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Despejar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to clear away, vacate, clarify”.
Below are all of the conjugations for despejar 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 clear away, vacate, clarify |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | despejar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está despejando) and past continuous (estaba despejando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. clearing away).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he despejado and hubiera despejado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have cleared away).
| Gerundio / Gerund | despejando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | despejado |
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 clear away” or “they clear away”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | despejo |
| Tú | despejas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | despeja |
| Nosotros / as | despejamos |
| Vosotros / as | despejáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | despejan |
| Vos | despejás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I cleared away” or “she cleared away” 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 | despejé | I cleared away |
| Tú | despejaste | You cleared away |
| Él / Ella / Usted | despejó | He / she / you cleared away |
| Nosotros / as | despejamos | We cleared away |
| Vosotros / as | despejasteis | You cleared away |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | despejaron | They / you cleared away |
| Vos | despejaste | You cleared away |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was clearing away” or “she was clearing away” 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 | despejaba | I was clearing away |
| Tú | despejabas | You were clearing away |
| Él / Ella / Usted | despejaba | He was / she was / you were clearing away |
| Nosotros / as | despejábamos | We were clearing away |
| Vosotros / as | despejabais | You were clearing away |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | despejaban | They / you were clearing away |
| Vos | despejabas | You were clearing away |
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 cleared away” and “she has cleared away”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he despejado | I have cleared away |
| Tú | has despejado | You have cleared away |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha despejado | He has / she has / you have cleared away |
| Nosotros / as | hemos despejado | We have cleared away |
| Vosotros / as | habéis despejado | You have cleared away |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han despejado | They / you have cleared away |
| Vos | has despejado | You have cleared away |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would clear away” or “she would clear away”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | despejaría | I would clear away |
| Tú | despejarías | You would clear away |
| Él / Ella / Usted | despejaría | He / she / you would clear away |
| Nosotros / as | despejaríamos | We would clear away |
| Vosotros / as | despejaríais | You would clear away |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | despejarían | They / you would clear away |
| Vos | despejarías | You would clear away |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will clear away” or “they will clear away”.
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 despejar” means “They are going to clear away”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | despejaré | I will clear away |
| Tú | despejarás | You will clear away |
| Él / Ella / Usted | despejará | He / she / you will clear away |
| Nosotros / as | despejaremos | We will clear away |
| Vosotros / as | despejaréis | You will clear away |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | despejarán | They / you will clear away |
| Vos | despejarás | You will clear away |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | despeje |
| Tú | despejes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | despeje |
| Nosotros / as | despejemos |
| Vosotros / as | despejéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | despejen |
| Vos | despejes |
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 | despejara | despejase |
| Tú | despejaras | despejase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | despejara | despejase |
| Nosotros / as | despejáramos | despejásemos |
| Vosotros / as | despejarais | despejaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | despejaran | despejasen |
| Vos | despejaras | despejase |
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 | despejare |
| Tú | despejares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | despejare |
| Nosotros / as | despejáremos |
| Vosotros / as | despejareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | despejaren |
| Vos | despejares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “clear away!” and “don’t clear away!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | despeja | no despejes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | despeje | no despeje |
| Nosotros / as | despejemos | no despejemos |
| Vosotros / as | despejad | no despejéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | despejen | no despejen |
| Vos | despejá | no despejes |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya despejado |
| Tú | hayas despejado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya despejado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos despejado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis despejado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan despejado |
| Vos | hayas despejado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera despejado / hubiese despejado |
| Tú | hubieras despejado / hubieses despejado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera despejado / hubiese despejado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos despejado / hubiésemos despejado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais despejado / hubieseis despejado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran despejado / hubiesen despejado |
| Vos | hubieras despejado / hubieses despejado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere despejado |
| Tú | hubieres despejado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere despejado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos despejado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis despejado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren despejado |
| Vos | hubieres despejado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté despejando |
| Tú | estés despejando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté despejando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos despejando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis despejando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén despejando |
| Vos | estés despejando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera despejando / estuviese despejando |
| Tú | estuvieras despejando / estuvieses despejando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera despejando / estuviese despejando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos despejando / estuviésamos despejando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais despejando / estuvieseis despejando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera despejando / estuviese despejando |
| Vos | estuvieras despejando / estuvieses despejando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere despejando |
| Tú | estuvieres despejando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere despejando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos despejando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis despejando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere despejando |
| Vos | estuvieres despejando |
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 despejás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos despejaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos despejabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos despejarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos despejarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos despejes |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos despejaras / Vos despejase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos despejá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no despejes |