Everything you need to improve your Spanish
Menu
Everything you need to improve your Spanish
Descomponer is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to disarrange, break up, decompose”.
Below are all of the conjugations for descomponer 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 disarrange, break up, decompose |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | descomponer |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está descomponiendo) and past continuous (estaba descomponiendo). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. disarranging).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he descompuesto and hubiera descompuesto. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have disarranged).
| Gerundio / Gerund | descomponiendo |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | descompuesto |
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 disarrange” or “they disarrange”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | descompongo |
| Tú | descompones |
| Él / Ella / Usted | descompone |
| Nosotros / as | descomponemos |
| Vosotros / as | descomponéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | descomponen |
| Vos | descomponés |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I disarranged” or “she disarranged” 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 | descompuse | I disarranged |
| Tú | descompusiste | You disarranged |
| Él / Ella / Usted | descompuso | He / she / you disarranged |
| Nosotros / as | descompusimos | We disarranged |
| Vosotros / as | descompusisteis | You disarranged |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | descompusieron | They / you disarranged |
| Vos | descompusiste | You disarranged |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was disarranging” or “she was disarranging” 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 | descomponía | I was disarranging |
| Tú | descomponías | You were disarranging |
| Él / Ella / Usted | descomponía | He was / she was / you were disarranging |
| Nosotros / as | descomponíamos | We were disarranging |
| Vosotros / as | descomponíais | You were disarranging |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | descomponían | They / you were disarranging |
| Vos | descomponías | You were disarranging |
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 disarranged” and “she has disarranged”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he descompuesto | I have disarranged |
| Tú | has descompuesto | You have disarranged |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha descompuesto | He has / she has / you have disarranged |
| Nosotros / as | hemos descompuesto | We have disarranged |
| Vosotros / as | habéis descompuesto | You have disarranged |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han descompuesto | They / you have disarranged |
| Vos | has descompuesto | You have disarranged |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would disarrange” or “she would disarrange”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | descompondría | I would disarrange |
| Tú | descompondrías | You would disarrange |
| Él / Ella / Usted | descompondría | He / she / you would disarrange |
| Nosotros / as | descompondríamos | We would disarrange |
| Vosotros / as | descompondríais | You would disarrange |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | descompondrían | They / you would disarrange |
| Vos | descompondrías | You would disarrange |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will disarrange” or “they will disarrange”.
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 descomponer” means “They are going to disarrange”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | descompondré | I will disarrange |
| Tú | descompondrás | You will disarrange |
| Él / Ella / Usted | descompondrá | He / she / you will disarrange |
| Nosotros / as | descompondremos | We will disarrange |
| Vosotros / as | descompondréis | You will disarrange |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | descompondrán | They / you will disarrange |
| Vos | descompondrás | You will disarrange |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | descomponga |
| Tú | descompongas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | descomponga |
| Nosotros / as | descompongamos |
| Vosotros / as | descompongáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | descompongan |
| Vos | descompongas |
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 | descompusiera | descompusiese |
| Tú | descompusieras | descompusiese |
| Él / Ella / Usted | descompusiera | descompusiese |
| Nosotros / as | descompusiéramos | descompusiésemos |
| Vosotros / as | descompusierais | descompusieseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | descompusieran | descompusiesen |
| Vos | descompusieras | descompusiese |
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 | descompusiere |
| Tú | descompusieres |
| Él / Ella / Usted | descompusiere |
| Nosotros / as | descompusiéremos |
| Vosotros / as | descompusiereis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | descompusieren |
| Vos | descompusieres |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “disarrange!” and “don’t disarrange!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | descompón | no descompongas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | descomponga | no descomponga |
| Nosotros / as | descompongamos | no descompongamos |
| Vosotros / as | descomponed | no descompongáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | descompongan | no descompongan |
| Vos | descomponé | no descompongas |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya descompuesto |
| Tú | hayas descompuesto |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya descompuesto |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos descompuesto |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis descompuesto |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan descompuesto |
| Vos | hayas descompuesto |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera descompuesto / hubiese descompuesto |
| Tú | hubieras descompuesto / hubieses descompuesto |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera descompuesto / hubiese descompuesto |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos descompuesto / hubiésemos descompuesto |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais descompuesto / hubieseis descompuesto |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran descompuesto / hubiesen descompuesto |
| Vos | hubieras descompuesto / hubieses descompuesto |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere descompuesto |
| Tú | hubieres descompuesto |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere descompuesto |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos descompuesto |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis descompuesto |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren descompuesto |
| Vos | hubieres descompuesto |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté descomponiendo |
| Tú | estés descomponiendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté descomponiendo |
| Nosotros / as | estemos descomponiendo |
| Vosotros / as | estéis descomponiendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén descomponiendo |
| Vos | estés descomponiendo |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera descomponiendo / estuviese descomponiendo |
| Tú | estuvieras descomponiendo / estuvieses descomponiendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera descomponiendo / estuviese descomponiendo |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos descomponiendo / estuviésamos descomponiendo |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais descomponiendo / estuvieseis descomponiendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera descomponiendo / estuviese descomponiendo |
| Vos | estuvieras descomponiendo / estuvieses descomponiendo |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere descomponiendo |
| Tú | estuvieres descomponiendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere descomponiendo |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos descomponiendo |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis descomponiendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere descomponiendo |
| Vos | estuvieres descomponiendo |
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 descomponés |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos descompusiste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos descomponías |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos descompondrías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos descompondrás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos descompongas |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos descompusieras / Vos descompusiese |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos descomponé |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no descompongas |