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Desenterrar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to exhume, unearth”.
Below are all of the conjugations for desenterrar 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 exhume, unearth |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | desenterrar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está desenterrando) and past continuous (estaba desenterrando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. exhuming).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he desenterrado and hubiera desenterrado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have exhumed).
| Gerundio / Gerund | desenterrando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | desenterrado |
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 exhume” or “they exhume”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | desentierro |
| Tú | desentierras |
| Él / Ella / Usted | desentierra |
| Nosotros / as | desenterramos |
| Vosotros / as | desenterráis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | desentierran |
| Vos | desenterrás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I exhumed” or “she exhumed” 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 | desenterré | I exhumed |
| Tú | desenterraste | You exhumed |
| Él / Ella / Usted | desenterró | He / she / you exhumed |
| Nosotros / as | desenterramos | We exhumed |
| Vosotros / as | desenterrasteis | You exhumed |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | desenterraron | They / you exhumed |
| Vos | desenterraste | You exhumed |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was exhuming” or “she was exhuming” 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 | desenterraba | I was exhuming |
| Tú | desenterrabas | You were exhuming |
| Él / Ella / Usted | desenterraba | He was / she was / you were exhuming |
| Nosotros / as | desenterrábamos | We were exhuming |
| Vosotros / as | desenterrabais | You were exhuming |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | desenterraban | They / you were exhuming |
| Vos | desenterrabas | You were exhuming |
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 exhumed” and “she has exhumed”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he desenterrado | I have exhumed |
| Tú | has desenterrado | You have exhumed |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha desenterrado | He has / she has / you have exhumed |
| Nosotros / as | hemos desenterrado | We have exhumed |
| Vosotros / as | habéis desenterrado | You have exhumed |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han desenterrado | They / you have exhumed |
| Vos | has desenterrado | You have exhumed |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would exhume” or “she would exhume”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | desenterraría | I would exhume |
| Tú | desenterrarías | You would exhume |
| Él / Ella / Usted | desenterraría | He / she / you would exhume |
| Nosotros / as | desenterraríamos | We would exhume |
| Vosotros / as | desenterraríais | You would exhume |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | desenterrarían | They / you would exhume |
| Vos | desenterrarías | You would exhume |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will exhume” or “they will exhume”.
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 desenterrar” means “They are going to exhume”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | desenterraré | I will exhume |
| Tú | desenterrarás | You will exhume |
| Él / Ella / Usted | desenterrará | He / she / you will exhume |
| Nosotros / as | desenterraremos | We will exhume |
| Vosotros / as | desenterraréis | You will exhume |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | desenterrarán | They / you will exhume |
| Vos | desenterrarás | You will exhume |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | desentierre |
| Tú | desentierres |
| Él / Ella / Usted | desentierre |
| Nosotros / as | desenterremos |
| Vosotros / as | desenterréis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | desentierren |
| Vos | desentierres |
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 | desenterrara | desenterrase |
| Tú | desenterraras | desenterrase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | desenterrara | desenterrase |
| Nosotros / as | desenterráramos | desenterrásemos |
| Vosotros / as | desenterrarais | desenterraseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | desenterraran | desenterrasen |
| Vos | desenterraras | desenterrase |
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 | desenterrare |
| Tú | desenterrares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | desenterrare |
| Nosotros / as | desenterráremos |
| Vosotros / as | desenterrareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | desenterraren |
| Vos | desenterrares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “exhume!” and “don’t exhume!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | desentierra | no desentierres |
| Él / Ella / Usted | desentierre | no desentierre |
| Nosotros / as | desenterremos | no desenterremos |
| Vosotros / as | desenterrad | no desenterréis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | desentierren | no desentierren |
| Vos | desenterrá | no desentierres |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya desenterrado |
| Tú | hayas desenterrado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya desenterrado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos desenterrado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis desenterrado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan desenterrado |
| Vos | hayas desenterrado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera desenterrado / hubiese desenterrado |
| Tú | hubieras desenterrado / hubieses desenterrado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera desenterrado / hubiese desenterrado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos desenterrado / hubiésemos desenterrado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais desenterrado / hubieseis desenterrado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran desenterrado / hubiesen desenterrado |
| Vos | hubieras desenterrado / hubieses desenterrado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere desenterrado |
| Tú | hubieres desenterrado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere desenterrado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos desenterrado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis desenterrado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren desenterrado |
| Vos | hubieres desenterrado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté desenterrando |
| Tú | estés desenterrando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté desenterrando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos desenterrando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis desenterrando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén desenterrando |
| Vos | estés desenterrando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera desenterrando / estuviese desenterrando |
| Tú | estuvieras desenterrando / estuvieses desenterrando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera desenterrando / estuviese desenterrando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos desenterrando / estuviésamos desenterrando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais desenterrando / estuvieseis desenterrando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera desenterrando / estuviese desenterrando |
| Vos | estuvieras desenterrando / estuvieses desenterrando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere desenterrando |
| Tú | estuvieres desenterrando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere desenterrando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos desenterrando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis desenterrando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere desenterrando |
| Vos | estuvieres desenterrando |
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 desenterrás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos desenterraste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos desenterrabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos desenterrarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos desenterrarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos desentierres |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos desenterraras / Vos desenterrase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos desenterrá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no desentierres |