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Debatir is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to debate”.
Below are all of the conjugations for debatir 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 debate |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | debatir |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está debatiendo) and past continuous (estaba debatiendo). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. debating).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he debatido and hubiera debatido. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have debated).
| Gerundio / Gerund | debatiendo |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | debatido |
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 debate” or “they debate”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | debato |
| Tú | debates |
| Él / Ella / Usted | debate |
| Nosotros / as | debatimos |
| Vosotros / as | debatís |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | debaten |
| Vos | debatís |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I debated” or “she debated” 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 | debatí | I debated |
| Tú | debatiste | You debated |
| Él / Ella / Usted | debatió | He / she / you debated |
| Nosotros / as | debatimos | We debated |
| Vosotros / as | debatisteis | You debated |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | debatieron | They / you debated |
| Vos | debatiste | You debated |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was debating” or “she was debating” 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 | debatía | I was debating |
| Tú | debatías | You were debating |
| Él / Ella / Usted | debatía | He was / she was / you were debating |
| Nosotros / as | debatíamos | We were debating |
| Vosotros / as | debatíais | You were debating |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | debatían | They / you were debating |
| Vos | debatías | You were debating |
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 debated” and “she has debated”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he debatido | I have debated |
| Tú | has debatido | You have debated |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha debatido | He has / she has / you have debated |
| Nosotros / as | hemos debatido | We have debated |
| Vosotros / as | habéis debatido | You have debated |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han debatido | They / you have debated |
| Vos | has debatido | You have debated |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would debate” or “she would debate”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | debatiría | I would debate |
| Tú | debatirías | You would debate |
| Él / Ella / Usted | debatiría | He / she / you would debate |
| Nosotros / as | debatiríamos | We would debate |
| Vosotros / as | debatiríais | You would debate |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | debatirían | They / you would debate |
| Vos | debatirías | You would debate |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will debate” or “they will debate”.
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 debatir” means “They are going to debate”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | debatiré | I will debate |
| Tú | debatirás | You will debate |
| Él / Ella / Usted | debatirá | He / she / you will debate |
| Nosotros / as | debatiremos | We will debate |
| Vosotros / as | debatiréis | You will debate |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | debatirán | They / you will debate |
| Vos | debatirás | You will debate |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | debata |
| Tú | debatas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | debata |
| Nosotros / as | debatamos |
| Vosotros / as | debatáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | debatan |
| Vos | debatas |
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 | debatiera | debatiese |
| Tú | debatieras | debatiese |
| Él / Ella / Usted | debatiera | debatiese |
| Nosotros / as | debatiéramos | debatiésemos |
| Vosotros / as | debatierais | debatieseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | debatieran | debatiesen |
| Vos | debatieras | debatiese |
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 | debatiere |
| Tú | debatieres |
| Él / Ella / Usted | debatiera |
| Nosotros / as | debatiéremos |
| Vosotros / as | debatiereis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | debatieren |
| Vos | debatieres |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “debate!” and “don’t debate!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | debate | no debatas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | debata | no debata |
| Nosotros / as | debatamos | no debatamos |
| Vosotros / as | debatid | no debatáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | debatan | no debatan |
| Vos | debatí | no debatas |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya debatido |
| Tú | hayas debatido |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya debatido |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos debatido |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis debatido |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan debatido |
| Vos | hayas debatido |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera debatido / hubiese debatido |
| Tú | hubieras debatido / hubieses debatido |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera debatido / hubiese debatido |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos debatido / hubiésemos debatido |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais debatido / hubieseis debatido |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran debatido / hubiesen debatido |
| Vos | hubieras debatido / hubieses debatido |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere debatido |
| Tú | hubieres debatido |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere debatido |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos debatido |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis debatido |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren debatido |
| Vos | hubieres debatido |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté debatiendo |
| Tú | estés debatiendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté debatiendo |
| Nosotros / as | estemos debatiendo |
| Vosotros / as | estéis debatiendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén debatiendo |
| Vos | estés debatiendo |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera debatiendo / estuviese debatiendo |
| Tú | estuvieras debatiendo / estuvieses debatiendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera debatiendo / estuviese debatiendo |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos debatiendo / estuviésamos debatiendo |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais debatiendo / estuvieseis debatiendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera debatiendo / estuviese debatiendo |
| Vos | estuvieras debatiendo / estuvieses debatiendo |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere debatiendo |
| Tú | estuvieres debatiendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere debatiendo |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos debatiendo |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis debatiendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere debatiendo |
| Vos | estuvieres debatiendo |
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 debatís |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos debatiste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos debatías |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos debatirías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos debatirás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos debatas |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos debatieras / Vos debatiese |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos debatí |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no debatas |