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Desalentar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to make breathless, discourage”.
Below are all of the conjugations for desalentar 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 make breathless, discourage |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | desalentar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está desalentando) and past continuous (estaba desalentando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. discouraging).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he desalentado and hubiera desalentado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have discouraged).
| Gerundio / Gerund | desalentando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | desalentado |
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 discourage” or “they discourage”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | desaliento |
| Tú | desalientas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | desalienta |
| Nosotros / as | desalentamos |
| Vosotros / as | desalentáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | desalientan |
| Vos | desalentás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I discouraged” or “she discouraged” 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 | desalenté | I discouraged |
| Tú | desalentaste | You discouraged |
| Él / Ella / Usted | desalentó | He / she / you discouraged |
| Nosotros / as | desalentamos | We discouraged |
| Vosotros / as | desalentasteis | You discouraged |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | desalentaron | They / you discouraged |
| Vos | desalentaste | You discouraged |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was discouraging” or “she was discouraging” 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 | desalentaba | I was discouraging |
| Tú | desalentabas | You were discouraging |
| Él / Ella / Usted | desalentaba | He was / she was / you were discouraging |
| Nosotros / as | desalentábamos | We were discouraging |
| Vosotros / as | desalentabais | You were discouraging |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | desalentaban | They / you were discouraging |
| Vos | desalentabas | You were discouraging |
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 discouraged” and “she has discouraged”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he desalentado | I have discouraged |
| Tú | has desalentado | You have discouraged |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha desalentado | He has / she has / you have discouraged |
| Nosotros / as | hemos desalentado | We have discouraged |
| Vosotros / as | habéis desalentado | You have discouraged |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han desalentado | They / you have discouraged |
| Vos | has desalentado | You have discouraged |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would discourage” or “she would discourage”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | desalentaría | I would discourage |
| Tú | desalentarías | You would discourage |
| Él / Ella / Usted | desalentaría | He / she / you would discourage |
| Nosotros / as | desalentaríamos | We would discourage |
| Vosotros / as | desalentaríais | You would discourage |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | desalentarían | They / you would discourage |
| Vos | desalentarías | You would discourage |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will discourage” or “they will discourage”.
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 desalentar” means “They are going to discourage”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | desalentaré | I will discourage |
| Tú | desalentarás | You will discourage |
| Él / Ella / Usted | desalentará | He / she / you will discourage |
| Nosotros / as | desalentaremos | We will discourage |
| Vosotros / as | desalentaréis | You will discourage |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | desalentarán | They / you will discourage |
| Vos | desalentarás | You will discourage |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | desaliente |
| Tú | desalientes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | desaliente |
| Nosotros / as | desalentemos |
| Vosotros / as | desalentéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | desalienten |
| Vos | desalientes |
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 | desalentara | desalentase |
| Tú | desalentaras | desalentase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | desalentara | desalentase |
| Nosotros / as | desalentáramos | desalentásemos |
| Vosotros / as | desalentarais | desalentaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | desalentaran | desalentasen |
| Vos | desalentaras | desalentase |
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 | desalentare |
| Tú | desalentares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | desalentare |
| Nosotros / as | desalentáremos |
| Vosotros / as | desalentareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | desalentaren |
| Vos | desalentares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “discourage!” and “don’t discourage!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | desalienta | no desalientes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | desaliente | no desaliente |
| Nosotros / as | desalentemos | no desalentemos |
| Vosotros / as | desalentad | no desalentéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | desalienten | no desalienten |
| Vos | desalentá | no desalientes |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya desalentado |
| Tú | hayas desalentado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya desalentado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos desalentado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis desalentado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan desalentado |
| Vos | hayas desalentado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera desalentado / hubiese desalentado |
| Tú | hubieras desalentado / hubieses desalentado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera desalentado / hubiese desalentado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos desalentado / hubiésemos desalentado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais desalentado / hubieseis desalentado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran desalentado / hubiesen desalentado |
| Vos | hubieras desalentado / hubieses desalentado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere desalentado |
| Tú | hubieres desalentado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere desalentado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos desalentado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis desalentado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren desalentado |
| Vos | hubieres desalentado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté desalentando |
| Tú | estés desalentando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté desalentando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos desalentando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis desalentando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén desalentando |
| Vos | estés desalentando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera desalentando / estuviese desalentando |
| Tú | estuvieras desalentando / estuvieses desalentando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera desalentando / estuviese desalentando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos desalentando / estuviésamos desalentando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais desalentando / estuvieseis desalentando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera desalentando / estuviese desalentando |
| Vos | estuvieras desalentando / estuvieses desalentando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere desalentando |
| Tú | estuvieres desalentando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere desalentando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos desalentando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis desalentando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere desalentando |
| Vos | estuvieres desalentando |
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 desalentás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos desalentaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos desalentabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos desalentarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos desalentarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos desalientes |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos desalentaras / Vos desalentase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos desalentá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no desalientes |