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Deber is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “must / should / to owe”.
Below are all of the conjugations for deber 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 | must / should / to owe |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | deber |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está debiendo) and past continuous (estaba debiendo). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. owing).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he debido and hubiera debido. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have owed).
| Gerundio / Gerund | debiendo |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | debido |
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 owe” or “they owe”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | debo |
| Tú | debes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | debe |
| Nosotros / as | debemos |
| Vosotros / as | debéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | deben |
| Vos | debés |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I owed” or “she owed” 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 | debí | I owed |
| Tú | debiste | You owed |
| Él / Ella / Usted | debió | He / she / you owed |
| Nosotros / as | debimos | We owed |
| Vosotros / as | debisteis | You owed |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | debieron | They / you owed |
| Vos | debiste | You owed |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was owing” or “she was owing” 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 | debía | I was owing |
| Tú | debías | You were owing |
| Él / Ella / Usted | debía | He was / she was / you were owing |
| Nosotros / as | debíamos | We were owing |
| Vosotros / as | debíais | You were owing |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | debían | They / you were owing |
| Vos | debías | You were owing |
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 owed” and “she has owed”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he debido | I have owed |
| Tú | has debido | You have owed |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha debido | He has / she has / you have owed |
| Nosotros / as | hemos debido | We have owed |
| Vosotros / as | habéis debido | You have owed |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han debido | They / you have owed |
| Vos | has debido | You have owed |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would owe” or “she would owe”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | debería | I would owe |
| Tú | deberías | You would owe |
| Él / Ella / Usted | debería | He / she / you would owe |
| Nosotros / as | deberíamos | We would owe |
| Vosotros / as | deberíais | You would owe |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | deberían | They / you would owe |
| Vos | deberías | You would owe |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will owe” or “they will owe”.
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 deber” means “They are going to owe”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | deberé | I will owe |
| Tú | deberás | You will owe |
| Él / Ella / Usted | deberá | He / she / you will owe |
| Nosotros / as | deberemos | We will owe |
| Vosotros / as | deberéis | You will owe |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | deberán | They / you will owe |
| Vos | deberás | You will owe |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | deba |
| Tú | debas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | deba |
| Nosotros / as | debamos |
| Vosotros / as | debáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | deban |
| Vos | debas |
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 | debiera | debiese |
| Tú | debieras | debiese |
| Él / Ella / Usted | debiera | debiese |
| Nosotros / as | debiéramos | debiésemos |
| Vosotros / as | debierais | debieseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | debieran | debiesen |
| Vos | debieras | debiese |
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 | debiere |
| Tú | debieres |
| Él / Ella / Usted | debiere |
| Nosotros / as | debiéremos |
| Vosotros / as | debiereis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | debieren |
| Vos | debieres |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “owe!” and “don’t owe!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | debe | no debas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | deba | no deba |
| Nosotros / as | debamos | no debamos |
| Vosotros / as | debed | no debáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | deban | no deban |
| Vos | debé | no debas |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya debido |
| Tú | hayas debido |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya debido |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos debido |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis debido |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan debido |
| Vos | hayas debido |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera debido / hubiese debido |
| Tú | hubieras debido / hubieses debido |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera debido / hubiese debido |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos debido / hubiésemos debido |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais debido / hubieseis debido |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran debido / hubiesen debido |
| Vos | hubieras debido / hubieses debido |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere debido |
| Tú | hubieres debido |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere debido |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos debido |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis debido |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren debido |
| Vos | hubieres debido |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté debiendo |
| Tú | estés debiendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté debiendo |
| Nosotros / as | estemos debiendo |
| Vosotros / as | estéis debiendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén debiendo |
| Vos | estés debiendo |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera debiendo / estuviese debiendo |
| Tú | estuvieras debiendo / estuvieses debiendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera debiendo / estuviese debiendo |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos debiendo / estuviésamos debiendo |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais debiendo / estuvieseis debiendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera debiendo / estuviese debiendo |
| Vos | estuvieras debiendo / estuvieses debiendo |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere debiendo |
| Tú | estuvieres debiendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere debiendo |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos debiendo |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis debiendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere debiendo |
| Vos | estuvieres debiendo |
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 debés |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos debiste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos debías |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos deberías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos deberás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos debas |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos debieras / Vos debiese |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos debé |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no debas |
