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Desembalar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to unpack”.
Below are all of the conjugations for desembalar 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 unpack |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | desembalar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está desembalando) and past continuous (estaba desembalando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. unpacking).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he desembalado and hubiera desembalado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have unpacked).
| Gerundio / Gerund | desembalando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | desembalado |
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 unpack” or “they unpack”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | desembalo |
| Tú | desembalas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | desembala |
| Nosotros / as | desembalamos |
| Vosotros / as | desembaláis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | desembalan |
| Vos | desembalás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I unpacked” or “she unpacked” 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 | desembalé | I unpacked |
| Tú | desembalaste | You unpacked |
| Él / Ella / Usted | desembaló | He / she / you unpacked |
| Nosotros / as | desembalamos | We unpacked |
| Vosotros / as | desembalasteis | You unpacked |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | desembalaron | They / you unpacked |
| Vos | desembalaste | You unpacked |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was unpacking” or “she was unpacking” 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 | desembalaba | I was unpacking |
| Tú | desembalabas | You were unpacking |
| Él / Ella / Usted | desembalaba | He was / she was / you were unpacking |
| Nosotros / as | desembalábamos | We were unpacking |
| Vosotros / as | desembalabais | You were unpacking |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | desembalaban | They / you were unpacking |
| Vos | desembalabas | You were unpacking |
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 unpacked” and “she has unpacked”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he desembalado | I have unpacked |
| Tú | has desembalado | You have unpacked |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha desembalado | He has / she has / you have unpacked |
| Nosotros / as | hemos desembalado | We have unpacked |
| Vosotros / as | habéis desembalado | You have unpacked |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han desembalado | They / you have unpacked |
| Vos | has desembalado | You have unpacked |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would unpack” or “she would unpack”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | desembalaría | I would unpack |
| Tú | desembalarías | You would unpack |
| Él / Ella / Usted | desembalaría | He / she / you would unpack |
| Nosotros / as | desembalaríamos | We would unpack |
| Vosotros / as | desembalaríais | You would unpack |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | desembalarían | They / you would unpack |
| Vos | desembalarías | You would unpack |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will unpack” or “they will unpack”.
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 desembalar” means “They are going to unpack”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | desembalaré | I will unpack |
| Tú | desembalarás | You will unpack |
| Él / Ella / Usted | desembalará | He / she / you will unpack |
| Nosotros / as | desembalaremos | We will unpack |
| Vosotros / as | desembalaréis | You will unpack |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | desembalarán | They / you will unpack |
| Vos | desembalarás | You will unpack |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | desembale |
| Tú | desembales |
| Él / Ella / Usted | desembale |
| Nosotros / as | desembalemos |
| Vosotros / as | desembaléis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | desembalen |
| Vos | desembales |
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 | desembalara | desembalase |
| Tú | desembalaras | desembalase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | desembalara | desembalase |
| Nosotros / as | desembaláramos | desembalásemos |
| Vosotros / as | desembalarais | desembalaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | desembalaran | desembalasen |
| Vos | desembalaras | desembalase |
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 | desembalare |
| Tú | desembalares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | desembalare |
| Nosotros / as | desembaláremos |
| Vosotros / as | desembalareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | desembalaren |
| Vos | desembalares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “unpack!” and “don’t unpack!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | desembala | no desembales |
| Él / Ella / Usted | desembale | no desembale |
| Nosotros / as | desembalemos | no desembalemos |
| Vosotros / as | desembalad | no desembaléis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | desembalen | no desembalen |
| Vos | desembalá | no desembales |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya desembalado |
| Tú | hayas desembalado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya desembalado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos desembalado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis desembalado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan desembalado |
| Vos | hayas desembalado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera desembalado / hubiese desembalado |
| Tú | hubieras desembalado / hubieses desembalado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera desembalado / hubiese desembalado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos desembalado / hubiésemos desembalado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais desembalado / hubieseis desembalado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran desembalado / hubiesen desembalado |
| Vos | hubieras desembalado / hubieses desembalado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere desembalado |
| Tú | hubieres desembalado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere desembalado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos desembalado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis desembalado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren desembalado |
| Vos | hubieres desembalado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté desembalando |
| Tú | estés desembalando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté desembalando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos desembalando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis desembalando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén desembalando |
| Vos | estés desembalando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera desembalando / estuviese desembalando |
| Tú | estuvieras desembalando / estuvieses desembalando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera desembalando / estuviese desembalando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos desembalando / estuviésamos desembalando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais desembalando / estuvieseis desembalando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera desembalando / estuviese desembalando |
| Vos | estuvieras desembalando / estuvieses desembalando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere desembalando |
| Tú | estuvieres desembalando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere desembalando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos desembalando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis desembalando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere desembalando |
| Vos | estuvieres desembalando |
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 desembalás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos desembalaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos desembalabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos desembalarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos desembalarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos desembales |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos desembalaras / Vos desembalase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos desembalá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no desembales |