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Detener is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to stop, detain, attest”.
Below are all of the conjugations for detener 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 stop, detain, attest |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | detener |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está deteniendo) and past continuous (estaba deteniendo). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. stopping).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he detenido and hubiera detenido. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have stopped).
| Gerundio / Gerund | deteniendo |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | detenido |
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 stop” or “they stop”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | detengo |
| Tú | detienes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | detiene |
| Nosotros / as | detenemos |
| Vosotros / as | detenéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | detienen |
| Vos | detenés |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I stopped” or “she stopped” 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 | detuve | I stopped |
| Tú | detuviste | You stopped |
| Él / Ella / Usted | detuvo | He / she / you stopped |
| Nosotros / as | detuvimos | We stopped |
| Vosotros / as | detuvisteis | You stopped |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | detuvieron | They / you stopped |
| Vos | detuviste | You stopped |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was stopping” or “she was stopping” 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 | detenía | I was stopping |
| Tú | detenías | You were stopping |
| Él / Ella / Usted | detenía | He was / she was / you were stopping |
| Nosotros / as | deteníamos | We were stopping |
| Vosotros / as | deteníais | You were stopping |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | detenían | They / you were stopping |
| Vos | detenías | You were stopping |
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 stopped” and “she has stopped”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he detenido | I have stopped |
| Tú | has detenido | You have stopped |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha detenido | He has / she has / you have stopped |
| Nosotros / as | hemos detenido | We have stopped |
| Vosotros / as | habéis detenido | You have stopped |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han detenido | They / you have stopped |
| Vos | has detenido | You have stopped |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would stop” or “she would stop”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | detendría | I would stop |
| Tú | detendrías | You would stop |
| Él / Ella / Usted | detendría | He / she / you would stop |
| Nosotros / as | detendríamos | We would stop |
| Vosotros / as | detendríais | You would stop |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | detendrían | They / you would stop |
| Vos | detendrías | You would stop |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will stop” or “they will stop”.
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 detener” means “They are going to stop”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | detendré | I will stop |
| Tú | detendrás | You will stop |
| Él / Ella / Usted | detendrá | He / she / you will stop |
| Nosotros / as | detendremos | We will stop |
| Vosotros / as | detendréis | You will stop |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | detendrán | They / you will stop |
| Vos | detendrás | You will stop |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | detenga |
| Tú | detengas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | detenga |
| Nosotros / as | detengamos |
| Vosotros / as | detengáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | detengan |
| Vos | detengas |
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 | detuviera | detuviese |
| Tú | detuvieras | detuviese |
| Él / Ella / Usted | detuviera | detuviese |
| Nosotros / as | detuviéramos | detuviésemos |
| Vosotros / as | detuvierais | detuvieseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | detuvieran | detuviesen |
| Vos | detuvieras | detuviese |
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 | detuviere |
| Tú | detuvieres |
| Él / Ella / Usted | detuviere |
| Nosotros / as | detuviéremos |
| Vosotros / as | detuviereis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | detuvieren |
| Vos | detuvieres |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “stop!” and “don’t stop!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | detén | no detengas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | detenga | no detenga |
| Nosotros / as | detengamos | no detengamos |
| Vosotros / as | detened | no detengáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | detengan | no detengan |
| Vos | detené | no detengas |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya detenido |
| Tú | hayas detenido |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya detenido |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos detenido |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis detenido |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan detenido |
| Vos | hayas detenido |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera detenido / hubiese detenido |
| Tú | hubieras detenido / hubieses detenido |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera detenido / hubiese detenido |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos detenido / hubiésemos detenido |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais detenido / hubieseis detenido |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran detenido / hubiesen detenido |
| Vos | hubieras detenido / hubieses detenido |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere detenido |
| Tú | hubieres detenido |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere detenido |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos detenido |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis detenido |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren detenido |
| Vos | hubieres detenido |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté deteniendo |
| Tú | estés deteniendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté deteniendo |
| Nosotros / as | estemos deteniendo |
| Vosotros / as | estéis deteniendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén deteniendo |
| Vos | estés deteniendo |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera deteniendo / estuviese deteniendo |
| Tú | estuvieras deteniendo / estuvieses deteniendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera deteniendo / estuviese deteniendo |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos deteniendo / estuviésamos deteniendo |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais deteniendo / estuvieseis deteniendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera deteniendo / estuviese deteniendo |
| Vos | estuvieras deteniendo / estuvieses deteniendo |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere deteniendo |
| Tú | estuvieres deteniendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere deteniendo |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos deteniendo |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis deteniendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere deteniendo |
| Vos | estuvieres deteniendo |
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 detenés |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos detuviste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos detenías |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos detendrías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos detendrás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos detengas |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos detuvieras / Vos detuviese |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos detené |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no detengas |