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Desmentir is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to prove false, disprove, deny”.
Below are all of the conjugations for desmentir 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 prove false, disprove, deny |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | desmentir |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está desmintiendo) and past continuous (estaba desmintiendo). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. proving false).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he desmentido and hubiera desmentido. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have proved false).
| Gerundio / Gerund | desmintiendo |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | desmentido |
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 prove false” or “they prove false”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | desmiento |
| Tú | desmientes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | desmiente |
| Nosotros / as | desmentimos |
| Vosotros / as | desmentís |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | desmienten |
| Vos | desmentís |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I proved false” or “she proved false” 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 | desmentí | I proved false |
| Tú | desmentiste | You proved false |
| Él / Ella / Usted | desmintió | He / she / you proved false |
| Nosotros / as | desmentimos | We proved false |
| Vosotros / as | desmentisteis | You proved false |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | desmintieron | They / you proved false |
| Vos | desmentiste | You proved false |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was proving false” or “she was proving false” 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 | desmentía | I was proving false |
| Tú | desmentías | You were proving false |
| Él / Ella / Usted | desmentía | He was / she was / you were proving false |
| Nosotros / as | desmentíamos | We were proving false |
| Vosotros / as | desmentíais | You were proving false |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | desmentían | They / you were proving false |
| Vos | desmentías | You were proving false |
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 proved false” and “she has proved false”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he desmentido | I have proved false |
| Tú | has desmentido | You have proved false |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha desmentido | He has / she has / you have proved false |
| Nosotros / as | hemos desmentido | We have proved false |
| Vosotros / as | habéis desmentido | You have proved false |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han desmentido | They / you have proved false |
| Vos | has desmentido | You have proved false |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would prove false” or “she would prove false”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | desmentiría | I would prove false |
| Tú | desmentirías | You would prove false |
| Él / Ella / Usted | desmentiría | He / she / you would prove false |
| Nosotros / as | desmentiríamos | We would prove false |
| Vosotros / as | desmentiríais | You would prove false |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | desmentirían | They / you would prove false |
| Vos | desmentirías | You would prove false |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will prove false” or “they will prove false”.
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 desmentir” means “They are going to prove false”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | desmentiré | I will prove false |
| Tú | desmentirás | You will prove false |
| Él / Ella / Usted | desmentirá | He / she / you will prove false |
| Nosotros / as | desmentiremos | We will prove false |
| Vosotros / as | desmentiréis | You will prove false |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | desmentirán | They / you will prove false |
| Vos | desmentirás | You will prove false |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | desmienta |
| Tú | desmientas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | desmienta |
| Nosotros / as | desmintamos |
| Vosotros / as | desmintáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | desmientan |
| Vos | desmientas |
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 | desmintiera | desmintiese |
| Tú | desmintieras | desmintiese |
| Él / Ella / Usted | desmintiera | desmintiese |
| Nosotros / as | desmintiéramos | desmintiésemos |
| Vosotros / as | desmintierais | desmintieseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | desmintieran | desmintiesen |
| Vos | desmintieras | desmintiese |
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 | desmintiere |
| Tú | desmintieres |
| Él / Ella / Usted | desmintiera |
| Nosotros / as | desmintiéremos |
| Vosotros / as | desmintiereis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | desmintieren |
| Vos | desmintieres |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “prove false!” and “don’t prove false!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | desmiente | no desmientas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | desmienta | no desmienta |
| Nosotros / as | desmintamos | no desmintamos |
| Vosotros / as | desmentid | no desmintáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | desmientan | no desmientan |
| Vos | desmentí | no desmientas |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya desmentido |
| Tú | hayas desmentido |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya desmentido |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos desmentido |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis desmentido |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan desmentido |
| Vos | hayas desmentido |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera desmentido / hubiese desmentido |
| Tú | hubieras desmentido / hubieses desmentido |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera desmentido / hubiese desmentido |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos desmentido / hubiésemos desmentido |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais desmentido / hubieseis desmentido |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran desmentido / hubiesen desmentido |
| Vos | hubieras desmentido / hubieses desmentido |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere desmentido |
| Tú | hubieres desmentido |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere desmentido |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos desmentido |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis desmentido |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren desmentido |
| Vos | hubieres desmentido |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté desmintiendo |
| Tú | estés desmintiendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté desmintiendo |
| Nosotros / as | estemos desmintiendo |
| Vosotros / as | estéis desmintiendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén desmintiendo |
| Vos | estés desmintiendo |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera desmintiendo / estuviese desmintiendo |
| Tú | estuvieras desmintiendo / estuvieses desmintiendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera desmintiendo / estuviese desmintiendo |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos desmintiendo / estuviésamos desmintiendo |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais desmintiendo / estuvieseis desmintiendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera desmintiendo / estuviese desmintiendo |
| Vos | estuvieras desmintiendo / estuvieses desmintiendo |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere desmintiendo |
| Tú | estuvieres desmintiendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere desmintiendo |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos desmintiendo |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis desmintiendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere desmintiendo |
| Vos | estuvieres desmintiendo |
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 desmentís |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos desmentiste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos desmentías |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos desmentirías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos desmentirás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos desmientas |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos desmintieras / Vos desmintiese |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos desmentí |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no desmientas |