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Derretir is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to melt, liquefy, dissolve”.
Below are all of the conjugations for derretir 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 melt, liquefy, dissolve |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | derretir |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está derretiendo) and past continuous (estaba derretiendo). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. melting).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he derretido and hubiera derretido. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have melted).
| Gerundio / Gerund | derretiendo |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | derretido |
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 melt” or “they melt”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | derreto |
| Tú | derretes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | derrete |
| Nosotros / as | derretimos |
| Vosotros / as | derretís |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | derreten |
| Vos | derretís |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I melted” or “she melted” 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 | derretí | I melted |
| Tú | derretiste | You melted |
| Él / Ella / Usted | derretió | He / she / you melted |
| Nosotros / as | derretimos | We melted |
| Vosotros / as | derretisteis | You melted |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | derretieron | They / you melted |
| Vos | derretiste | You melted |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was melting” or “she was melting” 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 | derretía | I was melting |
| Tú | derretías | You were melting |
| Él / Ella / Usted | derretía | He was / she was / you were melting |
| Nosotros / as | derretíamos | We were melting |
| Vosotros / as | derretíais | You were melting |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | derretían | They / you were melting |
| Vos | derretías | You were melting |
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 melted” and “she has melted”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he derretido | I have melted |
| Tú | has derretido | You have melted |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha derretido | He has / she has / you have melted |
| Nosotros / as | hemos derretido | We have melted |
| Vosotros / as | habéis derretido | You have melted |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han derretido | They / you have melted |
| Vos | has derretido | You have melted |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would melt” or “she would melt”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | derretiría | I would melt |
| Tú | derretirías | You would melt |
| Él / Ella / Usted | derretiría | He / she / you would melt |
| Nosotros / as | derretiríamos | We would melt |
| Vosotros / as | derretiríais | You would melt |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | derretirían | They / you would melt |
| Vos | derretirías | You would melt |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will melt” or “they will melt”.
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 derretir” means “They are going to melt”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | derretiré | I will melt |
| Tú | derretirás | You will melt |
| Él / Ella / Usted | derretirá | He / she / you will melt |
| Nosotros / as | derretiremos | We will melt |
| Vosotros / as | derretiréis | You will melt |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | derretirán | They / you will melt |
| Vos | derretirás | You will melt |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | derreta |
| Tú | derretas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | derreta |
| Nosotros / as | derretamos |
| Vosotros / as | derretáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | derretan |
| Vos | derretas |
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 | derretiera | derretiese |
| Tú | derretieras | derretiese |
| Él / Ella / Usted | derretiera | derretiese |
| Nosotros / as | derretiéramos | derretiésemos |
| Vosotros / as | derretierais | derretieseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | derretieran | derretiesen |
| Vos | derretieras | derretiese |
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 | derretiere |
| Tú | derretieres |
| Él / Ella / Usted | derretiera |
| Nosotros / as | derretiéremos |
| Vosotros / as | derretiereis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | derretieren |
| Vos | derretieres |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “melt!” and “don’t melt!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | derrete | no derretas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | derreta | no derreta |
| Nosotros / as | derretamos | no derretamos |
| Vosotros / as | derretid | no derretáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | derretan | no derretan |
| Vos | derretí | no derretas |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya derretido |
| Tú | hayas derretido |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya derretido |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos derretido |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis derretido |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan derretido |
| Vos | hayas derretido |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera derretido / hubiese derretido |
| Tú | hubieras derretido / hubieses derretido |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera derretido / hubiese derretido |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos derretido / hubiésemos derretido |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais derretido / hubieseis derretido |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran derretido / hubiesen derretido |
| Vos | hubieras derretido / hubieses derretido |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere derretido |
| Tú | hubieres derretido |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere derretido |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos derretido |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis derretido |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren derretido |
| Vos | hubieres derretido |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté derretiendo |
| Tú | estés derretiendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté derretiendo |
| Nosotros / as | estemos derretiendo |
| Vosotros / as | estéis derretiendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén derretiendo |
| Vos | estés derretiendo |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera derretiendo / estuviese derretiendo |
| Tú | estuvieras derretiendo / estuvieses derretiendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera derretiendo / estuviese derretiendo |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos derretiendo / estuviésamos derretiendo |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais derretiendo / estuvieseis derretiendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera derretiendo / estuviese derretiendo |
| Vos | estuvieras derretiendo / estuvieses derretiendo |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere derretiendo |
| Tú | estuvieres derretiendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere derretiendo |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos derretiendo |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis derretiendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere derretiendo |
| Vos | estuvieres derretiendo |
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 derretís |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos derretiste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos derretías |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos derretirías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos derretirás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos derretas |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos derretieras / Vos derretiese |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos derretí |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no derretas |