Perder is commonly used in the context of ‘losing something’ in Spanish.
And, just as the English verb ‘to lose’ applies in a number of different situations: losing money, losing a sporting match, and losing weight, you can also use perder in Spanish to describe losing something physically or metaphorically.
But, in Spanish, the verb perder also applies to wasting time, missing something, and even letting meat or vegetables go bad.
In the post, you’ll learn 5 of the most important uses of perder including losing something, getting lost, missing things, wasting time, and how to use each of these forms of perder in a Spanish sentence.
Irregular stem-changing conjugations of perder
Just like the Spanish verb querer, the verb perder is also an E:IE stem-changing verb.
This means that the first ‘e’ will become an ‘ie’ in most of the present conjugations of this verb.
Here are the present conjugations of perder:
| Person | Perder |
|---|---|
| Yo | Pierdo |
| Tú | Pierdes |
| Él / Ella | Pierde |
| Nosotros | Perdemos |
| Ellos | Pierden |
While verbs such as querer can change quite a lot in other conjugations such as the past tenses, perder is regular in most of the other main tenses that you will likely use this verb.
Use 1. To lose something
As mentioned earlier, you can translate the idea of ‘losing something’ fairly simply to the Spanish verb perder.
In Spanish, you can say you physically ‘lost something’, your sporting team ‘lost a match’, you want to ‘lose weight’, or even that you don’t want to ‘lose your mind’ or control of something.
Here are some examples:
English: I’ve lost my train ticket.
Español: He perdido mi billete de tren.
English: I want to lose 4 kilos by summer.
Español: Quiero perder 4 kilos para el verano.
English: Our football team lost twice this month.
Español: Nuestro equipo de fútbol ha perdido dos veces este mes.
English: If you aren’t careful, you will lose control of these children.
Español: Si no tienes cuidado, pierdes el control de estos niños.
Use 2. To miss something
In Spanish, you can also use perder to mean ‘to miss something’.
But, this is not in the case of missing a family member or a good friend, but instead, this use of perder is for ‘missing the train’, ‘missing your goals’, or FOMO (fear of missing out).
For example:
English: If we don’t hurry, we will miss the train.
Español: Si no nos damos prisa, perdemos el tren.
English: We are not going to miss our goals this year.
Español: No vamos a perder nuestros objetivos este año.
English: You just missed the bus.
Español: Acabas de perder el autobús.
English: I don’t want to miss out on all of the fun.
Español: No quiero perderme toda la diversión.
In this last example, we need the reflexive form perderse to translate the idea of ‘missing out’ because ‘missing out’ doesn’t need an object in the sentence. This means that you can drop “on all of the fun” and still have a grammatically correct sentence in both English and Spanish:
English: I don’t want to miss out.
Español: No quiero perderme.
As is the case with a lot of Spanish verbs, when you change from the normal form of the verb to the reflexive form, the verb changes from a transitive to an intransitive verb. You can see a good example of this change with recordar and acordarse.
Use 3. To get lost
If you want to say you ‘got lost’ or you ‘were lost’ in Spanish, then you can also use perder, but you’ll need to use the reflexive form of the verb perderse conjugated in the past.
For example:
English: What took you so long? Did you get lost?
Español: ¿Por qué has tardado mucho? ¿Te has perdido?
English: Yesterday he got lost in the forest.
Español: Ayer se perdió en el bosque.
English: I hate to say it but I think we’ve gotten lost.
Español: Odio decirlo, pero creo que nos hemos perdido.
If you want to specifically say “I’m lost” in the present moment, then you can use the adjective perdido, derived from the past participle of perder:
English: Are you lost? Do you need some help?
Español: ¿Estás perdido? ¿Necesitas ayuda?
Note that ‘estoy perdido‘ and ‘me he perdido‘ are both very common. And, if you ask a native speaker which they would prefer, they would probably say that they use both interchangeably.
Use 4. To waste (time)
In Spanish, if you want to describe an afternoon that you ‘wasted’ on Netflix or Youtube, or maybe if you consider this a good use of your time and instead you want to say that you ‘wasted’ your time in a long line at the grocery store, then you should also use perder.
Here are some examples:
English: I’m not going to waste a moment with you.
Español: No voy a perder un momento contigo.
English: Today I don’t have any time to waste.
Español: Hoy no tengo tiempo que perder.
English: Don’t make her waste her time.
Español: No le hagas perder el tiempo.
Note that with this last example, it is common to combine hacer and perder in the context of ‘making’ someone ‘waste’ their time.
Use 5 (Phrase). To spoil / go bad / go off – Echar(se) a perder
This last use of perder is actually a Spanish phrase that combines the Spanish verb echar with perder.
While it is possible to use the Spanish word pudrir which means ‘to rot’ or ‘to putrefy’, it is much more common to use the phrase ‘echarse a perder‘ which means ‘to go off’, ‘to go bad’, or ‘to spoil’.
Here are some examples:
English: The meat has gone off in the sun.
Español: La carne se ha echado a perder en el sol.
English: I’ve got two salmon fillets about to go off.
Español: Tengo dos filetes de salmón a punto de echarse a perder.
English: I’m going to spoil these vegetables for an experiment.
Español: Voy a echar a perder estas verduras para un experimento.
In this last example, I wanted to give you a sentence with the non-reflexive form of this phrase to highlight the contrast between when ‘something goes off’ on its own (echarse a perder) and ‘someone made it go off’ (echar a perder). In general, when the subject and the object of the verb are the same, you’ll need a reflexive verb. When the subject and the object are different, you’ll need a normal verb or a verb like gustar.
Your turn
Perder is a very common and useful Spanish verb. And, as you can see, it applies in a lot of common contexts.
When you are practising using this verb, I suggest you pick a few of the more unusual forms of perder such as ‘missing the train’, ‘wasting time’, or ‘spoiling the food’ because Spanish students generally understand the first use perder in the context of ‘to lose’ really well.
How else can you use the Spanish verb perder?
which verb to use in case of missing a family member or a friend? please give an example.
I think extrañar is the verb ur looking for in the sense of wishing someone were with you. Also the phrase “echar de menos” means to miss somone.
Extraño a mi ex-novia o (novia vieja/anterior) todos los días.
I miss my ex girlfriend every day.
Cuando me iba a trabajar por la mañana dicha novia no me echaba de menos; sino que se aprovechaba de eso para meter a otro hombre en mi cama.
When I would leave to work in the morning the girlfrirnd didn’t miss me. Instead, she took advantage and was cheating with another guy in my bed.
Holq Andrew. I was wondering about perder in the context of a story that doesn’t make sense logically… can we use perder to mean
“Maybe i missed something” … but this story doesn’t add out.
If yes, how would it be?
“Tal vez me haya perdido algo o se te olvidó incluir más detalles porque tú relato no tiene sentido?”
If no, is it because entender/comprender work better or something else altogether?
Gracias por aclarar.
These are very specific examples Mustafa 🙂 but they all work okay.
Hola Amit, the examples Mustafa has given work. Both “extrañar” and “echar de menos” work well. E.g.
I miss my wife a lot – Echo mucho de menos a mi esposa.
I’m going to miss this place – Voy a echar de menos este lugar.
Note the use of the personal “a” when people are the direct object of the sentence (a mi esposa).
I think use 2 is tough because it is common, abstract, and also a little risky to pass “ideas” over between idiomas.
First time I have seen use 5.
What about losing one’s mind or losing the plot? I recall something vague about perder la razon.
Hola Mustafa, you’re right, it is not obvious that “missing the train” should be “perder” but this is the best verb to use in this context. You can also use “perder” with losing one’s mind.
Perder el hilo (literally ‘thread’) is a very common phrase for losing the plot when you are speaking.
I love it!! Thanks for sharing Thomas 🙂
Can use use perder to express getting lost figuratively, like in a conversation? I ask because I tried it with my Spanish partner and she laughed, but didn’t explain why…
Hola Rebecca, it is important to note that “getting lost” needs to be the reflexive form “perderse”. Otherwise, it means you have lost “something” (your pen, or your phone etc.) or you have missed “something” (the train). I think you should definitely ask why your partner laughed because it could have been a number of possible reasons.
What about “ me hace falta” i miss them or her
Thanks for the question Jeannine!!
“Me hace falta” generally means “I need it” or “I’m missing it” in the context of lacking something. For example:
– The soup is missing salt = A la sopa le hace falta sal, or
– I need more rice to make this paella = Me hace falta más arroz para hacer esta paella.
When we miss people we can use the phrase “echar de menos” or the verb “extrañar”. For example:
– I miss my family = Echo de menos a mi familia, or
– I miss my wife = Extraño a mi esposa.
Thanks for another great lesson! I had only one question about preposition choice. Your example “Quiero perder 4 kilos para el verano.” is translated to English as “I want to lose 4 kilos by summer.”
I would have thought that “para” meant for (or to get ready for?).
Thanks for the question Cora! Sometimes we can translate words in different ways and I think that both of your suggestions would work in this situation as well. Prepositions tend to be the hardest words to translate between languages because they rarely follow rules or patterns.
Hello,
Can perder mean “to love” as well? That is how I’ve seen it translated in the song “Volver” by Fernando Z Maldonado, made famous by Chavela Vargas. Please check out the lyrics as translated in the biopic “Chavela” around the 78 minute mark. Thanks for your help!
Kelly Caterina
Hola Kelly, I couldn’t find the translation that you are referring to but it is possible that “perder” can mean “to love passionately”. But, in general, for conversational Spanish, it’s best to stick with “te quiero” (querer) or “te amo” (amar) to express love between people.
Hola
In the example ‘Hoy no tengo tiempo que perder‘ can you explain why que is used?
Gracias
PS Thanks for the great articles on grammar. You explain things really well
Hola Brenda, thanks for the kind words! This falls into the category of things that we just have to get used to. Please check out my recent article on how to think in Spanish where one of the best pieces of advice I can give about improving your Spanish thinking is to ask “how” questions (e.g. how can I remember this? how can I get used to this?) as opposed to “why” questions which can sometimes not be helpful (e.g. in this case).
Thanks for the prompt reply. I had read the article about not asking why but old habits are hard to break! I thought there might be a grammatical explanation for it
I’ll say that it is similar to “tengo que”, why should we say “que” after “tengo”?? In English, it’s “I have to” so why isn’t it “a” in Spanish? Similarly “time to lose”, why isn’t it “tiempo a perder”? Instead, think “how else can you use this sentence to express lots of ideas: “No tengo nada que ponerme” or “Quiero encontrar algo que hacer” or “No tengo dinero que gastar” etc.
That’s really helpful , thanks
Why in section 1 is “you will loose control of these children” pierdes and not perderas?
Hola Tim, this is a common question and translation problem!! 🙂 It comes down to the issue that in English we can’t use the present tense here but in Spanish we can. In particular, when dealing with a short time horizon, the Spanish language will tend to use the present tense. For example, “te llamo en 5 minutos” (I’ll call you in 5 minutes), in English we can’t say “I call you in 5 minutes” so English natives will want to translate a sentence like “I’ll call you” using the Spanish future tense. While we technically have flexibility here in Spanish, there is no right and wrong, it’s important to note that the option exists in Spanish but not in English and Spanish natives will tend to use the present tense option when the time period is short.