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Despreciar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to despise, scorn, disregard”.
Below are all of the conjugations for despreciar 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 despise, scorn, disregard |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | despreciar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está despreciando) and past continuous (estaba despreciando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. despising).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he despreciado and hubiera despreciado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have despised).
| Gerundio / Gerund | despreciando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | despreciado |
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 despise” or “they despise”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | desprecio |
| Tú | desprecias |
| Él / Ella / Usted | desprecia |
| Nosotros / as | despreciamos |
| Vosotros / as | despreciáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | desprecian |
| Vos | despreciás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I despised” or “she despised” 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 | desprecié | I despised |
| Tú | despreciaste | You despised |
| Él / Ella / Usted | despreció | He / she / you despised |
| Nosotros / as | despreciamos | We despised |
| Vosotros / as | despreciasteis | You despised |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | despreciaron | They / you despised |
| Vos | despreciaste | You despised |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was despising” or “she was despising” 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 | despreciaba | I was despising |
| Tú | despreciabas | You were despising |
| Él / Ella / Usted | despreciaba | He was / she was / you were despising |
| Nosotros / as | despreciábamos | We were despising |
| Vosotros / as | despreciabais | You were despising |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | despreciaban | They / you were despising |
| Vos | despreciabas | You were despising |
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 despised” and “she has despised”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he despreciado | I have despised |
| Tú | has despreciado | You have despised |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha despreciado | He has / she has / you have despised |
| Nosotros / as | hemos despreciado | We have despised |
| Vosotros / as | habéis despreciado | You have despised |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han despreciado | They / you have despised |
| Vos | has despreciado | You have despised |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would despise” or “she would despise”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | despreciaría | I would despise |
| Tú | despreciarías | You would despise |
| Él / Ella / Usted | despreciaría | He / she / you would despise |
| Nosotros / as | despreciaríamos | We would despise |
| Vosotros / as | despreciaríais | You would despise |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | despreciarían | They / you would despise |
| Vos | despreciarías | You would despise |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will despise” or “they will despise”.
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 despreciar” means “They are going to despise”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | despreciaré | I will despise |
| Tú | despreciarás | You will despise |
| Él / Ella / Usted | despreciará | He / she / you will despise |
| Nosotros / as | despreciaremos | We will despise |
| Vosotros / as | despreciaréis | You will despise |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | despreciarán | They / you will despise |
| Vos | despreciarás | You will despise |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | desprecie |
| Tú | desprecies |
| Él / Ella / Usted | desprecie |
| Nosotros / as | despreciemos |
| Vosotros / as | despreciéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | desprecien |
| Vos | desprecies |
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 | despreciara | despreciase |
| Tú | despreciaras | despreciase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | despreciara | despreciase |
| Nosotros / as | despreciáramos | despreciásemos |
| Vosotros / as | despreciarais | despreciaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | despreciaran | despreciasen |
| Vos | despreciaras | despreciase |
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 | despreciare |
| Tú | despreciares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | despreciare |
| Nosotros / as | despreciáremos |
| Vosotros / as | despreciareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | despreciaren |
| Vos | despreciares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “despise!” and “don’t despise!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | desprecia | no desprecies |
| Él / Ella / Usted | desprecie | no desprecie |
| Nosotros / as | despreciemos | no despreciemos |
| Vosotros / as | despreciad | no despreciéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | desprecien | no desprecien |
| Vos | despreciá | no desprecies |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya despreciado |
| Tú | hayas despreciado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya despreciado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos despreciado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis despreciado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan despreciado |
| Vos | hayas despreciado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera despreciado / hubiese despreciado |
| Tú | hubieras despreciado / hubieses despreciado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera despreciado / hubiese despreciado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos despreciado / hubiésemos despreciado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais despreciado / hubieseis despreciado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran despreciado / hubiesen despreciado |
| Vos | hubieras despreciado / hubieses despreciado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere despreciado |
| Tú | hubieres despreciado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere despreciado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos despreciado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis despreciado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren despreciado |
| Vos | hubieres despreciado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté despreciando |
| Tú | estés despreciando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté despreciando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos despreciando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis despreciando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén despreciando |
| Vos | estés despreciando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera despreciando / estuviese despreciando |
| Tú | estuvieras despreciando / estuvieses despreciando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera despreciando / estuviese despreciando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos despreciando / estuviésamos despreciando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais despreciando / estuvieseis despreciando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera despreciando / estuviese despreciando |
| Vos | estuvieras despreciando / estuvieses despreciando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere despreciando |
| Tú | estuvieres despreciando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere despreciando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos despreciando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis despreciando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere despreciando |
| Vos | estuvieres despreciando |
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 despreciás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos despreciaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos despreciabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos despreciarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos despreciarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos desprecies |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos despreciaras / Vos despreciase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos despreciá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no desprecies |