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Diferir is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to defer, postpone”.
Below are all of the conjugations for diferir 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 defer, postpone |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | diferir |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está difiriendo) and past continuous (estaba difiriendo). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. deferring).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he diferido and hubiera diferido. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have deferred).
| Gerundio / Gerund | difiriendo |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | diferido |
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 defer” or “they defer”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | difiero |
| Tú | difieres |
| Él / Ella / Usted | difiere |
| Nosotros / as | diferimos |
| Vosotros / as | diferís |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | difieren |
| Vos | diferís |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I deferred” or “she deferred” 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 | diferí | I deferred |
| Tú | diferiste | You deferred |
| Él / Ella / Usted | difirió | He / she / you deferred |
| Nosotros / as | diferimos | We deferred |
| Vosotros / as | diferisteis | You deferred |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | difirieron | They / you deferred |
| Vos | diferiste | You deferred |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was deferring” or “she was deferring” 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 | difería | I was deferring |
| Tú | diferías | You were deferring |
| Él / Ella / Usted | difería | He was / she was / you were deferring |
| Nosotros / as | diferíamos | We were deferring |
| Vosotros / as | diferíais | You were deferring |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | diferían | They / you were deferring |
| Vos | diferías | You were deferring |
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 deferred” and “she has deferred”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he diferido | I have deferred |
| Tú | has diferido | You have deferred |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha diferido | He has / she has / you have deferred |
| Nosotros / as | hemos diferido | We have deferred |
| Vosotros / as | habéis diferido | You have deferred |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han diferido | They / you have deferred |
| Vos | has diferido | You have deferred |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would defer” or “she would defer”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | diferiría | I would defer |
| Tú | diferirías | You would defer |
| Él / Ella / Usted | diferiría | He / she / you would defer |
| Nosotros / as | diferiríamos | We would defer |
| Vosotros / as | diferiríais | You would defer |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | diferirían | They / you would defer |
| Vos | diferirías | You would defer |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will defer” or “they will defer”.
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 diferir” means “They are going to defer”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | diferiré | I will defer |
| Tú | diferirás | You will defer |
| Él / Ella / Usted | diferirá | He / she / you will defer |
| Nosotros / as | diferiremos | We will defer |
| Vosotros / as | diferiréis | You will defer |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | diferirán | They / you will defer |
| Vos | diferirás | You will defer |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | difiera |
| Tú | difieras |
| Él / Ella / Usted | difiera |
| Nosotros / as | difiramos |
| Vosotros / as | difiráis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | difieran |
| Vos | difieras |
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 | difiriera | difiriese |
| Tú | difirieras | difiriese |
| Él / Ella / Usted | difiriera | difiriese |
| Nosotros / as | difiriéramos | difiriésemos |
| Vosotros / as | difirierais | difirieseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | difirieran | difiriesen |
| Vos | difirieras | difiriese |
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 | difiriere |
| Tú | difirieres |
| Él / Ella / Usted | difiriera |
| Nosotros / as | difiriéremos |
| Vosotros / as | difiriereis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | difirieren |
| Vos | difirieres |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “defer!” and “don’t defer!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | difiere | no difieras |
| Él / Ella / Usted | difiera | no difiera |
| Nosotros / as | difiramos | no difiramos |
| Vosotros / as | diferid | no difiráis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | difieran | no difieran |
| Vos | diferí | no difieras |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya diferido |
| Tú | hayas diferido |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya diferido |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos diferido |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis diferido |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan diferido |
| Vos | hayas diferido |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera diferido / hubiese diferido |
| Tú | hubieras diferido / hubieses diferido |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera diferido / hubiese diferido |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos diferido / hubiésemos diferido |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais diferido / hubieseis diferido |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran diferido / hubiesen diferido |
| Vos | hubieras diferido / hubieses diferido |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere diferido |
| Tú | hubieres diferido |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere diferido |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos diferido |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis diferido |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren diferido |
| Vos | hubieres diferido |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté difiriendo |
| Tú | estés difiriendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté difiriendo |
| Nosotros / as | estemos difiriendo |
| Vosotros / as | estéis difiriendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén difiriendo |
| Vos | estés difiriendo |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera difiriendo / estuviese difiriendo |
| Tú | estuvieras difiriendo / estuvieses difiriendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera difiriendo / estuviese difiriendo |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos difiriendo / estuviésamos difiriendo |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais difiriendo / estuvieseis difiriendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera difiriendo / estuviese difiriendo |
| Vos | estuvieras difiriendo / estuvieses difiriendo |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere difiriendo |
| Tú | estuvieres difiriendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere difiriendo |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos difiriendo |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis difiriendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere difiriendo |
| Vos | estuvieres difiriendo |
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 diferís |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos diferiste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos diferías |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos diferirías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos diferirás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos difieras |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos difirieras / Vos difiriese |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos diferí |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no difieras |