madrugas

Madrugas is the second-person singular present indicative form of the Spanish verb madrugar, meaning to wake up early or to get up early. In this form, the subject is you (tú). The verb madrugar is a regular -ar verb, and its present tense forms are: yo madrugo, tú madrugas, él/ella madruga, nosotros madrugamos, vosotros madrugáis, ellos madrugan. Other tenses include madrugaste (you woke up early) in the preterite and madrugabas (you used to wake up early) in the imperfect.

The term is commonly used to describe habitual morning routines or alarm clock behavior. For example: "¿A qué hora madrugas?" means "What time do you get up early?" or "Ella madruga todos los días para ir al trabajo." This form is widely understood across Spanish-speaking regions.

Madrugada, by contrast, is a related noun that refers to the dawn or early morning period itself. While madrugas is a verb form, madrugada denotes a time of day, often associated with the hours before sunrise. Both derive from the same linguistic concept of waking or rising in the early hours, but they function differently in sentences.

In usage, madrugas appears primarily in ordinary speech and writing when describing someone’s habitual rising time or a specific instance of waking early. For learners, recognizing madrugas helps distinguish between the verb form and the related noun madrugada.

See also: Madrugar; Madrugada.