Everything you need to improve your Spanish
Menu
Everything you need to improve your Spanish
Desterrar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to exile, banish”.
Below are all of the conjugations for desterrar 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 exile, banish |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | desterrar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está desterrando) and past continuous (estaba desterrando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. exiling).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he desterrado and hubiera desterrado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have exiled).
| Gerundio / Gerund | desterrando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | desterrado |
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 exile” or “they exile”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | destierro |
| Tú | destierras |
| Él / Ella / Usted | destierra |
| Nosotros / as | desterramos |
| Vosotros / as | desterráis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | destierran |
| Vos | desterrás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I exiled” or “she exiled” 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 | desterré | I exiled |
| Tú | desterraste | You exiled |
| Él / Ella / Usted | desterró | He / she / you exiled |
| Nosotros / as | desterramos | We exiled |
| Vosotros / as | desterrasteis | You exiled |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | desterraron | They / you exiled |
| Vos | desterraste | You exiled |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was exiling” or “she was exiling” 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 | desterraba | I was exiling |
| Tú | desterrabas | You were exiling |
| Él / Ella / Usted | desterraba | He was / she was / you were exiling |
| Nosotros / as | desterrábamos | We were exiling |
| Vosotros / as | desterrabais | You were exiling |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | desterraban | They / you were exiling |
| Vos | desterrabas | You were exiling |
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 exiled” and “she has exiled”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he desterrado | I have exiled |
| Tú | has desterrado | You have exiled |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha desterrado | He has / she has / you have exiled |
| Nosotros / as | hemos desterrado | We have exiled |
| Vosotros / as | habéis desterrado | You have exiled |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han desterrado | They / you have exiled |
| Vos | has desterrado | You have exiled |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would exile” or “she would exile”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | desterraría | I would exile |
| Tú | desterrarías | You would exile |
| Él / Ella / Usted | desterraría | He / she / you would exile |
| Nosotros / as | desterraríamos | We would exile |
| Vosotros / as | desterraríais | You would exile |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | desterrarían | They / you would exile |
| Vos | desterrarías | You would exile |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will exile” or “they will exile”.
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 desterrar” means “They are going to exile”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | desterraré | I will exile |
| Tú | desterrarás | You will exile |
| Él / Ella / Usted | desterrará | He / she / you will exile |
| Nosotros / as | desterraremos | We will exile |
| Vosotros / as | desterraréis | You will exile |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | desterrarán | They / you will exile |
| Vos | desterrarás | You will exile |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | destierre |
| Tú | destierres |
| Él / Ella / Usted | destierre |
| Nosotros / as | desterremos |
| Vosotros / as | desterréis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | destierren |
| Vos | destierres |
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 | desterrara | desterrase |
| Tú | desterraras | desterrase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | desterrara | desterrase |
| Nosotros / as | desterráramos | desterrásemos |
| Vosotros / as | desterrarais | desterraseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | desterraran | desterrasen |
| Vos | desterraras | desterrase |
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 | desterrare |
| Tú | desterrares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | desterrare |
| Nosotros / as | desterráremos |
| Vosotros / as | desterrareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | desterraren |
| Vos | desterrares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “exile!” and “don’t exile!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | destierra | no destierres |
| Él / Ella / Usted | destierre | no destierre |
| Nosotros / as | desterremos | no desterremos |
| Vosotros / as | desterrad | no desterréis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | destierren | no destierren |
| Vos | desterrá | no destierres |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya desterrado |
| Tú | hayas desterrado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya desterrado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos desterrado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis desterrado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan desterrado |
| Vos | hayas desterrado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera desterrado / hubiese desterrado |
| Tú | hubieras desterrado / hubieses desterrado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera desterrado / hubiese desterrado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos desterrado / hubiésemos desterrado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais desterrado / hubieseis desterrado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran desterrado / hubiesen desterrado |
| Vos | hubieras desterrado / hubieses desterrado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere desterrado |
| Tú | hubieres desterrado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere desterrado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos desterrado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis desterrado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren desterrado |
| Vos | hubieres desterrado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté desterrando |
| Tú | estés desterrando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté desterrando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos desterrando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis desterrando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén desterrando |
| Vos | estés desterrando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera desterrando / estuviese desterrando |
| Tú | estuvieras desterrando / estuvieses desterrando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera desterrando / estuviese desterrando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos desterrando / estuviésamos desterrando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais desterrando / estuvieseis desterrando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera desterrando / estuviese desterrando |
| Vos | estuvieras desterrando / estuvieses desterrando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere desterrando |
| Tú | estuvieres desterrando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere desterrando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos desterrando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis desterrando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere desterrando |
| Vos | estuvieres desterrando |
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 desterrás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos desterraste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos desterrabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos desterrarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos desterrarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos destierres |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos desterraras / Vos desterrase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos desterrá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no destierres |