Spanish Verb – Conjugation of Costar

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Pilar Casanova – Spanish Tutor. “Spanish Verb – Conjugation of Costar.” Lingua Linkup, 26 Jan. 2022, lingualinkup.com/costar-conjugation.

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Pilar Casanova – Spanish Tutor. (2022, January 26). Spanish Verb – Conjugation of Costar. Lingua Linkup. https://lingualinkup.com/costar-conjugation/

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Pilar Casanova – Spanish Tutor. “Spanish Verb – Conjugation of Costar.” Lingua Linkup, January 26, 2022. https://lingualinkup.com/costar-conjugation/.

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Translation: When talking about how much something is, it is translated as “to cost”. It is an irregular verb with -ar ending.

Other Meanings of Costar

• To indicate that something is quite difficult to achieve

  
  When expressing that someone or something struggled to achieve something, the verb costar means ‘to be difficult’, ‘to find it hard’, ‘to be hard’ or ‘to struggle’. Structure: with the complement [me, te, le, nos, les + costar + infinitive]. For example: Me (indirect object) cuesta mucho memorizar el vocabulario. (It is very hard for me to memorize the vocabulary. In this case, costar is singular, in agreement with the infinitive verb and the rest of the sentence (meaning “this”/ direct object).

Al estudiante le cuestan mucho los ejercicios de gramática.

In this last example, the person who finds the exercises hard is the student, “el estudiante” (3rd person singular), the indirect object is “le”. Then, since what is really hard for him is a plural noun: “los ejercicios de gramática”, the verb costar agrees in plural: “cuestan”.

• How do questions with the verb costar work?

In order to make questions with the verb costar, we are going to differentiate between the two meanings explained above:

Costar to ask for a price:

In this case, the verb is singular (cuesta) if the object we are asking about is a singular noun (1. el bolso); on the other hand, the verb costar is plural if the object is plural (2. los zapatos).

1. ¿Cuánto cuesta el bolso?
2. ¿Cuánto cuestan los zapatos?

• The verb costar to ask if something is difficult

Apart from the verb agreement, we also have to bear in mind who we are making the question to about that difficulty to select the correct pronoun for the indirect object.

1. ¿Te cuesta correr 20 kilómetros? (the question is for the 2nd person singular tú/vos)
2. ¿Os cuestan los ejercicios de pronunciación? (the question is for the 2nd person plural vosotros)

Some Phrases with Costar

• Costar el doble: double cost / twice the price.
• Costar más/menos: to cost more / less.
• Costar un ojo de la cara: to cost an arm and a leg
• El costo: cost
• Al costo: at cost price.
• De bajo costo: low-cost, budget.
• El costo de (la) vida: cost of living.
• ¿Cuánto cuesta? How much does/will it cost?
• ¿Cuánto me cuesta? How much will it cost me?
• Cueste lo que cueste: Cost what it may (Whatever it takes).

Vos replaces tú – you, informal, singular – in Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and also in some countries of Central America. This variety of Spanish or Castellano is called: “Rioplatense”. Sometimes it also replaces the formal singular ‘Usted’. In irregular AR verbs, the conjugations remain the same as for tú except for the addition of accents in the following tenses:

• Presente: vos costás
• Imperativo: ¡costá!

To talk about the Cost or Price of something

As the direct translation of ‘to cost’, in Spanish, ‘costar’ is used to talk about the price or cost of things. Although this could refer to amounts of money, it can also describe non-monetary costs, such time or effort.

Bear in mind that, when referring to the price of something, you need to conjugate the verb according to the thing that you’re referring to.

[Noun] + [‘costar’ conjugated] + [amount] + [complement]

• El sombrero cuesta $200 más envío: The hat costs $200 plus shipping.
• No creí que ese libro costaría $300: I didn’t think that book would cost $300.

Note: As established before, in Spanish, the verb ‘costar’ doesn’t always have to do with money. In some cases, it can also express that a person has to pay a non-monetary cost to acquire something.

[Indirect object] + [‘costar’ conjugated] + [adv. complement]

• (Cometió errores que) le costaron muy caro: He made mistakes that cost him dearly.
• (Antonio come mal y) le está costando su salud: Antonio eats poorly, and it is costing him his health.
• No te cuesta nada llevar las bolsas: It costs you nothing to carry the bags.

Costar Expressions & Idioms

Costar in Spanish is found in some expressions that refer to the price of something. Since these expressions are used in our daily communication, you should consider including them into your conversations.

• Costar un ojo de la cara: it’s used to say that we have paid a high price for something. It means ‘to cost an arm and a leg’.
• Cueste lo que cueste: No matter what it takes.

Synonyms of ‘Costar’ in Spanish

• Valer: when speaking about the price of something, we can use this verb to replace ‘costar’. ‘Valer’ means that a thing has a determined price or value. It can also be translated as ‘to cost’, ‘to value’ or ‘to be worth’.
• Resultar: When talking about something that requires more effort or is more complicated than expected, this verb can be used instead of ‘costar’. ‘Resultar’ means ‘to turn out’.

Mastering Spanish Verb Costar CONJUGATION

• Learn to conjugate costar and it will reinforce this irregular pattern.
• Do a series of verbs every day for a month, and you will master the verbs’ conjugation patterns. Keep doing them, with a new one, every day from the Spanish Verbs List.
• The same applies to the various patterns. Repeating these tables aloud 10 times throughout the day will better embed the patterns into your subconscious, and your long-term memory.
• Reciting aloud and recording yourself is a great way to improve your pronunciation, and memorize conjugations. You may ask your teacher/tutor to give you feedback after sending her short pieces of recordings!

Costar Conjugation Chart

Indicative Mood

Present

*above denotes an irregularity on root or stem conjugation.

Past Imperfect

Preterite Indefinite

Future 

Conditional

Subjunctive Mood

Present

*above denotes an irregular conjugation.

Future

Preterite Imperfect

Imperative Mood

Afirmative

*above denotes an irregular conjugation.

Negative

*above denotes an irregular conjugation.

Verb Costar – Quiz/Worksheet

¿Ahora que aprendimos este nuevo verbo, te animas a completar los espacios? (Now that we have learnt this new verb, how about filling in the blanks in the exercise below?)

1. ¿Cuánto __________ la habitación más barata? – _________ cuarenta dólares.
2. ¿Cuánto ___________ blanquearme los dientes?
3. – ¿Cuánto __________ los zapatos? – _______ diez dólares.
4. ¡No te _________ nada dejar la casa ordenada!
5. Las corbatas de seda ____________ diez y ocho dólares.
6. Me ________ demasiado llegar a este puesto, para que un novato se quede con él.
7. No debemos hacer creer a la gente que esto no ___________ esfuerzos.
8. Nuestra comisión dará explicaciones sobre lo que __________ las decisiones políticas conjuntas.
9. Una operación militar en Corea del Norte resultaría muy difícil y podría ________ muchas vidas humanas
10. De todas maneras, la reflexión que yo hago es que esa decisión ___________ mucho trabajo en el futuro para los nuevos empleados.

Answers

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1. cuesta/cuesta;
2. cuesta;
3. cuestan/cuesta;
4. cuesta;
5. cuestan;
6. costó;
7. cuesta;
8. costaron/han costado;
9. costar;
10. costará

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