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Destacar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to emphasize, stand out, be noted”.
Below are all of the conjugations for destacar 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 emphasize, stand out, be noted |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | destacar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está destacando) and past continuous (estaba destacando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. emphasizing).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he destacado and hubiera destacado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have emphasized).
| Gerundio / Gerund | destacando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | destacado |
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 emphasize” or “they emphasize”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | destaco |
| Tú | destacas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | destaca |
| Nosotros / as | destacamos |
| Vosotros / as | destacáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | destacan |
| Vos | destacás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I emphasized” or “she emphasized” 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 | destaqué | I emphasized |
| Tú | destacaste | You emphasized |
| Él / Ella / Usted | destacó | He / she / you emphasized |
| Nosotros / as | destacamos | We emphasized |
| Vosotros / as | destacasteis | You emphasized |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | destacaron | They / you emphasized |
| Vos | destacaste | You emphasized |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was emphasizing” or “she was emphasizing” 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 | destacaba | I was emphasizing |
| Tú | destacabas | You were emphasizing |
| Él / Ella / Usted | destacaba | He was / she was / you were emphasizing |
| Nosotros / as | destacábamos | We were emphasizing |
| Vosotros / as | destacabais | You were emphasizing |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | destacaban | They / you were emphasizing |
| Vos | destacabas | You were emphasizing |
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 emphasized” and “she has emphasized”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he destacado | I have emphasized |
| Tú | has destacado | You have emphasized |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha destacado | He has / she has / you have emphasized |
| Nosotros / as | hemos destacado | We have emphasized |
| Vosotros / as | habéis destacado | You have emphasized |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han destacado | They / you have emphasized |
| Vos | has destacado | You have emphasized |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would emphasize” or “she would emphasize”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | destacaría | I would emphasize |
| Tú | destacarías | You would emphasize |
| Él / Ella / Usted | destacaría | He / she / you would emphasize |
| Nosotros / as | destacaríamos | We would emphasize |
| Vosotros / as | destacaríais | You would emphasize |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | destacarían | They / you would emphasize |
| Vos | destacarías | You would emphasize |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will emphasize” or “they will emphasize”.
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 destacar” means “They are going to emphasize”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | destacaré | I will emphasize |
| Tú | destacarás | You will emphasize |
| Él / Ella / Usted | destacará | He / she / you will emphasize |
| Nosotros / as | destacaremos | We will emphasize |
| Vosotros / as | destacaréis | You will emphasize |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | destacarán | They / you will emphasize |
| Vos | destacarás | You will emphasize |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | destaque |
| Tú | destaques |
| Él / Ella / Usted | destaque |
| Nosotros / as | destaquemos |
| Vosotros / as | destaquéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | destaquen |
| Vos | destaques |
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 | destacara | destacase |
| Tú | destacaras | destacase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | destacara | destacase |
| Nosotros / as | destacáramos | destacásemos |
| Vosotros / as | destacarais | destacaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | destacaran | destacasen |
| Vos | destacaras | destacase |
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 | destacare |
| Tú | destacares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | destacare |
| Nosotros / as | destacáremos |
| Vosotros / as | destacareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | destacaren |
| Vos | destacares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “emphasize!” and “don’t emphasize!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | destaca | no destaques |
| Él / Ella / Usted | destaque | no destaque |
| Nosotros / as | destaquemos | no destaquemos |
| Vosotros / as | destacad | no destaquéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | destaquen | no destaquen |
| Vos | destacá | no destaques |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya destacado |
| Tú | hayas destacado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya destacado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos destacado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis destacado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan destacado |
| Vos | hayas destacado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera destacado / hubiese destacado |
| Tú | hubieras destacado / hubieses destacado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera destacado / hubiese destacado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos destacado / hubiésemos destacado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais destacado / hubieseis destacado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran destacado / hubiesen destacado |
| Vos | hubieras destacado / hubieses destacado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere destacado |
| Tú | hubieres destacado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere destacado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos destacado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis destacado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren destacado |
| Vos | hubieres destacado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté destacando |
| Tú | estés destacando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté destacando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos destacando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis destacando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén destacando |
| Vos | estés destacando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera destacando / estuviese destacando |
| Tú | estuvieras destacando / estuvieses destacando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera destacando / estuviese destacando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos destacando / estuviésamos destacando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais destacando / estuvieseis destacando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera destacando / estuviese destacando |
| Vos | estuvieras destacando / estuvieses destacando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere destacando |
| Tú | estuvieres destacando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere destacando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos destacando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis destacando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere destacando |
| Vos | estuvieres destacando |
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 destacás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos destacaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos destacabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos destacarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos destacarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos destaques |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos destacaras / Vos destacase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos destacá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no destaques |