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Destornillar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to unscrew”.
Below are all of the conjugations for destornillar 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 unscrew |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | destornillar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está destornillando) and past continuous (estaba destornillando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. unscrewing).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he destornillado and hubiera destornillado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have unscrewed).
| Gerundio / Gerund | destornillando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | destornillado |
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 unscrew” or “they unscrew”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | destornillo |
| Tú | destornillas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | destornilla |
| Nosotros / as | destornillamos |
| Vosotros / as | destornilláis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | destornillan |
| Vos | destornillás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I unscrewed” or “she unscrewed” 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 | destornillé | I unscrewed |
| Tú | destornillaste | You unscrewed |
| Él / Ella / Usted | destornilló | He / she / you unscrewed |
| Nosotros / as | destornillamos | We unscrewed |
| Vosotros / as | destornillasteis | You unscrewed |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | destornillaron | They / you unscrewed |
| Vos | destornillaste | You unscrewed |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was unscrewing” or “she was unscrewing” 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 | destornillaba | I was unscrewing |
| Tú | destornillabas | You were unscrewing |
| Él / Ella / Usted | destornillaba | He was / she was / you were unscrewing |
| Nosotros / as | destornillábamos | We were unscrewing |
| Vosotros / as | destornillabais | You were unscrewing |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | destornillaban | They / you were unscrewing |
| Vos | destornillabas | You were unscrewing |
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 unscrewed” and “she has unscrewed”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he destornillado | I have unscrewed |
| Tú | has destornillado | You have unscrewed |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha destornillado | He has / she has / you have unscrewed |
| Nosotros / as | hemos destornillado | We have unscrewed |
| Vosotros / as | habéis destornillado | You have unscrewed |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han destornillado | They / you have unscrewed |
| Vos | has destornillado | You have unscrewed |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would unscrew” or “she would unscrew”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | destornillaría | I would unscrew |
| Tú | destornillarías | You would unscrew |
| Él / Ella / Usted | destornillaría | He / she / you would unscrew |
| Nosotros / as | destornillaríamos | We would unscrew |
| Vosotros / as | destornillaríais | You would unscrew |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | destornillarían | They / you would unscrew |
| Vos | destornillarías | You would unscrew |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will unscrew” or “they will unscrew”.
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 destornillar” means “They are going to unscrew”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | destornillaré | I will unscrew |
| Tú | destornillarás | You will unscrew |
| Él / Ella / Usted | destornillará | He / she / you will unscrew |
| Nosotros / as | destornillaremos | We will unscrew |
| Vosotros / as | destornillaréis | You will unscrew |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | destornillarán | They / you will unscrew |
| Vos | destornillarás | You will unscrew |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | destornille |
| Tú | destornilles |
| Él / Ella / Usted | destornille |
| Nosotros / as | destornillemos |
| Vosotros / as | destornilléis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | destornillen |
| Vos | destornilles |
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 | destornillara | destornillase |
| Tú | destornillaras | destornillase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | destornillara | destornillase |
| Nosotros / as | destornilláramos | destornillásemos |
| Vosotros / as | destornillarais | destornillaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | destornillaran | destornillasen |
| Vos | destornillaras | destornillase |
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 | destornillare |
| Tú | destornillares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | destornillare |
| Nosotros / as | destornilláremos |
| Vosotros / as | destornillareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | destornillaren |
| Vos | destornillares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “unscrew!” and “don’t unscrew!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | destornilla | no destornilles |
| Él / Ella / Usted | destornille | no destornille |
| Nosotros / as | destornillemos | no destornillemos |
| Vosotros / as | destornillad | no destornilléis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | destornillen | no destornillen |
| Vos | destornillá | no destornilles |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya destornillado |
| Tú | hayas destornillado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya destornillado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos destornillado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis destornillado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan destornillado |
| Vos | hayas destornillado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera destornillado / hubiese destornillado |
| Tú | hubieras destornillado / hubieses destornillado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera destornillado / hubiese destornillado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos destornillado / hubiésemos destornillado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais destornillado / hubieseis destornillado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran destornillado / hubiesen destornillado |
| Vos | hubieras destornillado / hubieses destornillado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere destornillado |
| Tú | hubieres destornillado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere destornillado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos destornillado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis destornillado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren destornillado |
| Vos | hubieres destornillado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté destornillando |
| Tú | estés destornillando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté destornillando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos destornillando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis destornillando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén destornillando |
| Vos | estés destornillando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera destornillando / estuviese destornillando |
| Tú | estuvieras destornillando / estuvieses destornillando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera destornillando / estuviese destornillando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos destornillando / estuviésamos destornillando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais destornillando / estuvieseis destornillando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera destornillando / estuviese destornillando |
| Vos | estuvieras destornillando / estuvieses destornillando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere destornillando |
| Tú | estuvieres destornillando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere destornillando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos destornillando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis destornillando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere destornillando |
| Vos | estuvieres destornillando |
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 destornillás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos destornillaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos destornillabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos destornillarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos destornillarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos destornilles |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos destornillaras / Vos destornillase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos destornillá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no destornilles |