Ganar means 'to win' and 'to earn', two meanings that make it useful across sport, work and money topics. Ganamos el partido (we won the match), gano dinero los fines de semana (I earn money at weekends). It is a regular -ar verb, so the forms are predictable, and the reflexive ganarse la vida means 'to earn a living'. Because both winning and earning come up in common exam topics — sport, part-time jobs, ambitions — ganar gives you a lot of mileage. As with other -ar verbs, watch the preterite accents (gané, ganó).
Quick facts
Ganar (to win / earn) is a regular -ar verb.
Real sentences across different tenses — the kind of thing you'd actually say or write.
Ganamos el partido (we won the match).
Gano dinero (I earn money).
Ganarse la vida (to earn a living).
Ganar peso/tiempo (to gain weight/time).
Fixed expressions worth knowing — they come up in listening, reading and writing tasks.
Idiomatic expressions
Ganar is a regular verb. Make sure you know the endings for each tense — especially the preterite and subjunctive, which is where marks are most often lost.
ganar is a regular -ar verb — it follows the standard -ar pattern in every tense. That makes it a good one to drill: if you know ganar, you know the template for all regular -ar verbs.
Type conjugations from memory and get instant feedback. That's how you actually build the automatic recall the exam needs — not from reading tables.
Practice ganar now →Three questions. Press Enter to check each answer.
yo: gano, tú: ganas, él: gana, nosotros: ganamos, vosotros: ganáis, ellos: ganan
Ganar is a regular -ar verb following the standard -ar pattern.
Use ganar in multiple tenses to show range — present, preterite and future at minimum. This is a key criterion for higher GCSE marks.
Verbs that are easy to confuse with ganar or that behave like it.
This reference is written for UK GCSE and A-Level Spanish learners and their teachers. It is designed for exam revision: every form is checked against standard conjugation rules, and the examples reflect the registers and topics that come up in the AQA, Edexcel and Eduqas specifications. Ganar is a high-frequency verb and appears often in exam papers. For active recall, use the free practice tool rather than only reading the tables.