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Merecer is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to deserve, merit”.
Below are all of the conjugations for merecer 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 deserve, merit |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | merecer |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está mereciendo) and past continuous (estaba mereciendo). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. deserving).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he merecido and hubiera merecido. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have deserved).
| Gerundio / Gerund | mereciendo |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | merecido |
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 deserve” or “they deserve”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | merezco |
| Tú | mereces |
| Él / Ella / Usted | merece |
| Nosotros / as | merecemos |
| Vosotros / as | merecéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | merecen |
| Vos |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I deserved” or “she deserved” 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 | merecí | I deserved |
| Tú | mereciste | You deserved |
| Él / Ella / Usted | mereció | He / she / you deserved |
| Nosotros / as | merecimos | We deserved |
| Vosotros / as | merecisteis | You deserved |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | merecieron | They / you deserved |
| Vos | mereciste | You deserved |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was deserving” or “she was deserving” 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 | merecía | I was deserving |
| Tú | merecías | You were deserving |
| Él / Ella / Usted | merecía | He was / she was / you were deserving |
| Nosotros / as | merecíamos | We were deserving |
| Vosotros / as | merecíais | You were deserving |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | merecían | They / you were deserving |
| Vos | merecías | You were deserving |
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 deserved” and “she has deserved”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he merecido | I have deserved |
| Tú | has merecido | You have deserved |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha merecido | He has / she has / you have deserved |
| Nosotros / as | hemos merecido | We have deserved |
| Vosotros / as | habéis merecido | You have deserved |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han merecido | They / you have deserved |
| Vos | has merecido | You have deserved |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would deserve” or “she would deserve”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | merecería | I would deserve |
| Tú | merecerías | You would deserve |
| Él / Ella / Usted | merecería | He / she / you would deserve |
| Nosotros / as | mereceríamos | We would deserve |
| Vosotros / as | mereceríais | You would deserve |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | merecerían | They / you would deserve |
| Vos | merecerías | You would deserve |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will deserve” or “they will deserve”.
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 merecer” means “They are going to deserve”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | mereceré | I will deserve |
| Tú | merecerás | You will deserve |
| Él / Ella / Usted | merecerá | He / she / you will deserve |
| Nosotros / as | mereceremos | We will deserve |
| Vosotros / as | mereceréis | You will deserve |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | merecerán | They / you will deserve |
| Vos | merecerás | You will deserve |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | merezca |
| Tú | merezcas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | merezca |
| Nosotros / as | merezcamos |
| Vosotros / as | merezcáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | merezcan |
| Vos | merezcas |
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 | mereciera | mereciese |
| Tú | merecieras | mereciese |
| Él / Ella / Usted | mereciera | mereciese |
| Nosotros / as | mereciéramos | mereciésemos |
| Vosotros / as | merecierais | merecieseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | merecieran | mereciesen |
| Vos | merecieras | mereciese |
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 | mereciere |
| Tú | merecieres |
| Él / Ella / Usted | mereciere |
| Nosotros / as | mereciéremos |
| Vosotros / as | mereciereis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | merecieren |
| Vos | merecieres |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “deserve!” and “don’t deserve!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | merece | no merezcas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | merezca | no merezca |
| Nosotros / as | merezcamos | no merezcamos |
| Vosotros / as | mereced | no merezcáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | merezcan | no merezcan |
| Vos | no merezcas |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya merecido |
| Tú | hayas merecido |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya merecido |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos merecido |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis merecido |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan merecido |
| Vos | hayas merecido |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera merecido / hubiese merecido |
| Tú | hubieras merecido / hubieses merecido |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera merecido / hubiese merecido |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos merecido / hubiésemos merecido |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais merecido / hubieseis merecido |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran merecido / hubiesen merecido |
| Vos | hubieras merecido / hubieses merecido |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere merecido |
| Tú | hubieres merecido |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere merecido |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos merecido |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis merecido |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren merecido |
| Vos | hubieres merecido |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté mereciendo |
| Tú | estés mereciendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté mereciendo |
| Nosotros / as | estemos mereciendo |
| Vosotros / as | estéis mereciendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén mereciendo |
| Vos | estés mereciendo |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera mereciendo / estuviese mereciendo |
| Tú | estuvieras mereciendo / estuvieses mereciendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera mereciendo / estuviese mereciendo |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos mereciendo / estuviésamos mereciendo |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais mereciendo / estuvieseis mereciendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera mereciendo / estuviese mereciendo |
| Vos | estuvieras mereciendo / estuvieses mereciendo |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere mereciendo |
| Tú | estuvieres mereciendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere mereciendo |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos mereciendo |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis mereciendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere mereciendo |
| Vos | estuvieres mereciendo |
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 |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos mereciste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos merecías |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos merecerías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos merecerás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos merezcas |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos merecieras / Vos mereciese |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no merezcas |