❤️ Emotion Verbs - Verbos de emociones
Beginner Spanish · Emotion verbs
Emotion Verbs in Spanish
Emotion verbs help you talk about love, enjoyment, worry, anger, missing someone, laughing, relaxing, and how you feel. They complement feeling words such as feliz and triste by showing what you feel or how you react.
Your next small win: use common emotion verbs, ask how someone feels, say what you like, talk about missing someone, and recognize useful reflexive forms such as me siento and se enoja.
Start with positive reactions
Positive Emotion Verbs
These verbs help you talk about love, enjoyment, laughter, smiling, and trust.
To love
To like
To enjoy
To laugh
To smile
To trust
I love my family.
I like this song.
We like laughing together.
Express two positive feelings
Say that you love your family and like this song.
Amo a mi familia.
Me gusta esta canción.
Talk about difficult emotions too
Emotion and Reaction Verbs
To fear
To worry
To get angry
To cry
To miss someone
To hate
I miss my friends.
She fears storms.
He or she gets angry easily.
Personal a: when the direct object is a person or group of people, you will often see a, as in Extraño a mis amigos and Amo a mi familia.
Talk about missing someone
Say that you miss your friends.
Extraño a mis amigos.
Two especially useful patterns
Sentirse and Gustar
Sentirse
Use sentirse to talk about how someone feels.
To feel
I feel happy.
We feel tired.
Today I feel very good.
Gustar
Use me gusta with one thing or an activity. Use me gustan with plural things.
I like coffee.
I like dogs.
I like learning Spanish.
Reflexive emotion verbs: verbs such as sentirse, preocuparse, and enojarse use reflexive pronouns that change with the subject.
Say how you feel and what you like
Say that you feel very happy and that you like learning Spanish.
Me siento muy feliz.
Me gusta aprender español.
More useful emotion verbs
To relax
To be surprised
To comfort
To forgive
To encourage
Put emotions into conversation
Talking About Feelings and Reactions
How do you feel?
What do you like to do?
What do you fear?
Who do you love?
I need to relax a little.
How are you feeling?
How are you feeling today?
I feel very happy.
That is great! Why?
Because I am going to visit my family.
Start an emotion conversation
Ask someone how they feel, then say that you feel very happy and explain that you are going to visit your family.
¿Cómo te sientes?
Me siento muy feliz.
Porque voy a visitar a mi familia.
Your turn · 8 quick questions
Practice: Emotion Verbs
Choose the answer that best fits each situation. Focus on sentirse, gustar, extrañar, reflexive verbs, and other common emotional reactions.
Practice complete
You can use common emotion verbs in Spanish.
A few emotion phrases to revisit
One last step: express four emotions or reactions without choices.
Say how you feel today, name something you like doing, say that you miss your friends, and say that you need to relax a little.
Hoy me siento muy bien.
Me gusta aprender español.
Extraño a mis amigos.
Necesito relajarme un poco.
Someone asks how you feel today, and you feel very happy. What do you say?
- Me siento muy feliz.
- Me siento muy triste.
- Me siento muy cansado.
- Me siento preocupado.
Sentirse is used to describe how you feel, so Me siento muy feliz means “I feel very happy.”
Me siento muy feliz.
You like learning Spanish. Which sentence fits?
- Me gusta aprender español.
- Me gusta escuchar música.
- Me gusta tomar café.
- Me gusta leer libros.
Me gusta + infinitive can express liking an activity. Me gusta aprender español means “I like learning Spanish.”
Me gusta aprender español.
You miss your family. Which sentence fits?
- Extraño a mi familia.
- Amo a mi familia.
- Confío en mi familia.
- Me preocupo por mi familia.
Extrañar means “to miss,” so Extraño a mi familia means “I miss my family.”
Extraño a mi familia.
You have had a long day and need to relax a little. Which sentence fits?
- Necesito relajarme un poco.
- Necesito preocuparme un poco.
- Necesito enojarme un poco.
- Necesito sorprenderme un poco.
Relajarse means “to relax.” After necesito, the reflexive pronoun can attach to the infinitive: relajarme.
Necesito relajarme un poco.
Everyone laughs at the joke. Which sentence fits?
- Todos se ríen del chiste.
- Todos se enojan por el chiste.
- Todos se preocupan por el chiste.
- Todos lloran por el chiste.
Reírse means “to laugh,” and se ríen is the plural form used here.
Todos se ríen del chiste.
Someone gets angry easily. Which sentence fits?
- Se enoja fácilmente.
- Se ríe fácilmente.
- Se relaja fácilmente.
- Sonríe fácilmente.
Enojarse means “to get angry,” so se enoja means “he or she gets angry.”
Se enoja fácilmente.
You want to say that you love your family. Which sentence fits?
- Amo a mi familia.
- Extraño a mi familia.
- Confío en mi familia.
- Me preocupo por mi familia.
Amar means “to love,” so Amo a mi familia means “I love my family.”
Amo a mi familia.
She is afraid of storms. Which sentence fits?
- Ella teme las tormentas.
- Ella disfruta de las tormentas.
- Ella se preocupa por las tormentas.
- Ella odia las tormentas.
Temer means “to fear,” so Ella teme las tormentas means “She fears storms.”
Ella teme las tormentas.