parecer | Spanish (Spain) Grammar

Parecer is one of the most semantically rich verbs in everyday Spanish. It does three different jobs that English splits across separate verbs: it expresses resemblance (te pareces a tu padre — you look like your father), opinion (me parece bien — that seems fine to me), and appearance (parece cansado — he looks tired). All three uses depend on the same conjugation, which is regular -er apart from the famous yo form parezco — a c→zc spelling change shared by every Spanish verb whose infinitive ends in a vowel + -cer or -cir (conocer, merecer, agradecer, nacer, conducir, traducir).

The trickier part of parecer is not the conjugation but the syntax: in the opinion sense (me parece...), it works exactly like gustar — the thing being judged is the grammatical subject, and the person making the judgment is an indirect object pronoun. This is the same construction that gives English speakers so much trouble in their first year of Spanish, and parecer is where it shows up most often after gustar itself. This page walks through the paradigm, then through each of the three uses with the syntax they require.

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The c→zc yo form in parezco is not unique to parecer — it's a system. Every Spanish verb ending in vowel + -cer or -cir uses it: conocer → conozco, parecer → parezco, merecer → merezco, agradecer → agradezco, nacer → nazco, conducir → conduzco, traducir → traduzco. The one exception is hacer (and its compounds), which takes -go (hago). Learn the pattern once and you've conjugated dozens of verbs.

Non-finite forms

Form	Spanish	English
Infinitivo	parecer	to seem, to look like, to resemble
Infinitivo compuesto	haber parecido	to have seemed
Gerundio	pareciendo	seeming
Gerundio compuesto	habiendo parecido	having seemed
Participio	parecido	seemed; (as adj.) similar

The participle parecido doubles as a high-frequency adjective and noun meaning similar or resemblance: son muy parecidos (they look very similar); tiene un parecido increíble con su madre (he has an incredible resemblance to his mother).

Indicative — simple tenses

Presente

yo	tú	él/ella/usted	nosotros	vosotros	ellos/ellas/ustedes
parezco	pareces	parece	parecemos	parecéis	parecen

Yo form is parezco — the only irregular slot in the present indicative. The zc exists because in Castilian Spanish the c before e is pronounced /θ/; before o it would shift to a hard /k/, so Spanish writes zc to mark that the soft sound stays. This is purely a spelling convention.

Yo me parezco más a mi padre, pero mi hermana es clavada a mi madre.

I look more like my father, but my sister is the spitting image of my mother.

Pareces agotado, ¿has dormido algo esta noche?

You look exhausted, did you sleep at all last night?

Me parece que va a llover, mejor cogemos el paraguas.

I think it's going to rain, we'd better take an umbrella.

Pretérito perfecto simple

yo	tú	él	nosotros	vosotros	ellos
parecí	pareciste	pareció	parecimos	parecisteis	parecieron

Fully regular -er preterite. The zc only shows up before o (yo presente) and across the present subjunctive — never in the preterite.

Al principio me pareció buena idea, luego me arrepentí.

At first it seemed like a good idea to me, then I regretted it.

Pretérito imperfecto

yo	tú	él	nosotros	vosotros	ellos
parecía	parecías	parecía	parecíamos	parecíais	parecían

Fully regular. Very common with parecía que... for past impressions and ongoing past judgments.

Cuando lo conocí, me parecía un poco frío, pero ahora es uno de mis mejores amigos.

When I first met him, he seemed a bit cold to me, but now he's one of my best friends.

Futuro simple

yo	tú	él	nosotros	vosotros	ellos
pareceré	parecerás	parecerá	pareceremos	pareceréis	parecerán

Con este traje pareceré un pingüino, pero el código de vestimenta lo exige.

In this suit I'll look like a penguin, but the dress code requires it.

Condicional

yo	tú	él	nosotros	vosotros	ellos
parecería	parecerías	parecería	pareceríamos	pareceríais	parecerían

¿No te parecería raro que llegara sin avisar?

Wouldn't it seem weird to you if he showed up without warning?

Indicative — compound tenses

Pretérito perfecto compuesto

yo	tú	él	nosotros	vosotros	ellos
he parecido	has parecido	ha parecido	hemos parecido	habéis parecido	han parecido

Esta peli me ha parecido aburridísima, no aguanté ni la mitad.

This movie struck me as incredibly boring, I didn't make it through half of it.

Pretérito pluscuamperfecto

yo	tú	él	nosotros	vosotros	ellos
había parecido	habías parecido	había parecido	habíamos parecido	habíais parecido	habían parecido

La oferta nos había parecido demasiado buena, y al final era una estafa.

The offer had seemed too good to us, and in the end it was a scam.

Futuro compuesto

yo	tú	él	nosotros	vosotros	ellos
habré parecido	habrás parecido	habrá parecido	habremos parecido	habréis parecido	habrán parecido

Condicional compuesto

yo	tú	él	nosotros	vosotros	ellos
habría parecido	habrías parecido	habría parecido	habríamos parecido	habríais parecido	habrían parecido

Subjunctive — simple tenses

Presente de subjuntivo

yo	tú	él	nosotros	vosotros	ellos
parezca	parezcas	parezca	parezcamos	parezcáis	parezcan

Every present subjunctive form takes -zc- because every ending begins with a, and the soft /θ/ of the c would otherwise become a hard /k/. The opinion construction me parece que takes the indicative when affirmative but flips to the subjunctive when negated: no me parece que sea buena idea (it doesn't seem like a good idea to me).

No me parece que ese piso valga lo que piden.

It doesn't seem to me that the apartment is worth what they're asking.

Aunque parezca mentira, llegué a la oficina antes que el jefe.

As unbelievable as it may sound, I got to the office before the boss.

Imperfecto de subjuntivo (-ra / -se)

	yo	tú	él	nosotros	vosotros	ellos
-ra	pareciera	parecieras	pareciera	pareciéramos	parecierais	parecieran
-se	pareciese	parecieses	pareciese	pareciésemos	parecieseis	pareciesen

Le pedí que pareciera más entusiasmado en la entrevista, pero no lo logró.

I asked him to seem more enthusiastic in the interview, but he didn't manage it.

Subjunctive — compound tenses

Pretérito perfecto de subjuntivo

yo	tú	él	nosotros	vosotros	ellos
haya parecido	hayas parecido	haya parecido	hayamos parecido	hayáis parecido	hayan parecido

Me extraña que te haya parecido aburrida la conferencia, a mí me encantó.

I'm surprised the talk seemed boring to you, I loved it.

Pluscuamperfecto de subjuntivo

	yo	tú	él	nosotros	vosotros	ellos
-ra	hubiera parecido	hubieras parecido	hubiera parecido	hubiéramos parecido	hubierais parecido	hubieran parecido
-se	hubiese parecido	hubieses parecido	hubiese parecido	hubiésemos parecido	hubieseis parecido	hubiesen parecido

Imperative

Form	Affirmative	Negative
tú	parece	no parezcas
usted	parezca	no parezca
nosotros	parezcamos	no parezcamos
vosotros	pareced	no parezcáis
ustedes	parezcan	no parezcan

The imperative of parecer is rare in practice — you don't usually order someone to seem a certain way — but the negative no parezcas tonto (don't act dumb) and no parezcáis ansiosos (don't look anxious) do come up.

No parezcas tan sorprendido, sabías que iba a venir.

Don't look so surprised, you knew he was coming.

The three meanings of parecer

1. Appearance: parecer + adjective / noun

In its simplest use, parecer means to seem or to look. The thing that "looks" or "seems" is the grammatical subject, and an adjective or noun phrase follows directly with no preposition.

Pareces cansado, ¿has dormido bien?

You look tired, did you sleep well?

Esa chica parece una modelo, mírala.

That girl looks like a model, look at her.

Compare with ser: es modelo states a fact (she is a model); parece una modelo states an impression (she looks like one). This is the bread-and-butter contrast between ser and parecer.

2. Opinion: me parece + adjective / clause (gustar-style)

In the opinion sense, parecer takes a gustar-style construction: an indirect object pronoun marks the person whose opinion it is, and the thing being judged is the subject of the verb.

Indirect object	Person	Example
me	I think / it seems to me	me parece bien
te	you think	te parece mal
le	he/she/you (formal) thinks	le parece interesante
nos	we think	nos parece raro
os	you (pl., Spain) think	os parece poco
les	they/you (pl., formal) think	les parece justo

When the subject is singular, the verb is parece; when the subject is plural, it's parecen — exactly like gusta/gustan. The subject can also be a whole que-clause.

Me parecen carísimas estas zapatillas, no las pienso comprar.

These sneakers seem really expensive to me, I'm not going to buy them.

¿Te parece bien que quedemos a las ocho?

Is eight o'clock OK with you to meet?

A mis padres les parece una locura que viva sola con veinte años.

My parents think it's crazy that I live alone at twenty.

Note the subjunctive after me parece bien que / mal que / raro que / increíble que / una locura que — the que-clause expresses a reaction to something, which is a classic subjunctive trigger.

3. Resemblance: parecerse a (reflexive)

To say that one person or thing looks like or resembles another, Spanish uses the reflexive parecerse a. The preposition a is required, and the reflexive pronoun (me, te, se, nos, os, se) agrees with the subject.

Me parezco mucho a mi abuela, sobre todo en los ojos.

I look a lot like my grandmother, especially in the eyes.

Mi piso nuevo se parece al antiguo, pero tiene un balcón enorme.

My new flat is similar to the old one, but it has a huge balcony.

The non-reflexive parecer a without the reflexive se is not correct for resemblance — that's a transfer error from English to look like. Always use parecerse a when the meaning is to resemble.

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The three constructions are syntactically distinct, even though they share the same conjugation: parece + adjective (appearance), me parece + adjective/clause (opinion), me parezco a + person (resemblance). Get the construction right and the meaning falls into place automatically.

Common Mistakes

❌ Yo paresco más joven de lo que soy.

The yo form of vowel + -cer verbs takes zc, not s. The correct form is parezco.

✅ Yo parezco más joven de lo que soy.

I look younger than I am.

❌ Me parezco con mi madre en muchas cosas.

Resemblance with parecerse takes the preposition a, not con. Use parecerse a, not parecerse con.

✅ Me parezco a mi madre en muchas cosas.

I'm like my mother in a lot of ways.

❌ Yo parezco que va a llover.

The opinion construction uses an indirect object pronoun, not yo: me parece que, not yo parezco que.

✅ Me parece que va a llover.

I think it's going to rain.

❌ Mi hermana parece a mi madre.

Resemblance requires the reflexive form parecerse a, not bare parecer a.

✅ Mi hermana se parece a mi madre.

My sister looks like my mother.

❌ No me parece que es buena idea.

After negative me parece que, Spanish requires the subjunctive, not the indicative.

✅ No me parece que sea buena idea.

I don't think it's a good idea.

Key Takeaways

Parecer is regular in every tense except the yo presente (parezco) and the entire present subjunctive (parezca, parezcas, parezca, parezcamos, parezcáis, parezcan), where c must be written as zc before o and a.
The same c→zc pattern applies to every verb ending in vowel + -cer or -cir (conocer, agradecer, traducir, conducir), with hacer as the only exception.
Parecer covers three distinct uses: appearance (parece cansado), opinion (me parece bien), and resemblance (me parezco a mi padre) — each with its own syntax.
The opinion construction is gustar-style: indirect object pronoun + parece(n)
- subject. When the que-clause expresses a reaction, the verb inside takes the subjunctive.
Resemblance always uses parecerse a, never bare parecer a.
Affirmative me parece que takes the indicative; negative no me parece que takes the subjunctive.

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