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Defender is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to defend, protect”.
Below are all of the conjugations for defender 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 defend, protect |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | defender |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está defendiendo) and past continuous (estaba defendiendo). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. defending).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he defendido and hubiera defendido. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have defended).
| Gerundio / Gerund | defendiendo |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | defendido |
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 defend” or “they defend”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | defiendo |
| Tú | defiendes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | defiende |
| Nosotros / as | defendemos |
| Vosotros / as | defendéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | defienden |
| Vos | defendés |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I defended” or “she defended” 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 | defendí | I defended |
| Tú | defendiste | You defended |
| Él / Ella / Usted | defendió | He / she / you defended |
| Nosotros / as | defendimos | We defended |
| Vosotros / as | defendisteis | You defended |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | defendieron | They / you defended |
| Vos | defendiste | You defended |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was defending” or “she was defending” 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 | defendía | I was defending |
| Tú | defendías | You were defending |
| Él / Ella / Usted | defendía | He was / she was / you were defending |
| Nosotros / as | defendíamos | We were defending |
| Vosotros / as | defendíais | You were defending |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | defendían | They / you were defending |
| Vos | defendías | You were defending |
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 defended” and “she has defended”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he defendido | I have defended |
| Tú | has defendido | You have defended |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha defendido | He has / she has / you have defended |
| Nosotros / as | hemos defendido | We have defended |
| Vosotros / as | habéis defendido | You have defended |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han defendido | They / you have defended |
| Vos | has defendido | You have defended |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would defend” or “she would defend”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | defendería | I would defend |
| Tú | defenderías | You would defend |
| Él / Ella / Usted | defendería | He / she / you would defend |
| Nosotros / as | defenderíamos | We would defend |
| Vosotros / as | defenderíais | You would defend |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | defenderían | They / you would defend |
| Vos | defenderías | You would defend |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will defend” or “they will defend”.
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 defender” means “They are going to defend”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | defenderé | I will defend |
| Tú | defenderás | You will defend |
| Él / Ella / Usted | defenderá | He / she / you will defend |
| Nosotros / as | defenderemos | We will defend |
| Vosotros / as | defenderéis | You will defend |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | defenderán | They / you will defend |
| Vos | defenderás | You will defend |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | defienda |
| Tú | defiendas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | defienda |
| Nosotros / as | defendamos |
| Vosotros / as | defendáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | defiendan |
| Vos | defiendas |
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 | defendiera | defendiese |
| Tú | defendieras | defendiese |
| Él / Ella / Usted | defendiera | defendiese |
| Nosotros / as | defendiéramos | defendiésemos |
| Vosotros / as | defendierais | defendieseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | defendieran | defendiesen |
| Vos | defendieras | defendiese |
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 | defendiere |
| Tú | defendieres |
| Él / Ella / Usted | defendiere |
| Nosotros / as | defendiéremos |
| Vosotros / as | defendiereis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | defendieren |
| Vos | defendieres |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “defend!” and “don’t defend!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | defiende | no defiendas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | defienda | no defienda |
| Nosotros / as | defendamos | no defendamos |
| Vosotros / as | defended | no defendáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | defiendan | no defiendan |
| Vos | defendé | no defiendas |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya defendido |
| Tú | hayas defendido |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya defendido |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos defendido |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis defendido |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan defendido |
| Vos | hayas defendido |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera defendido / hubiese defendido |
| Tú | hubieras defendido / hubieses defendido |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera defendido / hubiese defendido |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos defendido / hubiésemos defendido |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais defendido / hubieseis defendido |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran defendido / hubiesen defendido |
| Vos | hubieras defendido / hubieses defendido |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere defendido |
| Tú | hubieres defendido |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere defendido |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos defendido |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis defendido |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren defendido |
| Vos | hubieres defendido |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté defendiendo |
| Tú | estés defendiendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté defendiendo |
| Nosotros / as | estemos defendiendo |
| Vosotros / as | estéis defendiendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén defendiendo |
| Vos | estés defendiendo |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera defendiendo / estuviese defendiendo |
| Tú | estuvieras defendiendo / estuvieses defendiendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera defendiendo / estuviese defendiendo |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos defendiendo / estuviésamos defendiendo |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais defendiendo / estuvieseis defendiendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera defendiendo / estuviese defendiendo |
| Vos | estuvieras defendiendo / estuvieses defendiendo |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere defendiendo |
| Tú | estuvieres defendiendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere defendiendo |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos defendiendo |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis defendiendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere defendiendo |
| Vos | estuvieres defendiendo |
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 defendés |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos defendiste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos defendías |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos defenderías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos defenderás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos defiendas |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos defendieras / Vos defendiese |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos defendé |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no defiendas |