Everything you need to improve your Spanish
Menu
Everything you need to improve your Spanish
Descender is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to descend, go down, get off”.
Below are all of the conjugations for descender 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 descend, go down, get off |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | descender |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está descendiendo) and past continuous (estaba descendiendo). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. descending).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he descendido and hubiera descendido. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have descended).
| Gerundio / Gerund | descendiendo |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | descendido |
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 descend” or “they descend”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | desciendo |
| Tú | desciendes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | desciende |
| Nosotros / as | descendemos |
| Vosotros / as | descendéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | descienden |
| Vos | descendés |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I descended” or “she descended” 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 | descendí | I descended |
| Tú | descendiste | You descended |
| Él / Ella / Usted | descendió | He / she / you descended |
| Nosotros / as | descendimos | We descended |
| Vosotros / as | descendisteis | You descended |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | descendieron | They / you descended |
| Vos | descendiste | You descended |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was descending” or “she was descending” 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 | descendía | I was descending |
| Tú | descendías | You were descending |
| Él / Ella / Usted | descendía | He was / she was / you were descending |
| Nosotros / as | descendíamos | We were descending |
| Vosotros / as | descendíais | You were descending |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | descendían | They / you were descending |
| Vos | descendías | You were descending |
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 descended” and “she has descended”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he descendido | I have descended |
| Tú | has descendido | You have descended |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha descendido | He has / she has / you have descended |
| Nosotros / as | hemos descendido | We have descended |
| Vosotros / as | habéis descendido | You have descended |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han descendido | They / you have descended |
| Vos | has descendido | You have descended |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would descend” or “she would descend”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | descendería | I would descend |
| Tú | descenderías | You would descend |
| Él / Ella / Usted | descendería | He / she / you would descend |
| Nosotros / as | descenderíamos | We would descend |
| Vosotros / as | descenderíais | You would descend |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | descenderían | They / you would descend |
| Vos | descenderías | You would descend |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will descend” or “they will descend”.
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 descender” means “They are going to descend”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | descenderé | I will descend |
| Tú | descenderás | You will descend |
| Él / Ella / Usted | descenderá | He / she / you will descend |
| Nosotros / as | descenderemos | We will descend |
| Vosotros / as | descenderéis | You will descend |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | descenderán | They / you will descend |
| Vos | descenderás | You will descend |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | descienda |
| Tú | desciendas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | descienda |
| Nosotros / as | descendamos |
| Vosotros / as | descendáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | desciendan |
| Vos | desciendas |
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 | descendiera | descendiese |
| Tú | descendieras | descendiese |
| Él / Ella / Usted | descendiera | descendiese |
| Nosotros / as | descendiéramos | descendiésemos |
| Vosotros / as | descendierais | descendieseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | descendieran | descendiesen |
| Vos | descendieras | descendiese |
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 | descendiere |
| Tú | descendieres |
| Él / Ella / Usted | descendiere |
| Nosotros / as | descendiéremos |
| Vosotros / as | descendiereis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | descendieren |
| Vos | descendieres |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “descend!” and “don’t descend!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | desciende | no desciendas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | descienda | no descienda |
| Nosotros / as | descendamos | no descendamos |
| Vosotros / as | descended | no descendáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | desciendan | no desciendan |
| Vos | descendé | no desciendas |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya descendido |
| Tú | hayas descendido |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya descendido |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos descendido |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis descendido |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan descendido |
| Vos | hayas descendido |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera descendido / hubiese descendido |
| Tú | hubieras descendido / hubieses descendido |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera descendido / hubiese descendido |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos descendido / hubiésemos descendido |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais descendido / hubieseis descendido |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran descendido / hubiesen descendido |
| Vos | hubieras descendido / hubieses descendido |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere descendido |
| Tú | hubieres descendido |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere descendido |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos descendido |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis descendido |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren descendido |
| Vos | hubieres descendido |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté descendiendo |
| Tú | estés descendiendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté descendiendo |
| Nosotros / as | estemos descendiendo |
| Vosotros / as | estéis descendiendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén descendiendo |
| Vos | estés descendiendo |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera descendiendo / estuviese descendiendo |
| Tú | estuvieras descendiendo / estuvieses descendiendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera descendiendo / estuviese descendiendo |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos descendiendo / estuviésamos descendiendo |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais descendiendo / estuvieseis descendiendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera descendiendo / estuviese descendiendo |
| Vos | estuvieras descendiendo / estuvieses descendiendo |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere descendiendo |
| Tú | estuvieres descendiendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere descendiendo |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos descendiendo |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis descendiendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere descendiendo |
| Vos | estuvieres descendiendo |
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 descendés |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos descendiste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos descendías |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos descenderías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos descenderás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos desciendas |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos descendieras / Vos descendiese |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos descendé |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no desciendas |