Overcome Your Fears in Spanish

Quick Answer

¡Hola!Learn how to overcome your fears in Spanish in this article and the lessons above! Specifically, learn how to do the following in Spanish:

• express one’s fears

answer someone who is expressing their fears

• use vocabulary related to emotions

Vocabulary

Let's start off with the vocab words in these lessons!

Adjectives

SpanishEnglish
angustiadoanxious
apoyadosupported
examples
No quiero que estés angustiado.
I don't want you to be anxious.
Quiero que te sientas apoyado.
I want you to feel supported.

Adverb

SpanishEnglish
hondodeeply
examples
Quiero que respires hondo.
I want you to breathe deeply.

Nouns

SpanishEnglish
el lobowolf
el monstruomonster
examples
De que haya lobos en el bosque.
That there are wolves in the forest.
Tengo miedo de que haya monstruos.
I'm afraid that there are monsters.

Verbs

In this skill, you learn the following verbs!

Averiarse

Averiarse(to break down [machine]) is a pronominal -ar verb that has a stem change in the present subjunctive.

Pronoun(s)ConjugationTranslationNotes
él, ella, ellose averíeit breaks down
ellos, ellasse averíenthey break down

Confiar

Confiar(to trust) is an -ar verb that has a stem change in the present subjunctive.

Pronoun(s)ConjugationTranslationNotes
yoconfíeI trust
confíesyou trustinformal singular you
vosconfíesyou trustinformal singular you (in parts of Latin America)
él, ellaconfíehe, she trusts
ustedconfíeyou trustformal singular you
nosotros, nosotrasconfiemoswe trust
vosotros, vosotrasconfiéisyou trustinformal plural you (in Spain)
ellos, ellasconfíenthey trust
ustedesconfíenyou trustplural you (in Latin America), formal plural you (in Spain)

Note that there is no stem change in the nosotros and the vosotros forms of confiar.

Fracasar

Fracasar(to fail) is an -ar verb that is regular in the present subjunctive.

Pronoun(s)ConjugationTranslationNotes
yofracaseI fail
fracasesyou failinformal singular you
vosfracasesyou failinformal singular you (in parts of Latin America)
él, ellafracasehe, she fails
ustedfracaseyou failformal singular you
nosotros, nosotrasfracasemoswe fail
vosotros, vosotrasfracaséisyou failinformal plural you (in Spain)
ellos, ellasfracasenthey fail
ustedesfracasenyou failplural you (in Latin America), formal plural you (in Spain)

Lastimarse

Lastimarse(to get hurt) is an -ar pronominal verb that is regular in the present subjunctive.

Pronoun(s)ConjugationTranslationNotes
yome lastimeI get hurt
te lastimesyou get hurtinformal singular you
voste lastimesyou get hurtinformal singular you (in parts of Latin America)
él, ellase lastimehe, she gets hurt
ustedse lastimeyou get hurtformal singular you
nosotros, nosotrasnos lastimemoswe get hurt
vosotros, vosotrasos lastiméisyou get hurtinformal plural you (in Spain)
ellos, ellasse lastimenthey get hurt
ustedesse lastimenyou get hurtplural you (in Latin America), formal plural you (in Spain)

Mentir

Mentir(to lie) is an -ir verb that has a stem change in the present subjunctive.

Pronoun(s)ConjugationTranslationNotes
yomientaI lie
mientasyou lieinformal singular you
vosmientasyou lieinformal singular you (in parts of Latin America)
él, ellamientahe, she lies
ustedmientayou lieformal singular you
nosotros, nosotrasmintamoswe lie
vosotros, vosotrasmintáisyou lieinformal plural you (in Spain)
ellos, ellasmientanthey lie
ustedesmientanyou lieplural you (in Latin America), formal plural you (in Spain)

Progresar

Progresar(to make progress) is an -ar verb that is regular in the present subjunctive.

Pronoun(s)ConjugationTranslationNotes
yoprogreseI make progress
progresesyou make progressinformal singular you
vosprogresesyou make progressinformal singular you (in parts of Latin America)
él, ellaprogresehe, she makes progress
ustedprogreseyou make progressformal singular you
nosotros, nosotrasprogresemoswe make progress
vosotros, vosotrasprogreséisyou make progressinformal plural you (in Spain)
ellos, ellasprogresenthey make progress
ustedesprogresenyou make progressplural you (in Latin America), formal plural you (in Spain)

Soportar

Soportar(to stand [put up with]) is an -ar verb that is regular in the present subjunctive.

Pronoun(s)ConjugationTranslationNotes
yosoporteI stand
soportesyou standinformal singular you
vossoportesyou standinformal singular you (in parts of Latin America)
él, ellasoportehe, she stands
ustedsoporteyou standformal singular you
nosotros, nosotrassoportemoswe stand
vosotros, vosotrassoportéisyou standinformal plural you (in Spain)
ellos, ellassoportenthey stand
ustedessoportenyou standplural you (in Latin America), formal plural you (in Spain)

The Present Subjunctive

The Spanish present subjunctive (el presente de subjuntivo) is used to talk about situations of doubt, desire, emotion, necessity, or uncertainty.

Unlike the present indicative, the present subjunctive is generally subjective.

Conjugating Verbs in the Present Subjunctive

To conjugate a verb in the present subjunctive, you must first remember what the present indicative yo form of the verb in question is. This is because the stem of present subjunctive verbs comes from the yo form of the present indicative. For many verbs, this will be the same as the infinitive stem, but for many others, such as verbs with spelling changes, stem-changing verbs, and irregular verbs, it will be different.

Present Subjunctive Stem Formula

The formula for finding the present subjunctive stem of a verb is the following:

  • present subjunctive stem = yo form of present indicative minus o ending

Regular Present Subjunctive Endings

Once you have the stem, you will add the present subjunctive ending that matches your subject. There are only two ending sets for the present subjunctive: one for -ar verbs and one for both -er and -ir verbs.

Subject-ar Verb Endings-er and -ir Verb Endings
yoea
, vosesas
usted, él, ellaea
nosotros, nosotrasemosamos
vosotros, vosotraséisáis
ustedes, ellos, ellasenan

Irregular Verbs in the Present Subjunctive

There are only six truly irregular verbs in the subjunctive. You'll find the conjugations for each of these verbs in the tables below.

Present Subjunctive Conjugations of Dar, Estar, and Ser

SubjectDarEstarSer
yoestésea
, vosdesestésseas
usted, él, ellaestésea
nosotros, nosotrasdemosestemosseamos
vosotros, vosotrasdeisestéisseáis
ustedes, ellos, ellasdenesténsean

Present Subjunctive Conjugations of Haber, Ir, and Saber

SubjectHaberIrSaber
yohayavayasepa
, voshayasvayassepas
usted, él, ellahayavayasepa
nosotros, nosotrashayamosvayamossepamos
vosotros, vosotrashayáisvayáissepáis
ustedes, ellos, ellashayanvayansepan

To remember these six verbs, just think of the mnemonic DISHES:

Dar

Ir

Saber

Haber

Estar

Ser

Stem Changes and the Present Subjunctive

While they’re not entirely irregular, the following verbs do have certain changes that we need to keep in mind while conjugating verbs in the subjunctive:

1. e> ie and o> ue Stem Changes with -ar and -er Verbs

For verbs in this group, the e in the last syllable of the stem (the yo form of the present indicative) changes to ie, or the o in the last syllable of the stem (the yo form of the present indicative) changes to ue. All subjunctive forms follow the stem change except for nosotros and vosotros, which use the infinitive stem.

2. e> ie and o> ue Stem Changes with -ir Verbs

All e> ie and o> ue stem-changing -ir verbs follow the same changes as in the present indicative, except the nosotros and vosotros forms, in which the e changes to i and the o changes to u.

3. e> i Stem Changes with -ir Verbs

All e> i stem-changing -ir verbs in the present indicative maintain the stem change in all forms of the present subjunctive.

Subjunctive Trigger Words

WEIRDO

Many of the verbs and phrases that require the subjunctive fit into the acronym WEIRDO: Wishes, Emotions, Impersonal expressions, Recommendations, Doubt/Denial, and Ojalá.

In these lessons, we saw the following subjunctive trigger words and phrases:

SpanishEnglish
me da miedo queI'm afraid that
me pone nervioso queI get nervous when
no quiero queI don’t want
no soporto queI can’t stand
quiero queI want
tengo miedo de queI’m afraid that

Quiz Yourself!

Want more practice with the vocabulary you learned in these lessons? Click here!

Spanish Conversation

Fantastic! Let's put the grammar and vocab from above to the test in the following example of a conversation in Spanish.

Maia:
¿De qué tienes miedo, Hugo?
What are you afraid of, Hugo?
Hugo:
De que haya lobos en el bosque. ¿Oíste los lobos anoche?
That there are wolves in the forest. Did you hear the wolves last night?
Maia:
No, y no quiero que tengas miedo.
No, and I don't want you to be afraid.
Hugo:
También tengo miedo de que mi proyecto fracase.
I'm also afraid that my project will fail.
Maia:
Quiero que tu proyecto progrese. Quiero que te sientas bien.
I want your project to make progress. I want you to feel good.
Hugo:
Gracias, Maia.
Thanks, Maia.

Want to learn more about how to overcome your fears in Spanish? Check out the following articles!

Expressing Emotions with the Subjunctive

Spooky Spanish Words

Subjunctive vs. Indicative