Be Scared in Spanish | Say It Naturally In Real Life

The most common choice is “tener miedo,” while “estar asustado/a” fits a scared feeling happening right now.

English has one handy word: “scared.” Spanish splits that idea into a few everyday patterns. Once you know which one matches your moment, you’ll sound natural instead of stiff. This piece walks you through the go-to phrases, the grammar that trips people up, and the small choices native speakers make when they’re startled, uneasy, or plain scared.

What Spanish speakers usually say when they feel scared

If you learn only two options, learn these:

• Tener miedo = to feel fear, to be afraid.
• Estar asustado/a = to be scared right now, often after a scare.

Tener miedo is the workhorse. You can use it for a spider on the wall, a scary movie, flying, or a rough neighborhood at night. It’s also flexible with time and degree: tengo miedo, tenía miedo, me da miedo.

Estar asustado/a paints a “this is happening to me right now” picture. A loud bang, a dog running at you, a sudden shout. That’s the vibe.

Two short patterns you’ll use all the time

Start with these templates and swap the last part:

• Tengo miedo de + infinitive: Tengo miedo de volar.
• Tengo miedo a + noun: Tengo miedo a las arañas.

Both show up in real speech. In many places you’ll hear miedo a with nouns and miedo de with verbs, but people mix them. If your sentence sounds clean, you’re fine.

When “I’m scared” is a warning, not a confession

Sometimes you’re not sharing feelings; you’re flagging risk. Spanish often swaps in a quick warning line:

• Me da miedo: Me da miedo ese puente. (That bridge scares me.)
• Da miedo: Da miedo manejar aquí de noche. (It’s scary to drive here at night.)

These feel casual and direct. They’re also handy when you want to stay a bit impersonal.

Be Scared in Spanish with the right tone for the moment

Spanish gives you choices that match intensity. Some are light. Some are “I’m shaking.” The trick is picking a level that fits.

Low to medium fear

• Me da cosa: a mild “this creeps me out.”
• Me pone nervioso/a: it makes me nervous.
• Me da miedo: it scares me.

Stronger fear

• Estoy asustado/a: I’m scared right now.
• Estoy muerto/a de miedo: I’m terrified (dramatic, common).
• Estoy aterrado/a: I’m terrified (more formal, heavier).

If you’re learning for travel or daily talk, tengo miedo and estoy asustado/a will carry you far. Save aterrado/a for serious moments or formal writing.

Adjective agreement matters with “asustado/a”

Asustado changes with the speaker:

• Estoy asustado (male speaker)
• Estoy asustada (female speaker)
• Estamos asustados/as (group)

This is one reason learners lean on tengo miedo: it stays the same no matter who says it.

How “miedo” and “asustar” work, in plain grammar

It helps to see what the words literally do.

“Miedo” is a noun, so Spanish uses “have”

Spanish often frames feelings as things you “have”: tengo hambre, tengo sueño, tengo miedo. In the RAE entry for “miedo”, it’s defined as a kind of anguish or apprehension tied to danger or harm. That matches how speakers treat it: a feeling you carry.

“Asustar” is a verb that causes a scare

Asustar is what something does to you: it scares you. The RAE entry for “asustar” frames it as causing susto, and it can also work as a reflexive verb: me asusté (I got scared).

Three useful sentence shapes

• Me asusté = I got scared (a moment, a reaction).
• Me asusta = It scares me (a thing causes fear).
• Estoy asustado/a = I’m scared (your state right now).

Once you feel these patterns, you can build dozens of lines on the fly.

Common situations and the Spanish that fits

Here are the moments people run into most, with phrasing that sounds natural. Read them out loud. Your mouth will start to memorize the rhythm.

Startled by something sudden

Use a quick past action: Me asusté.

• Me asusté con el ruido.
• Me asusté cuando se apagó la luz.

Afraid of a thing in general

Use tener miedo or dar miedo.

• Tengo miedo a las alturas.
• Me da miedo nadar solo.

Scared for someone else

Spanish often uses por:

• Tengo miedo por mi hermano.
• Estoy asustada por el bebé.

Talking about scary content

Movies, stories, games, and haunted houses lean on da miedo:

• Esa película da miedo.
• Ese juego me da miedo.

When you want to soften the line

If you don’t want to sound intense, Spanish has gentle options:

• Me da cosa entrar ahí.
• Me pone nerviosa hablar en público.

Fast reference table for “scared” phrases

Spanish phrase	What it communicates	Best time to use it
Tengo miedo	I feel afraid	General fear, steady feeling
Tengo miedo de + infinitive	I’m afraid to do something	Actions: fly, drive, speak
Tengo miedo a + noun	I’m afraid of something	Objects, animals, places
Me da miedo	It scares me	Quick, everyday talk
Da miedo + infinitive	It’s scary to…	Impersonal warnings
Estoy asustado/a	I’m scared right now	After a scare, in the moment
Me asusté	I got scared	Past reaction to a sudden event
Me asusta	It scares me	When the “scary thing” is the subject
Me pone nervioso/a	It makes me nervous	Softening fear into nerves
Me da cosa	It gives me the creeps	Mild discomfort, informal

Regional notes that stop you from sounding odd

Spanish is shared across many countries, and fear language varies a bit. The core phrases stay the same, but a few words shift by region.

“Miedo” is universal, but slang changes

Miedo works everywhere. Slang for fear changes fast and varies by place, so it can date you or land wrong. If you’re not sure, stay with miedo, susto, asustado/a, and nervioso/a.

“Aterrorizado/a” and “aterrado/a” feel heavier

These can sound formal or dramatic. They’re fine in writing and news-style speech. In daily chat, many speakers pick muerto/a de miedo when they want a punchy “terrified.”

Mexico: an extra reference you can trust

If you work or study with Mexican Spanish, the Diccionario del español de México describes miedo as a sensation tied to danger or possible harm. The idea lines up with the wider Spanish-speaking use: fear as a felt state that can show up in the body.

Common mistakes learners make and clean fixes

These are small, but they change how natural you sound.

Mixing up “ser” and “estar” with “asustado”

Estoy asustado/a is the normal pick for a scared state. Soy asustado/a can sound like “I’m a scaredy person” or “I get scared easily.” People do say it, but it carries a trait vibe. If you mean “right now,” stick with estar.

Forgetting “me” in “me da miedo”

Da miedo can stand alone, but me da miedo is the personal version. Missing me can make the line feel blunt or unclear.

Overusing one phrase in every scene

If you say tengo miedo for everything, you’ll still be understood. Mixing in me asusté for sudden scares and me da cosa for mild creepiness makes your Spanish feel lived-in.

Mini dialogues you can copy for travel and daily life

Use these as ready-made lines. Swap the nouns and verbs to fit your day.

At night in a new place

A:¿Vamos por esa calle?
B:Me da miedo caminar por ahí de noche. Mejor por la avenida.

After a loud noise

A:¿Qué pasó?
B:Se cayó algo. Me asusté.

On a plane or bus

A:¿Te gusta volar?
B:No mucho. Tengo miedo de las turbulencias.

Watching something scary

A:¿Seguimos con la serie?
B:Sí, pero esa escena da miedo.

Practice that locks the phrases into your mouth

Reading helps, but speaking is where the patterns stick. Try this short routine for five minutes.

Step 1: Pick one fear and say it three ways

• Tengo miedo a ____.
• Me da miedo ____.
• Da miedo ____.

Step 2: Add a time shift

Say the same idea in the past and in a “used to” frame:

• Tenía miedo de ____.
• De niño/a, me daba miedo ____.

Step 3: Add the sudden scare line

• Me asusté cuando ____.

That’s it. You’ll cover the core meaning of “scared” across most real scenes.

Conjugation and structure table for quick recall

Goal	Spanish structure	Sample line
Fear right now	Estoy asustado/a	Estoy asustada.
Past sudden scare	Me asusté	Me asusté con el trueno.
General fear	Tengo miedo	Tengo miedo a las alturas.
Fear of an action	Tengo miedo de + infinitive	Tengo miedo de conducir.
Something scares you	Me da miedo + noun/verb	Me da miedo entrar.
Impersonal “it’s scary”	Da miedo + infinitive	Da miedo nadar aquí.
Someone scares you	Me asusta + subject	Me asusta ese perro.
Soft fear as nerves	Me pone nervioso/a	Me pone nervioso hablar.

A short checklist for sounding natural

If you want a simple rule set, use this.

• Use tengo miedo for steady fear, worries, and general “I’m afraid.”
• Use estoy asustado/a when the fear is present right now, often right after a scare.
• Use me asusté for a sudden reaction in the past.
• Use me da miedo when a thing or action scares you.
• Use da miedo to warn that something is scary without centering yourself.

If you want one extra reference for word choice and examples, the Cambridge English–Spanish entry for “scared” lists common equivalents like asustado and related options used in real sentences.

With these pieces, you can say “scared” in Spanish in a way that matches the moment, the intensity, and the vibe of the conversation.