cansar

Cansar is a Spanish verb meaning to tire or exhaust someone or something, and also to become tired oneself. It is used transitively to indicate causing fatigue, and intransitively to express personal fatigue or weariness. The verb can also be followed by de to indicate getting tired of something, as in cansarse de, or by a direct object with a different nuance.

Cansar is a regular -ar verb, so its conjugation follows the standard pattern for -ar verbs. Infinitive: cansar; gerund: cansando; participle: cansado. Present indicative forms are: yo canso, tú cansas, él cansa, nosotros cansamos, vosotros cansáis, ellos cansan. Other tenses follow the regular -ar conjugation (for example, preterite: cansé, cansaste, cansó, nucleos: cansamos, cansasteis, cansaron; imperfect: cansaba, cansabas, cansaba, cansábamos, cansabais, cansaban).

Uses and senses. In the transitive sense, cansar takes a direct object: "La caminata cansó a los excursionistas" means the hike tired the hikers. In its intransitive sense, the subject becomes tired: "Me cansé después de correr" or "Se cansa con el ruido." The construction cansarse de expresses fatigue or annoyance with something over time: "Se cansó de la rutina." The verb also appears in figurative contexts, such as tiring someone with repetitive actions or ideas: "me cansan esas historias repetidas." Related forms include the noun cansancio (fatigue) and the adjective cansado (tired).

See also: cansancio, cansado, fatiga.