Spanish Verb Cenar Conjugation

The Spanish verb cenar means to eat dinner or to have dinner. It is a regular -ar verb, like caminar or parar. This article includes tables with cenar conjugations in the present, past and future indicative, and the present and past subjunctive, as well as the imperative mood. You can also find other verb forms like the gerund and present participle.

Using the Verb Cenar

The verb cenar can be used whenever you would talk about eating dinner, having dinner, or dining. It is similar to the verbs desayunar (to have breakfast) and almorzar (to have lunch), in that a single verb communicates eating a certain meal, unlike in English where you have to use the verb to eat, followed by the specific meal.

You can use the verb cenar as an intransitive verb, as in Ella cena en el restaurante (She eats dinner at the restaurant) or Nosotros cenamos temprano (We eat dinner early). However, you can also use cenar as a transitive verb, where the direct object expresses what you eat for dinner, as in Me gusta cenar pasta (I like to have pasta for dinner). 

Cenar Present Indicative

Cenar Preterite Indicative

There are two past tense conjugations in Spanish: the preterite and the imperfect. The preterite is used to talk about completed actions or events that have a defined ending in the past. 

Cenar Imperfect Indicative

The imperfect tense is used to talk about background events and ongoing or habitual actions in the past. It can be translated to English as "was eating dinner" or "used to eat dinner." 

Cenar Future Indicative

Cenar Periphrastic Future Indicative

Cenar Conditional Indicative

The conditional tense is used to talk about conjectures or possibilities. For example, Cenaría en casa si tuviera comida (I would eat dinner at home if I had food). Note that there is always an accent mark on the í in the conditional endings.

Cenar Present Progressive/Gerund Form

For regular -ar verbs, to form the present participle or gerund you need the ending -ando. One of the uses of the present participle is to form the progressive tenses, such as the present progressive.

Present Progressive of Cenar: está cenando 

She is having dinner -> Ella está cenando en el restaurante.

Cenar Past Participle

For regular -ar verbs, to form the past participle you need the ending -ado. One of the uses of the past participle is to form compound tenses, such as the present perfect. 

Present Perfect of Cenar: ha cenado 

She has had dinner -> Ella ha cenado en el restaurante. 

Cenar Present Subjunctive

To talk about subjective situations such as emotions, doubts, desires, and possibilities, you need the subjunctive mood. The subjunctive is used in sentences that have two clauses: the main clause has a verb in the indicative mood, and the subordinate clause has a verb in the subjunctive mood.

Cenar Imperfect Subjunctive

The use of the imperfect subjunctive is similar to that of the present subjunctive, but it is used in situations that happened in the past. There are two ways of conjugating the imperfect subjunctive.

Option 1

Option 2

Cenar Imperative 

The imperative mood is used to give direct orders or commands. Therefore, there are commands for all the persons except for the first person singular yo and third person él, ella, ellos, ellas. Notice that the affirmative and negative commands differ for tú and vosotros.

Positive Commands

Negative Commands