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Decretar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to decree, resolve”.
Below are all of the conjugations for decretar 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 decree, resolve |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | decretar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está decretando) and past continuous (estaba decretando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. decorating).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he decretado and hubiera decretado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have decorated).
| Gerundio / Gerund | decretando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | decretado |
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 decorate” or “they decorate”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | decreto |
| Tú | decretas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | decreta |
| Nosotros / as | decretamos |
| Vosotros / as | decretáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | decretan |
| Vos | decretás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I decorated” or “she decorated” 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 | decreté | I decorated |
| Tú | decretaste | You decorated |
| Él / Ella / Usted | decretó | He / she / you decorated |
| Nosotros / as | decretamos | We decorated |
| Vosotros / as | decretasteis | You decorated |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | decretaron | They / you decorated |
| Vos | decretaste | You decorated |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was decorating” or “she was decorating” 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 | decretaba | I was decorating |
| Tú | decretabas | You were decorating |
| Él / Ella / Usted | decretaba | He was / she was / you were decorating |
| Nosotros / as | decretábamos | We were decorating |
| Vosotros / as | decretabais | You were decorating |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | decretaban | They / you were decorating |
| Vos | decretabas | You were decorating |
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 decorated” and “she has decorated”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he decretado | I have decorated |
| Tú | has decretado | You have decorated |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha decretado | He has / she has / you have decorated |
| Nosotros / as | hemos decretado | We have decorated |
| Vosotros / as | habéis decretado | You have decorated |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han decretado | They / you have decorated |
| Vos | has decretado | You have decorated |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would decorate” or “she would decorate”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | decretaría | I would decorate |
| Tú | decretarías | You would decorate |
| Él / Ella / Usted | decretaría | He / she / you would decorate |
| Nosotros / as | decretaríamos | We would decorate |
| Vosotros / as | decretaríais | You would decorate |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | decretarían | They / you would decorate |
| Vos | decretarías | You would decorate |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will decorate” or “they will decorate”.
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 decretar” means “They are going to decorate”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | decretaré | I will decorate |
| Tú | decretarás | You will decorate |
| Él / Ella / Usted | decretará | He / she / you will decorate |
| Nosotros / as | decretaremos | We will decorate |
| Vosotros / as | decretaréis | You will decorate |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | decretarán | They / you will decorate |
| Vos | decretarás | You will decorate |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | decrete |
| Tú | decretes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | decrete |
| Nosotros / as | decretemos |
| Vosotros / as | decretéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | decreten |
| Vos | decretes |
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 | decretara | decretase |
| Tú | decretaras | decretase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | decretara | decretase |
| Nosotros / as | decretáramos | decretásemos |
| Vosotros / as | decretarais | decretaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | decretaran | decretasen |
| Vos | decretaras | decretase |
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 | decretare |
| Tú | decretares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | decretare |
| Nosotros / as | decretáremos |
| Vosotros / as | decretareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | decretaren |
| Vos | decretares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “decorate!” and “don’t decorate!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | decreta | no decretes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | decrete | no decrete |
| Nosotros / as | decretemos | no decretemos |
| Vosotros / as | decretad | no decretéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | decreten | no decreten |
| Vos | decretá | no decretes |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya decretado |
| Tú | hayas decretado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya decretado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos decretado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis decretado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan decretado |
| Vos | hayas decretado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera decretado / hubiese decretado |
| Tú | hubieras decretado / hubieses decretado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera decretado / hubiese decretado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos decretado / hubiésemos decretado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais decretado / hubieseis decretado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran decretado / hubiesen decretado |
| Vos | hubieras decretado / hubieses decretado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere decretado |
| Tú | hubieres decretado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere decretado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos decretado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis decretado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren decretado |
| Vos | hubieres decretado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté decretando |
| Tú | estés decretando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté decretando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos decretando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis decretando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén decretando |
| Vos | estés decretando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera decretando / estuviese decretando |
| Tú | estuvieras decretando / estuvieses decretando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera decretando / estuviese decretando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos decretando / estuviésamos decretando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais decretando / estuvieseis decretando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera decretando / estuviese decretando |
| Vos | estuvieras decretando / estuvieses decretando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere decretando |
| Tú | estuvieres decretando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere decretando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos decretando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis decretando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere decretando |
| Vos | estuvieres decretando |
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 decretás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos decretaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos decretabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos decretarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos decretarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos decretes |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos decretaras / Vos decretase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos decretá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no decretes |