buscar Preterite Conjugation
buscar — to look for
The preterite of buscar has a spelling change in the 'yo' form (busqué) to keep the 'k' sound.
buscar Preterite Forms
When to Use the Preterite
Use the preterite when the search is finished or happened at a specific point in time, like when you finally found (or stopped looking for) your keys yesterday.
Notes on buscar in the Preterite
It is regular except for the 'yo' form. To keep the hard 'c' sound before an 'e', the 'c' changes to 'qu' (busqué). Without this, it would be pronounced 'bus-ay'.
Example Sentences
Busqué mis llaves por toda la casa.
I looked for my keys all over the house.
yo
¿Buscaste el libro en la biblioteca?
Did you look for the book in the library?
tú
Buscamos un hotel barato el verano pasado.
We looked for a cheap hotel last summer.
nosotros
Common Mistakes
Mistake: buscé
Correct: busqué
Why: In Spanish, 'ce' sounds like 'se'. To keep the hard 'k' sound of the infinitive, you must use 'qu'.
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Related Tenses
Present
yo: busco
The present tense of buscar is completely regular: busco, buscas, busca, buscamos, buscáis, buscan.
Imperfect
yo: buscaba
The imperfect of buscar is regular: buscaba, buscabas, buscaba, buscábamos, buscabais, buscaban.
Future
yo: buscaré
The future tense of buscar is regular: add the endings -é, -ás, -á, -emos, -éis, -án to the infinitive.
Conditional
yo: buscaría
The conditional of buscar is regular: add -ía, -ías, -ía, -íamos, -íais, -ían to the infinitive.
Present Subjunctive
yo: busque
The present subjunctive of buscar uses the 'qu' spelling change: busque, busques, busque, busquemos, busquéis, busquen.
Imperfect Subjunctive
yo: buscara
The imperfect subjunctive of buscar is regular: buscara, buscaras, buscara, buscáramos, buscarais, buscaran.
Affirmative Imperative
yo: busca
The imperative of buscar uses 'busca' (tú) and 'busque' (usted).
Negative Imperative
yo: no busques
The negative imperative always uses the 'qu' spelling: no busques, no busque, no busquemos, no busquéis, no busquen.