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Desafiar conjugation

Desafiar conjugation - to challenge

Table of Contents

Desafiar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to challenge, dare, defy”.

Below are all of the conjugations for desafiar 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.

Desafiar Infinitive

English Infinitive to challenge, dare, defy
Spanish Infinitive desafiar

Desafiar Gerund and Past Participle

The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está desafiando) and past continuous (estaba desafiando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. challenging).

The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he desafiado and hubiera desafiado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have challenged).

Gerundio / Gerund  desafiando
Participio / Past Participle  desafiado

Desafiar Indicative Conjugations

The basic form of speech, el indicativo is used for making statements, talking about facts, events and things that are certain and objective.

Desafiar Presente / Present

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 challenge” or “they challenge”.

Pronoun Spanish
Yo desafío
desafías
Él / Ella / Usted desafía
Nosotros / as desafiamos
Vosotros / as desafiáis
Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes desafían
Vos desafíás

Desafiar Preterite / Pretérito Indefinido

Your simple past tense, e.g. “I challenged” or “she challenged” 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 desafié I challenged
desafiaste You challenged
Él / Ella / Usted desafió He / she / you challenged
Nosotros / as desafiamos We challenged
Vosotros / as desafiasteis You challenged
Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes desafiaron They / you challenged
Vos desafiaste You challenged

Desafiar Imperfect / Pretérito Imperfecto

The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was challenging” or “she was challenging” 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 desafiaba I was challenging
desafiabas You were challenging
Él / Ella / Usted desafiaba He was / she was / you were challenging
Nosotros / as desafiábamos We were challenging
Vosotros / as desafiabais You were challenging
Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes desafiaban They / you were challenging
Vos desafiabas You were challenging

Desafiar Perfect / Perfecto

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 challenged” and “she has challenged”.

Pronoun Spanish English
Yo he desafiado I have challenged
has desafiado You have challenged
Él / Ella / Usted ha desafiado He has / she has / you have challenged
Nosotros / as hemos desafiado We have challenged
Vosotros / as habéis desafiado You have challenged
Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes han desafiado They / you have challenged
Vos has desafiado You have challenged

Desafiar Conditional / Condicional

The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would challenge” or “she would challenge”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.

Pronoun Spanish Englush
Yo desafiaría I would challenge
desafiarías You would challenge
Él / Ella / Usted desafiaría He / she / you would challenge
Nosotros / as desafiaríamos We would challenge
Vosotros / as desafiaríais You would challenge
Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes desafiarían They / you would challenge
Vos desafiarías You would challenge

Desafiar Future / Futuro

The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will challenge” or “they will challenge”.

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 desafiar” means “They are going to challenge”.

Pronoun Spanish English
Yo desafiaré I will challenge
desafiarás You will challenge
Él / Ella / Usted desafiará He / she / you will challenge
Nosotros / as desafiaremos We will challenge
Vosotros / as desafiaréis You will challenge
Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes desafiarán They / you will challenge
Vos desafiarás You will challenge

Desafiar Subjunctive Conjugations

Desafiar Present Subjunctive / Presente de Subjuntivo

Pronoun Spanish
Yo desafíe
desafíes
Él / Ella / Usted desafíe
Nosotros / as desafiemos
Vosotros / as desafiéis
Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes desafíen
Vos desafíes

Desafiar Past Subjunctive / Imperfecto de Subjuntivo

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 desafiara desafiase
desafiaras desafiase
Él / Ella / Usted desafiara desafiase
Nosotros / as desafiáramos desafiásemos
Vosotros / as desafiarais desafiaseis
Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes desafiaran desafiasen
Vos desafiaras desafiase

Desafiar Future Subjunctive / Futuro de Subjuntivo

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 desafiare
desafiares
Él / Ella / Usted desafiare
Nosotros / as desafiáremos
Vosotros / as desafiareis
Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes desafiaren
Vos desafiares

Desafiar Imperative Conjugations

Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “challenge!” and “don’t challenge!”.

Pronoun Spanish Affirmative Spanish Negative
desafía no desafíes
Él / Ella / Usted desafíe no desafíe
Nosotros / as desafiemos no desafiemos
Vosotros / as desafiad no desafiéis
Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes desafíen no desafíen
Vos desafíá no desafíes

Desafiar Compound Subjunctive Tenses

Desafiar Subjunctive Perfect

Pronoun Spanish
Yo haya desafiado
hayas desafiado
Él / Ella / Usted haya desafiado
Nosotros / as hayamos desafiado
Vosotros / as hayáis desafiado
Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes hayan desafiado
Vos hayas desafiado

Desafiar Subjunctive Past Perfect

Pronoun Spanish
Yo hubiera desafiado / hubiese desafiado
hubieras desafiado / hubieses desafiado
Él / Ella / Usted hubiera desafiado / hubiese desafiado
Nosotros / as hubiéramos desafiado / hubiésemos desafiado
Vosotros / as hubierais desafiado / hubieseis desafiado
Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes hubieran desafiado / hubiesen desafiado
Vos hubieras desafiado / hubieses desafiado

Desafiar Subjunctive Future Perfect

Pronoun Spanish
Yo hubiere desafiado
hubieres desafiado
Él / Ella / Usted hubiere desafiado
Nosotros / as hubiéremos desafiado
Vosotros / as hubiereis desafiado
Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes hubieren desafiado
Vos hubieres desafiado

Desafiar Subjective Progressive Perfect

Pronoun Spanish
Yo esté desafiando
estés desafiando
Él / Ella / Usted esté desafiando
Nosotros / as estemos desafiando
Vosotros / as estéis desafiando
Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes estén desafiando
Vos estés desafiando

Desafiar Subjunctive Past Progressive

Pronoun Spanish
Yo estuviera desafiando / estuviese desafiando
estuvieras desafiando / estuvieses desafiando
Él / Ella / Usted estuviera desafiando / estuviese desafiando
Nosotros / as estuviéramos desafiando / estuviésamos desafiando
Vosotros / as estuvierais desafiando / estuvieseis desafiando
Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes estuviera desafiando / estuviese desafiando
Vos estuvieras desafiando / estuvieses desafiando

Desafiar Subjunctive Future Progressive

Pronoun Spanish
Yo estuviere desafiando
estuvieres desafiando
Él / Ella / Usted estuviere desafiando
Nosotros / as estuviéremos desafiando
Vosotros / as estuviereis desafiando
Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes estuviere desafiando
Vos estuvieres desafiando

Desafiar Vos Conjugation

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.

TenseVos Conjugation
Present Indicative
Presente de Indicativo
Vos desafíás
Simle Past / Preterite
Preterite de Indicativo
Vos desafiaste
Imperfect Past
Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo
Vos desafiabas
Conditional
Condicional
Vos desafiarías
Future
Futuro de Indicativo
Vos desafiarás
Present Subjunctive
Presente de Subjunctivo
Vos desafíes
Imperfect Subjunctive
Imperfecto de Subjunctivo
Vos desafiaras / Vos desafiase
Affirmative Imperative
Imperativo
Vos desafíá
Negative Imperative
Imperativo Negativo
Vos no desafíes