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Despachar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to dispatch, send off”.
Below are all of the conjugations for despachar 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 dispatch, send off |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | despachar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está despachando) and past continuous (estaba despachando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. dispatching).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he despachado and hubiera despachado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have dispatched).
| Gerundio / Gerund | despachando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | despachado |
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 dispatch” or “they dispatch”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | despacho |
| Tú | despachas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | despacha |
| Nosotros / as | despachamos |
| Vosotros / as | despacháis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | despachan |
| Vos | despachás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I dispatched” or “she dispatched” 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 | despaché | I dispatched |
| Tú | despachaste | You dispatched |
| Él / Ella / Usted | despachó | He / she / you dispatched |
| Nosotros / as | despachamos | We dispatched |
| Vosotros / as | despachasteis | You dispatched |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | despacharon | They / you dispatched |
| Vos | despachaste | You dispatched |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was dispatching” or “she was dispatching” 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 | despachaba | I was dispatching |
| Tú | despachabas | You were dispatching |
| Él / Ella / Usted | despachaba | He was / she was / you were dispatching |
| Nosotros / as | despachábamos | We were dispatching |
| Vosotros / as | despachabais | You were dispatching |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | despachaban | They / you were dispatching |
| Vos | despachabas | You were dispatching |
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 dispatched” and “she has dispatched”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he despachado | I have dispatched |
| Tú | has despachado | You have dispatched |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha despachado | He has / she has / you have dispatched |
| Nosotros / as | hemos despachado | We have dispatched |
| Vosotros / as | habéis despachado | You have dispatched |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han despachado | They / you have dispatched |
| Vos | has despachado | You have dispatched |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would dispatch” or “she would dispatch”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | despacharía | I would dispatch |
| Tú | despacharías | You would dispatch |
| Él / Ella / Usted | despacharía | He / she / you would dispatch |
| Nosotros / as | despacharíamos | We would dispatch |
| Vosotros / as | despacharíais | You would dispatch |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | despacharían | They / you would dispatch |
| Vos | despacharías | You would dispatch |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will dispatch” or “they will dispatch”.
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 despachar” means “They are going to dispatch”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | despacharé | I will dispatch |
| Tú | despacharás | You will dispatch |
| Él / Ella / Usted | despachará | He / she / you will dispatch |
| Nosotros / as | despacharemos | We will dispatch |
| Vosotros / as | despacharéis | You will dispatch |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | despacharán | They / you will dispatch |
| Vos | despacharás | You will dispatch |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | despache |
| Tú | despaches |
| Él / Ella / Usted | despache |
| Nosotros / as | despachemos |
| Vosotros / as | despachéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | despachen |
| Vos | despaches |
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 | despachara | despachase |
| Tú | despacharas | despachase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | despachara | despachase |
| Nosotros / as | despacháramos | despachásemos |
| Vosotros / as | despacharais | despachaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | despacharan | despachasen |
| Vos | despacharas | despachase |
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 | despachare |
| Tú | despachares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | despachare |
| Nosotros / as | despacháremos |
| Vosotros / as | despachareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | despacharen |
| Vos | despachares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “dispatch!” and “don’t dispatch!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | despacha | no despaches |
| Él / Ella / Usted | despache | no despache |
| Nosotros / as | despachemos | no despachemos |
| Vosotros / as | despachad | no despachéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | despachen | no despachen |
| Vos | despachá | no despaches |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya despachado |
| Tú | hayas despachado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya despachado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos despachado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis despachado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan despachado |
| Vos | hayas despachado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera despachado / hubiese despachado |
| Tú | hubieras despachado / hubieses despachado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera despachado / hubiese despachado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos despachado / hubiésemos despachado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais despachado / hubieseis despachado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran despachado / hubiesen despachado |
| Vos | hubieras despachado / hubieses despachado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere despachado |
| Tú | hubieres despachado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere despachado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos despachado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis despachado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren despachado |
| Vos | hubieres despachado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté despachando |
| Tú | estés despachando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté despachando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos despachando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis despachando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén despachando |
| Vos | estés despachando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera despachando / estuviese despachando |
| Tú | estuvieras despachando / estuvieses despachando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera despachando / estuviese despachando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos despachando / estuviésamos despachando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais despachando / estuvieseis despachando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera despachando / estuviese despachando |
| Vos | estuvieras despachando / estuvieses despachando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere despachando |
| Tú | estuvieres despachando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere despachando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos despachando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis despachando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere despachando |
| Vos | estuvieres despachando |
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 despachás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos despachaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos despachabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos despacharías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos despacharás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos despaches |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos despacharas / Vos despachase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos despachá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no despaches |