card game tute) |
| cantar victoria (antes de tiempo) | to celebrate (a victory) too early |
| cantar bingo | to call bingo (when you win) |
| cantar el cumpleaños feliz | to sing 'Happy Birthday' |
| cantarle a alguien una nana | to sing someone a lullaby |
| en menos que canta un gallo | in less time than it takes a rooster to crow — i.e., in a flash |
| cantar como los ángeles | to sing like an angel |
| otro gallo cantaría | things would be very different (set phrase) |
Mañana le voy a cantar las cuarenta por lo del fin de semana.
Tomorrow I'm going to give him a real piece of my mind about the weekend thing.
En menos que canta un gallo te tengo la mesa puesta.
In a flash I'll have the table set for you.
Si me hubieran hecho caso, otro gallo cantaría.
If they'd listened to me, things would be very different now.
Reflexive use: cantarse
The fully reflexive cantarse is uncommon outside set contexts. You will see it in card-game vocabulary (cantarse las cuarenta — to declare the forty in tute) and as a passive substitute in formal registers (se cantó el himno antes del partido — "the anthem was sung before the match"). Otherwise, cantar stays non-reflexive.
Se cantó el himno con el estadio entero puesto en pie.
The anthem was sung with the whole stadium on its feet.
The classic English-speaker error
English speakers translating "sing along" or "sing to someone" into Spanish often produce ungrammatical sentences by importing English prepositions. The patterns to know:
- cantar a alguien = to sing to someone (the audience)
- cantar con alguien = to sing along with someone
- cantar para alguien = to sing for someone (in their honor)
- cantarle a alguien algo = to sing something to someone
There is no preposition before the song itself: cantar una canción, never cantar a una canción.
✅ Le canté una canción a mi hija para que se durmiera.
I sang my daughter a song to get her to sleep.
❌ Canté a una canción para mi hija.
*Canté a* is wrong — the song is a direct object, no preposition.
Common Mistakes
❌ Vosotros cantar más fuerte.
*Cantar* is the infinitive, not the imperative. In peninsular Spanish the *vosotros* affirmative is *cantad*.
✅ Cantad más fuerte. / No cantéis tan alto.
(You all) sing louder. / Don't sing so loud.
❌ Mi madre canto en la iglesia ayer.
The third-person preterite is *cantó* with the accent. *Canto* (no accent) is first-person present.
✅ Mi madre cantó en la iglesia ayer.
My mother sang in church yesterday.
❌ Espero que tú cantas en mi boda.
*Esperar que* triggers the subjunctive — *cantes*, not *cantas*.
✅ Espero que cantes en mi boda.
I hope you sing at my wedding.
❌ Le canté a una nana.
The song is a direct object, no *a* before it. *A* marks the recipient, not the song.
✅ Le canté una nana.
I sang her a lullaby.
Key Takeaways
- Cantar is a fully regular -ar verb — the template you can use for hablar, trabajar, estudiar and dozens more.
- The vosotros affirmative imperative is cantad; the negative is no cantéis.
- Beyond music, cantar covers confessing, standing out, smelling bad, and clashing colors. These figurative meanings are everyday in Spain.
- Idioms like cantar las cuarenta, cantar victoria, en menos que canta un gallo are high-frequency in conversation — learn them as units.
- The song is a direct object: cantar una canción, never cantar a una canción. Use a for the audience, not for the song.
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