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Maldecir is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to curse”.
Below are all of the conjugations for maldecir 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 curse |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | maldecir |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está maldiciendo) and past continuous (estaba maldiciendo). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. cruising).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he maldecido and hubiera maldecido. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have cruised).
| Gerundio / Gerund | maldiciendo |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | maldecido |
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 cruise” or “they cruise”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | maldigo |
| Tú | maldices |
| Él / Ella / Usted | maldice |
| Nosotros / as | maldecimos |
| Vosotros / as | maldecís |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | maldicen |
| Vos |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I cruised” or “she cruised” 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 | maldije | I cruised |
| Tú | maldijiste | You cruised |
| Él / Ella / Usted | maldijo | He / she / you cruised |
| Nosotros / as | maldijimos | We cruised |
| Vosotros / as | maldijisteis | You cruised |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | maldijeron | They / you cruised |
| Vos | maldijiste | You cruised |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was cruising” or “she was cruising” 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 | maldecía | I was cruising |
| Tú | maldecías | You were cruising |
| Él / Ella / Usted | maldecía | He was / she was / you were cruising |
| Nosotros / as | maldecíamos | We were cruising |
| Vosotros / as | maldecíais | You were cruising |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | maldecían | They / you were cruising |
| Vos | maldecías | You were cruising |
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 cruised” and “she has cruised”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he maldecido | I have cruised |
| Tú | has maldecido | You have cruised |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha maldecido | He has / she has / you have cruised |
| Nosotros / as | hemos maldecido | We have cruised |
| Vosotros / as | habéis maldecido | You have cruised |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han maldecido | They / you have cruised |
| Vos | has maldecido | You have cruised |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would cruise” or “she would cruise”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | maldeciría | I would cruise |
| Tú | maldecirías | You would cruise |
| Él / Ella / Usted | maldeciría | He / she / you would cruise |
| Nosotros / as | maldeciríamos | We would cruise |
| Vosotros / as | maldeciríais | You would cruise |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | maldecirían | They / you would cruise |
| Vos | maldecirías | You would cruise |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will cruise” or “they will cruise”.
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 maldecir” means “They are going to cruise”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | maldeciré | I will cruise |
| Tú | maldecirás | You will cruise |
| Él / Ella / Usted | maldecirá | He / she / you will cruise |
| Nosotros / as | maldeciremos | We will cruise |
| Vosotros / as | maldeciréis | You will cruise |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | maldecirán | They / you will cruise |
| Vos | maldecirás | You will cruise |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | maldiga |
| Tú | maldigas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | maldiga |
| Nosotros / as | maldigamos |
| Vosotros / as | maldigáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | maldigan |
| Vos | maldigas |
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 | maldijera | maldijese |
| Tú | maldijeras | maldijese |
| Él / Ella / Usted | maldijera | maldijese |
| Nosotros / as | maldijéramos | maldijésemos |
| Vosotros / as | maldijerais | maldijeseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | maldijeran | maldijesen |
| Vos | maldijeras | maldijese |
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 | maldijere |
| Tú | maldijeres |
| Él / Ella / Usted | maldijera |
| Nosotros / as | maldijéremos |
| Vosotros / as | maldijereis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | maldijeren |
| Vos | maldijeres |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “cruise!” and “don’t cruise!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | maldice | no maldigas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | maldiga | no maldiga |
| Nosotros / as | maldigamos | no maldigamos |
| Vosotros / as | maldecid | no maldigáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | maldigan | no maldigan |
| Vos | no maldigas |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya maldecido |
| Tú | hayas maldecido |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya maldecido |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos maldecido |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis maldecido |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan maldecido |
| Vos | hayas maldecido |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera maldecido / hubiese maldecido |
| Tú | hubieras maldecido / hubieses maldecido |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera maldecido / hubiese maldecido |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos maldecido / hubiésemos maldecido |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais maldecido / hubieseis maldecido |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran maldecido / hubiesen maldecido |
| Vos | hubieras maldecido / hubieses maldecido |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere maldecido |
| Tú | hubieres maldecido |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere maldecido |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos maldecido |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis maldecido |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren maldecido |
| Vos | hubieres maldecido |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté maldiciendo |
| Tú | estés maldiciendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté maldiciendo |
| Nosotros / as | estemos maldiciendo |
| Vosotros / as | estéis maldiciendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén maldiciendo |
| Vos | estés maldiciendo |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera maldiciendo / estuviese maldiciendo |
| Tú | estuvieras maldiciendo / estuvieses maldiciendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera maldiciendo / estuviese maldiciendo |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos maldiciendo / estuviésamos maldiciendo |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais maldiciendo / estuvieseis maldiciendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera maldiciendo / estuviese maldiciendo |
| Vos | estuvieras maldiciendo / estuvieses maldiciendo |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere maldiciendo |
| Tú | estuvieres maldiciendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere maldiciendo |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos maldiciendo |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis maldiciendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere maldiciendo |
| Vos | estuvieres maldiciendo |
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 |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos maldijiste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos maldecías |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos maldecirías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos maldecirás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos maldigas |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos maldijeras / Vos maldijese |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no maldigas |