Spanish Verb Prepararse Conjugation

The verb prepararse is a reflexive verb that means to prepare yourself, to get prepared, or to get ready for something.

Since this verb is often used reflexively, this article includes prepararse conjugations with reflexive pronouns in the indicative mood (present, past, conditional, and future), the subjunctive mood (present and past), the imperative mood, and other verb forms.

Preparar vs. Prepararse

The verb prepararse can also be used non-reflexively as preparar, which is always accompanied by a direct object. Preparar can be used to talk about preparing things like food or materials, or to talk about preparing people, as in training them for a job or sport competition.

When talking about getting ready to go out, like getting dressed, etc., a more common verb is alistarse.

Present Indicative

When conjugating a reflexive verb, the reflexive pronoun should be included before each conjugated verb.

Preterite Indicative

Use the preterite tense when you want to describe completed actions in the past.

Imperfect Indicative

Use the imperfect tense when you want to describe actions in the past that were ongoing or repeated. You can translate the imperfect as "was getting ready" or "used to get ready."

Future Indicative

There are two forms of the future tense. The simple future is conjugated with the infinitive form and the future tense endings (é, ás, á, emos, éis, án).

Periphrastic Future Indicative 

The other form of the future tense is the periphrastic future, which is conjugated with three components, the verb ir (to go), the preposition a, and the infinitive preparar. Remember to place the reflexive pronoun before the conjugated verb ir (to go).

Present Progressive/Gerund Form

In Spanish, the gerund or present participle is often used as an adverb or to form progressive tenses like the present progressive. When conjugating progressive tenses there are two options for placement of the reflexive pronoun: it can go before the conjugated auxiliary verb estar, or attached to the end of the present participle.

Past Participle

Similarly to English, in Spanish the past participle is used in perfect tenses like the present perfect. In perfect tenses the reflexive pronoun must be placed before the conjugated auxiliary verb haber.

Conditional Indicative

If you want to talk about possibilities, you can use the conditional tense.

Present Subjunctive

Imperfect Subjunctive

There are two possible ways of conjugating the imperfect subjunctive:

Option 1

Option 2

Imperative

If you want to give an order or command you need the imperative mood. When conjugating a reflexive verb, note that in positive commands, the reflexive pronoun goes after the verb, while in negative commands, the reflexive pronoun goes before the verb.

Positive Commands

Negative Commands