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Desertar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to desert, abandon”.
Below are all of the conjugations for desertar 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 desert, abandon |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | desertar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está desertando) and past continuous (estaba desertando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. deserting).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he desertado and hubiera desertado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have deserted).
| Gerundio / Gerund | desertando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | desertado |
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 desert” or “they desert”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | deserto |
| Tú | desertas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | deserta |
| Nosotros / as | desertamos |
| Vosotros / as | desertáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | desertan |
| Vos | desertás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I deserted” or “she deserted” 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 | deserté | I deserted |
| Tú | desertaste | You deserted |
| Él / Ella / Usted | desertó | He / she / you deserted |
| Nosotros / as | desertamos | We deserted |
| Vosotros / as | desertasteis | You deserted |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | desertaron | They / you deserted |
| Vos | desertaste | You deserted |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was deserting” or “she was deserting” 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 | desertaba | I was deserting |
| Tú | desertabas | You were deserting |
| Él / Ella / Usted | desertaba | He was / she was / you were deserting |
| Nosotros / as | desertábamos | We were deserting |
| Vosotros / as | desertabais | You were deserting |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | desertaban | They / you were deserting |
| Vos | desertabas | You were deserting |
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 deserted” and “she has deserted”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he desertado | I have deserted |
| Tú | has desertado | You have deserted |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha desertado | He has / she has / you have deserted |
| Nosotros / as | hemos desertado | We have deserted |
| Vosotros / as | habéis desertado | You have deserted |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han desertado | They / you have deserted |
| Vos | has desertado | You have deserted |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would desert” or “she would desert”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | desertaría | I would desert |
| Tú | desertarías | You would desert |
| Él / Ella / Usted | desertaría | He / she / you would desert |
| Nosotros / as | desertaríamos | We would desert |
| Vosotros / as | desertaríais | You would desert |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | desertarían | They / you would desert |
| Vos | desertarías | You would desert |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will desert” or “they will desert”.
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 desertar” means “They are going to desert”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | desertaré | I will desert |
| Tú | desertarás | You will desert |
| Él / Ella / Usted | desertará | He / she / you will desert |
| Nosotros / as | desertaremos | We will desert |
| Vosotros / as | desertaréis | You will desert |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | desertarán | They / you will desert |
| Vos | desertarás | You will desert |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | deserte |
| Tú | desertes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | deserte |
| Nosotros / as | desertemos |
| Vosotros / as | desertéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | deserten |
| Vos | desertes |
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 | desertara | desertase |
| Tú | desertaras | desertase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | desertara | desertase |
| Nosotros / as | desertáramos | desertásemos |
| Vosotros / as | desertarais | desertaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | desertaran | desertasen |
| Vos | desertaras | desertase |
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 | desertare |
| Tú | desertares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | desertare |
| Nosotros / as | desertáremos |
| Vosotros / as | desertareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | desertaren |
| Vos | desertares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “desert!” and “don’t desert!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | deserta | no desertes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | deserte | no deserte |
| Nosotros / as | desertemos | no desertemos |
| Vosotros / as | desertad | no desertéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | deserten | no deserten |
| Vos | desertá | no desertes |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya desertado |
| Tú | hayas desertado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya desertado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos desertado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis desertado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan desertado |
| Vos | hayas desertado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera desertado / hubiese desertado |
| Tú | hubieras desertado / hubieses desertado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera desertado / hubiese desertado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos desertado / hubiésemos desertado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais desertado / hubieseis desertado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran desertado / hubiesen desertado |
| Vos | hubieras desertado / hubieses desertado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere desertado |
| Tú | hubieres desertado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere desertado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos desertado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis desertado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren desertado |
| Vos | hubieres desertado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté desertando |
| Tú | estés desertando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté desertando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos desertando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis desertando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén desertando |
| Vos | estés desertando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera desertando / estuviese desertando |
| Tú | estuvieras desertando / estuvieses desertando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera desertando / estuviese desertando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos desertando / estuviésamos desertando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais desertando / estuvieseis desertando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera desertando / estuviese desertando |
| Vos | estuvieras desertando / estuvieses desertando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere desertando |
| Tú | estuvieres desertando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere desertando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos desertando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis desertando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere desertando |
| Vos | estuvieres desertando |
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 desertás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos desertaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos desertabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos desertarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos desertarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos desertes |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos desertaras / Vos desertase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos desertá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no desertes |