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Desafiar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to challenge, dare, defy”.
Below are all of the conjugations for desafiar in Spanish, in all three moods (indicative/indicativo, subjunctive/subjunctivo and imperative/imperativo) and all of the tenses, for each pronoun.
The vosotros pronoun is mainly used in mainland Spain, and is the informal second-person plural – it could be considered the Spanish version of “y’all”. It is rarely found in Latin America, where ustedes is used instead.
The vos form is used instead of tú in some Spanish speaking countries of South America, especially the Southern Cone (e.g. Argentina and Uruguay) and has a different conjugation.
| English Infinitive | to challenge, dare, defy |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | desafiar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está desafiando) and past continuous (estaba desafiando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. challenging).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he desafiado and hubiera desafiado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have challenged).
| Gerundio / Gerund | desafiando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | desafiado |
The basic form of speech, el indicativo is used for making statements, talking about facts, events and things that are certain and objective.
The present tense is as it sounds – it’s for talking about things that are currently going on, which are habitual, or which generally exist. In English, this would be “I challenge” or “they challenge”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | desafío |
| Tú | desafías |
| Él / Ella / Usted | desafía |
| Nosotros / as | desafiamos |
| Vosotros / as | desafiáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | desafían |
| Vos | desafíás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I challenged” or “she challenged” in English.
In Spanish, there are two past tenses where just one is used in English; the pretérite infefinido is typically used to refer to a concrete, specific moment in time.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | desafié | I challenged |
| Tú | desafiaste | You challenged |
| Él / Ella / Usted | desafió | He / she / you challenged |
| Nosotros / as | desafiamos | We challenged |
| Vosotros / as | desafiasteis | You challenged |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | desafiaron | They / you challenged |
| Vos | desafiaste | You challenged |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was challenging” or “she was challenging” in English, and is typically used to describe things and set a scene, talk about events without a specific timeframe, or talk about habitual events or states in the past.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | desafiaba | I was challenging |
| Tú | desafiabas | You were challenging |
| Él / Ella / Usted | desafiaba | He was / she was / you were challenging |
| Nosotros / as | desafiábamos | We were challenging |
| Vosotros / as | desafiabais | You were challenging |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | desafiaban | They / you were challenging |
| Vos | desafiabas | You were challenging |
The perfect tense is for talking about things which happened in the past but are still related to the present or continue into the present.
In English, these use the auxiliary verbs ‘have’ and ‘has’ – i.e. “I have challenged” and “she has challenged”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he desafiado | I have challenged |
| Tú | has desafiado | You have challenged |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha desafiado | He has / she has / you have challenged |
| Nosotros / as | hemos desafiado | We have challenged |
| Vosotros / as | habéis desafiado | You have challenged |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han desafiado | They / you have challenged |
| Vos | has desafiado | You have challenged |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would challenge” or “she would challenge”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | desafiaría | I would challenge |
| Tú | desafiarías | You would challenge |
| Él / Ella / Usted | desafiaría | He / she / you would challenge |
| Nosotros / as | desafiaríamos | We would challenge |
| Vosotros / as | desafiaríais | You would challenge |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | desafiarían | They / you would challenge |
| Vos | desafiarías | You would challenge |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will challenge” or “they will challenge”.
It is more commonly used for making a hypothesis about the present. To talk about the future, Spanish speakers frequently use “ir + a + infinivo”, e.g. “van a desafiar” means “They are going to challenge”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | desafiaré | I will challenge |
| Tú | desafiarás | You will challenge |
| Él / Ella / Usted | desafiará | He / she / you will challenge |
| Nosotros / as | desafiaremos | We will challenge |
| Vosotros / as | desafiaréis | You will challenge |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | desafiarán | They / you will challenge |
| Vos | desafiarás | You will challenge |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | desafíe |
| Tú | desafíes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | desafíe |
| Nosotros / as | desafiemos |
| Vosotros / as | desafiéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | desafíen |
| Vos | desafíes |
There are two ways to form the imperfect subjunctive.
The first option sees verbs ending in -era (for -er and -ir verbs) and -ara (for -ar verbs), while the second sees verbs ending in -ese (for -er and -ir verbs) and -ase (for -ar verbs).
There is no difference between these two forms, and Spanish speakers use them interchangeably.
| Pronoun | Spanish era/ara | Spanish ese/ase |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | desafiara | desafiase |
| Tú | desafiaras | desafiase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | desafiara | desafiase |
| Nosotros / as | desafiáramos | desafiásemos |
| Vosotros / as | desafiarais | desafiaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | desafiaran | desafiasen |
| Vos | desafiaras | desafiase |
The future subjunctive is no longer used in modern-day Spanish, apart from in literary and legal contexts, and there is no need to learn it.
It is formed the same as the past/imperfect subjunctive, but with -e endings instead of -a endings.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | desafiare |
| Tú | desafiares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | desafiare |
| Nosotros / as | desafiáremos |
| Vosotros / as | desafiareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | desafiaren |
| Vos | desafiares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “challenge!” and “don’t challenge!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | desafía | no desafíes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | desafíe | no desafíe |
| Nosotros / as | desafiemos | no desafiemos |
| Vosotros / as | desafiad | no desafiéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | desafíen | no desafíen |
| Vos | desafíá | no desafíes |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya desafiado |
| Tú | hayas desafiado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya desafiado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos desafiado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis desafiado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan desafiado |
| Vos | hayas desafiado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera desafiado / hubiese desafiado |
| Tú | hubieras desafiado / hubieses desafiado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera desafiado / hubiese desafiado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos desafiado / hubiésemos desafiado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais desafiado / hubieseis desafiado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran desafiado / hubiesen desafiado |
| Vos | hubieras desafiado / hubieses desafiado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere desafiado |
| Tú | hubieres desafiado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere desafiado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos desafiado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis desafiado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren desafiado |
| Vos | hubieres desafiado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté desafiando |
| Tú | estés desafiando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté desafiando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos desafiando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis desafiando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén desafiando |
| Vos | estés desafiando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera desafiando / estuviese desafiando |
| Tú | estuvieras desafiando / estuvieses desafiando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera desafiando / estuviese desafiando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos desafiando / estuviésamos desafiando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais desafiando / estuvieseis desafiando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera desafiando / estuviese desafiando |
| Vos | estuvieras desafiando / estuvieses desafiando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere desafiando |
| Tú | estuvieres desafiando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere desafiando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos desafiando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis desafiando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere desafiando |
| Vos | estuvieres desafiando |
Voseo is the practice of using ‘vos’ instead of ‘tú’ as the second-person singular pronoun, and is common throughout much of South America.
There are various versions of ‘voseo’ used throughout the Spanish-speaking world. The conjugations for the most common type – used throughout Argentina, parts of Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguya and Uruguay are below.
The present indicative (presente de indicativo) and affirmative imperative (imperativo) have different conjugations from the tú form, while all other tenses generally use the tú form.
| Tense | Vos Conjugation |
|---|---|
| Present Indicative Presente de Indicativo | Vos desafíás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos desafiaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos desafiabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos desafiarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos desafiarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos desafíes |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos desafiaras / Vos desafiase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos desafíá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no desafíes |