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Descubrir is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to discover”.
Below are all of the conjugations for descubrir 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 discover |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | descubrir |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está descubriendo) and past continuous (estaba descubriendo). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. discovering).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he descubrido and hubiera descubrido. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have discovered).
| Gerundio / Gerund | descubriendo |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | descubrido |
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 discover” or “they discover”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | descubro |
| Tú | descubres |
| Él / Ella / Usted | descubre |
| Nosotros / as | descubrimos |
| Vosotros / as | descubrís |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | descubren |
| Vos | descubrís |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I discovered” or “she discovered” 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 | descubrí | I discovered |
| Tú | descubriste | You discovered |
| Él / Ella / Usted | descubrió | He / she / you discovered |
| Nosotros / as | descubrimos | We discovered |
| Vosotros / as | descubristeis | You discovered |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | descubrieron | They / you discovered |
| Vos | descubriste | You discovered |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was discovering” or “she was discovering” 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 | descubría | I was discovering |
| Tú | descubrías | You were discovering |
| Él / Ella / Usted | descubría | He was / she was / you were discovering |
| Nosotros / as | descubríamos | We were discovering |
| Vosotros / as | descubríais | You were discovering |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | descubrían | They / you were discovering |
| Vos | descubrías | You were discovering |
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 discovered” and “she has discovered”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he descubrido | I have discovered |
| Tú | has descubrido | You have discovered |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha descubrido | He has / she has / you have discovered |
| Nosotros / as | hemos descubrido | We have discovered |
| Vosotros / as | habéis descubrido | You have discovered |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han descubrido | They / you have discovered |
| Vos | has descubrido | You have discovered |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would discover” or “she would discover”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | descubriría | I would discover |
| Tú | descubrirías | You would discover |
| Él / Ella / Usted | descubriría | He / she / you would discover |
| Nosotros / as | descubriríamos | We would discover |
| Vosotros / as | descubriríais | You would discover |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | descubrirían | They / you would discover |
| Vos | descubrirías | You would discover |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will discover” or “they will discover”.
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 descubrir” means “They are going to discover”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | descubriré | I will discover |
| Tú | descubrirás | You will discover |
| Él / Ella / Usted | descubrirá | He / she / you will discover |
| Nosotros / as | descubriremos | We will discover |
| Vosotros / as | descubriréis | You will discover |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | descubrirán | They / you will discover |
| Vos | descubrirás | You will discover |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | descubra |
| Tú | descubras |
| Él / Ella / Usted | descubra |
| Nosotros / as | descubramos |
| Vosotros / as | descubráis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | descubran |
| Vos | descubras |
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 | descubriera | descubriese |
| Tú | descubrieras | descubriese |
| Él / Ella / Usted | descubriera | descubriese |
| Nosotros / as | descubriéramos | descubriésemos |
| Vosotros / as | descubrierais | descubrieseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | descubrieran | descubriesen |
| Vos | descubrieras | descubriese |
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 | descubriere |
| Tú | descubrieres |
| Él / Ella / Usted | descubriera |
| Nosotros / as | descubriéremos |
| Vosotros / as | descubriereis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | descubrieren |
| Vos | descubrieres |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “discover!” and “don’t discover!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | descubre | no descubras |
| Él / Ella / Usted | descubra | no descubra |
| Nosotros / as | descubramos | no descubramos |
| Vosotros / as | descubrid | no descubráis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | descubran | no descubran |
| Vos | descubrí | no descubras |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya descubrido |
| Tú | hayas descubrido |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya descubrido |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos descubrido |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis descubrido |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan descubrido |
| Vos | hayas descubrido |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera descubrido / hubiese descubrido |
| Tú | hubieras descubrido / hubieses descubrido |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera descubrido / hubiese descubrido |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos descubrido / hubiésemos descubrido |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais descubrido / hubieseis descubrido |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran descubrido / hubiesen descubrido |
| Vos | hubieras descubrido / hubieses descubrido |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere descubrido |
| Tú | hubieres descubrido |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere descubrido |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos descubrido |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis descubrido |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren descubrido |
| Vos | hubieres descubrido |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté descubriendo |
| Tú | estés descubriendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté descubriendo |
| Nosotros / as | estemos descubriendo |
| Vosotros / as | estéis descubriendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén descubriendo |
| Vos | estés descubriendo |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera descubriendo / estuviese descubriendo |
| Tú | estuvieras descubriendo / estuvieses descubriendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera descubriendo / estuviese descubriendo |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos descubriendo / estuviésamos descubriendo |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais descubriendo / estuvieseis descubriendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera descubriendo / estuviese descubriendo |
| Vos | estuvieras descubriendo / estuvieses descubriendo |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere descubriendo |
| Tú | estuvieres descubriendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere descubriendo |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos descubriendo |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis descubriendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere descubriendo |
| Vos | estuvieres descubriendo |
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 descubrís |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos descubriste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos descubrías |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos descubrirías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos descubrirás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos descubras |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos descubrieras / Vos descubriese |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos descubrí |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no descubras |
