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Dificultar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to impede, hamper, obstruct”.
Below are all of the conjugations for dificultar 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 impede, hamper, obstruct |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | dificultar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está dificultando) and past continuous (estaba dificultando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. impeding).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he dificultado and hubiera dificultado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have impeded).
| Gerundio / Gerund | dificultando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | dificultado |
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 impede” or “they impede”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | dificulto |
| Tú | dificultas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | dificulta |
| Nosotros / as | dificultamos |
| Vosotros / as | dificultáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | dificultan |
| Vos | dificultás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I impeded” or “she impeded” 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 | dificulté | I impeded |
| Tú | dificultaste | You impeded |
| Él / Ella / Usted | dificultó | He / she / you impeded |
| Nosotros / as | dificultamos | We impeded |
| Vosotros / as | dificultasteis | You impeded |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | dificultaron | They / you impeded |
| Vos | dificultaste | You impeded |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was impeding” or “she was impeding” 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 | dificultaba | I was impeding |
| Tú | dificultabas | You were impeding |
| Él / Ella / Usted | dificultaba | He was / she was / you were impeding |
| Nosotros / as | dificultábamos | We were impeding |
| Vosotros / as | dificultabais | You were impeding |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | dificultaban | They / you were impeding |
| Vos | dificultabas | You were impeding |
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 impeded” and “she has impeded”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he dificultado | I have impeded |
| Tú | has dificultado | You have impeded |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha dificultado | He has / she has / you have impeded |
| Nosotros / as | hemos dificultado | We have impeded |
| Vosotros / as | habéis dificultado | You have impeded |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han dificultado | They / you have impeded |
| Vos | has dificultado | You have impeded |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would impede” or “she would impede”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | dificultaría | I would impede |
| Tú | dificultarías | You would impede |
| Él / Ella / Usted | dificultaría | He / she / you would impede |
| Nosotros / as | dificultaríamos | We would impede |
| Vosotros / as | dificultaríais | You would impede |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | dificultarían | They / you would impede |
| Vos | dificultarías | You would impede |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will impede” or “they will impede”.
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 dificultar” means “They are going to impede”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | dificultaré | I will impede |
| Tú | dificultarás | You will impede |
| Él / Ella / Usted | dificultará | He / she / you will impede |
| Nosotros / as | dificultaremos | We will impede |
| Vosotros / as | dificultaréis | You will impede |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | dificultarán | They / you will impede |
| Vos | dificultarás | You will impede |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | dificulte |
| Tú | dificultes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | dificulte |
| Nosotros / as | dificultemos |
| Vosotros / as | dificultéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | dificulten |
| Vos | dificultes |
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 | dificultara | dificultase |
| Tú | dificultaras | dificultase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | dificultara | dificultase |
| Nosotros / as | dificultáramos | dificultásemos |
| Vosotros / as | dificultarais | dificultaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | dificultaran | dificultasen |
| Vos | dificultaras | dificultase |
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 | dificultare |
| Tú | dificultares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | dificultare |
| Nosotros / as | dificultáremos |
| Vosotros / as | dificultareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | dificultaren |
| Vos | dificultares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “impede!” and “don’t impede!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | dificulta | no dificultes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | dificulte | no dificulte |
| Nosotros / as | dificultemos | no dificultemos |
| Vosotros / as | dificultad | no dificultéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | dificulten | no dificulten |
| Vos | dificultá | no dificultes |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya dificultado |
| Tú | hayas dificultado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya dificultado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos dificultado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis dificultado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan dificultado |
| Vos | hayas dificultado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera dificultado / hubiese dificultado |
| Tú | hubieras dificultado / hubieses dificultado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera dificultado / hubiese dificultado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos dificultado / hubiésemos dificultado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais dificultado / hubieseis dificultado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran dificultado / hubiesen dificultado |
| Vos | hubieras dificultado / hubieses dificultado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere dificultado |
| Tú | hubieres dificultado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere dificultado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos dificultado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis dificultado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren dificultado |
| Vos | hubieres dificultado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté dificultando |
| Tú | estés dificultando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté dificultando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos dificultando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis dificultando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén dificultando |
| Vos | estés dificultando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera dificultando / estuviese dificultando |
| Tú | estuvieras dificultando / estuvieses dificultando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera dificultando / estuviese dificultando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos dificultando / estuviésamos dificultando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais dificultando / estuvieseis dificultando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera dificultando / estuviese dificultando |
| Vos | estuvieras dificultando / estuvieses dificultando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere dificultando |
| Tú | estuvieres dificultando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere dificultando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos dificultando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis dificultando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere dificultando |
| Vos | estuvieres dificultando |
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 dificultás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos dificultaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos dificultabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos dificultarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos dificultarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos dificultes |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos dificultaras / Vos dificultase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos dificultá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no dificultes |