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Everything you need to improve your Spanish
Descongelar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to thaw, defrost”.
Below are all of the conjugations for descongelar 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 thaw, defrost |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | descongelar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está descongelando) and past continuous (estaba descongelando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. thawing).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he descongelado and hubiera descongelado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have thawed).
| Gerundio / Gerund | descongelando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | descongelado |
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 thaw” or “they thaw”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | descongelo |
| Tú | descongelas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | descongela |
| Nosotros / as | descongelamos |
| Vosotros / as | descongeláis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | descongelan |
| Vos | descongelás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I thawed” or “she thawed” 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 | descongelé | I thawed |
| Tú | descongelaste | You thawed |
| Él / Ella / Usted | descongeló | He / she / you thawed |
| Nosotros / as | descongelamos | We thawed |
| Vosotros / as | descongelasteis | You thawed |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | descongelaron | They / you thawed |
| Vos | descongelaste | You thawed |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was thawing” or “she was thawing” 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 | descongelaba | I was thawing |
| Tú | descongelabas | You were thawing |
| Él / Ella / Usted | descongelaba | He was / she was / you were thawing |
| Nosotros / as | descongelábamos | We were thawing |
| Vosotros / as | descongelabais | You were thawing |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | descongelaban | They / you were thawing |
| Vos | descongelabas | You were thawing |
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 thawed” and “she has thawed”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he descongelado | I have thawed |
| Tú | has descongelado | You have thawed |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha descongelado | He has / she has / you have thawed |
| Nosotros / as | hemos descongelado | We have thawed |
| Vosotros / as | habéis descongelado | You have thawed |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han descongelado | They / you have thawed |
| Vos | has descongelado | You have thawed |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would thaw” or “she would thaw”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | descongelaría | I would thaw |
| Tú | descongelarías | You would thaw |
| Él / Ella / Usted | descongelaría | He / she / you would thaw |
| Nosotros / as | descongelaríamos | We would thaw |
| Vosotros / as | descongelaríais | You would thaw |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | descongelarían | They / you would thaw |
| Vos | descongelarías | You would thaw |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will thaw” or “they will thaw”.
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 descongelar” means “They are going to thaw”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | descongelaré | I will thaw |
| Tú | descongelarás | You will thaw |
| Él / Ella / Usted | descongelará | He / she / you will thaw |
| Nosotros / as | descongelaremos | We will thaw |
| Vosotros / as | descongelaréis | You will thaw |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | descongelarán | They / you will thaw |
| Vos | descongelarás | You will thaw |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | descongele |
| Tú | descongeles |
| Él / Ella / Usted | descongele |
| Nosotros / as | descongelemos |
| Vosotros / as | descongeléis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | descongelen |
| Vos | descongeles |
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 | descongelara | descongelase |
| Tú | descongelaras | descongelase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | descongelara | descongelase |
| Nosotros / as | descongeláramos | descongelásemos |
| Vosotros / as | descongelarais | descongelaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | descongelaran | descongelasen |
| Vos | descongelaras | descongelase |
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 | descongelare |
| Tú | descongelares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | descongelare |
| Nosotros / as | descongeláremos |
| Vosotros / as | descongelareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | descongelaren |
| Vos | descongelares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “thaw!” and “don’t thaw!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | descongela | no descongeles |
| Él / Ella / Usted | descongele | no descongele |
| Nosotros / as | descongelemos | no descongelemos |
| Vosotros / as | descongelad | no descongeléis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | descongelen | no descongelen |
| Vos | descongelá | no descongeles |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya descongelado |
| Tú | hayas descongelado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya descongelado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos descongelado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis descongelado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan descongelado |
| Vos | hayas descongelado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera descongelado / hubiese descongelado |
| Tú | hubieras descongelado / hubieses descongelado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera descongelado / hubiese descongelado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos descongelado / hubiésemos descongelado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais descongelado / hubieseis descongelado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran descongelado / hubiesen descongelado |
| Vos | hubieras descongelado / hubieses descongelado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere descongelado |
| Tú | hubieres descongelado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere descongelado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos descongelado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis descongelado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren descongelado |
| Vos | hubieres descongelado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté descongelando |
| Tú | estés descongelando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté descongelando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos descongelando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis descongelando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén descongelando |
| Vos | estés descongelando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera descongelando / estuviese descongelando |
| Tú | estuvieras descongelando / estuvieses descongelando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera descongelando / estuviese descongelando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos descongelando / estuviésamos descongelando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais descongelando / estuvieseis descongelando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera descongelando / estuviese descongelando |
| Vos | estuvieras descongelando / estuvieses descongelando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere descongelando |
| Tú | estuvieres descongelando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere descongelando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos descongelando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis descongelando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere descongelando |
| Vos | estuvieres descongelando |
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 descongelás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos descongelaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos descongelabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos descongelarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos descongelarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos descongeles |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos descongelaras / Vos descongelase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos descongelá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no descongeles |