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Desempacar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to unpack”.
Below are all of the conjugations for desempacar 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 | desempacar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está desempacando) and past continuous (estaba desempacando). 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 desempacado and hubiera desempacado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have unpacked).
| Gerundio / Gerund | desempacando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | desempacado |
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 | desempaco |
| Tú | desempacas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | desempaca |
| Nosotros / as | desempacamos |
| Vosotros / as | desempacáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | desempacan |
| Vos | desempacás |
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 | desempaqué | I unpacked |
| Tú | desempacaste | You unpacked |
| Él / Ella / Usted | desempacó | He / she / you unpacked |
| Nosotros / as | desempacamos | We unpacked |
| Vosotros / as | desempacasteis | You unpacked |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | desempacaron | They / you unpacked |
| Vos | desempacaste | 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 | desempacaba | I was unpacking |
| Tú | desempacabas | You were unpacking |
| Él / Ella / Usted | desempacaba | He was / she was / you were unpacking |
| Nosotros / as | desempacábamos | We were unpacking |
| Vosotros / as | desempacabais | You were unpacking |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | desempacaban | They / you were unpacking |
| Vos | desempacabas | 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 desempacado | I have unpacked |
| Tú | has desempacado | You have unpacked |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha desempacado | He has / she has / you have unpacked |
| Nosotros / as | hemos desempacado | We have unpacked |
| Vosotros / as | habéis desempacado | You have unpacked |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han desempacado | They / you have unpacked |
| Vos | has desempacado | 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 | desempacaría | I would unpack |
| Tú | desempacarías | You would unpack |
| Él / Ella / Usted | desempacaría | He / she / you would unpack |
| Nosotros / as | desempacaríamos | We would unpack |
| Vosotros / as | desempacaríais | You would unpack |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | desempacarían | They / you would unpack |
| Vos | desempacarías | 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 desempacar” means “They are going to unpack”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | desempacaré | I will unpack |
| Tú | desempacarás | You will unpack |
| Él / Ella / Usted | desempacará | He / she / you will unpack |
| Nosotros / as | desempacaremos | We will unpack |
| Vosotros / as | desempacaréis | You will unpack |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | desempacarán | They / you will unpack |
| Vos | desempacarás | You will unpack |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | desempaque |
| Tú | desempaques |
| Él / Ella / Usted | desempaque |
| Nosotros / as | desempaquemos |
| Vosotros / as | desempaquéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | desempaquen |
| Vos | desempaques |
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 | desempacara | desempacase |
| Tú | desempacaras | desempacase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | desempacara | desempacase |
| Nosotros / as | desempacáramos | desempacásemos |
| Vosotros / as | desempacarais | desempacaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | desempacaran | desempacasen |
| Vos | desempacaras | desempacase |
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 | desempacare |
| Tú | desempacares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | desempacare |
| Nosotros / as | desempacáremos |
| Vosotros / as | desempacareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | desempacaren |
| Vos | desempacares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “unpack!” and “don’t unpack!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | desempaca | no desempaques |
| Él / Ella / Usted | desempaque | no desempaque |
| Nosotros / as | desempaquemos | no desempaquemos |
| Vosotros / as | desempacad | no desempaquéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | desempaquen | no desempaquen |
| Vos | desempacá | no desempaques |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya desempacado |
| Tú | hayas desempacado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya desempacado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos desempacado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis desempacado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan desempacado |
| Vos | hayas desempacado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera desempacado / hubiese desempacado |
| Tú | hubieras desempacado / hubieses desempacado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera desempacado / hubiese desempacado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos desempacado / hubiésemos desempacado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais desempacado / hubieseis desempacado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran desempacado / hubiesen desempacado |
| Vos | hubieras desempacado / hubieses desempacado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere desempacado |
| Tú | hubieres desempacado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere desempacado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos desempacado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis desempacado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren desempacado |
| Vos | hubieres desempacado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté desempacando |
| Tú | estés desempacando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté desempacando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos desempacando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis desempacando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén desempacando |
| Vos | estés desempacando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera desempacando / estuviese desempacando |
| Tú | estuvieras desempacando / estuvieses desempacando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera desempacando / estuviese desempacando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos desempacando / estuviésamos desempacando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais desempacando / estuvieseis desempacando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera desempacando / estuviese desempacando |
| Vos | estuvieras desempacando / estuvieses desempacando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere desempacando |
| Tú | estuvieres desempacando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere desempacando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos desempacando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis desempacando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere desempacando |
| Vos | estuvieres desempacando |
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 desempacás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos desempacaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos desempacabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos desempacarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos desempacarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos desempaques |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos desempacaras / Vos desempacase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos desempacá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no desempaques |