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Desorientar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to confuse, mislead”.
Below are all of the conjugations for desorientar 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 confuse, mislead |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | desorientar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está desorientando) and past continuous (estaba desorientando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. confusing).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he desorientado and hubiera desorientado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have confused).
| Gerundio / Gerund | desorientando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | desorientado |
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 confuse” or “they confuse”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | desoriento |
| Tú | desorientas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | desorienta |
| Nosotros / as | desorientamos |
| Vosotros / as | desorientáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | desorientan |
| Vos | desorientás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I confused” or “she confused” 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 | desorienté | I confused |
| Tú | desorientaste | You confused |
| Él / Ella / Usted | desorientó | He / she / you confused |
| Nosotros / as | desorientamos | We confused |
| Vosotros / as | desorientasteis | You confused |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | desorientaron | They / you confused |
| Vos | desorientaste | You confused |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was confusing” or “she was confusing” 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 | desorientaba | I was confusing |
| Tú | desorientabas | You were confusing |
| Él / Ella / Usted | desorientaba | He was / she was / you were confusing |
| Nosotros / as | desorientábamos | We were confusing |
| Vosotros / as | desorientabais | You were confusing |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | desorientaban | They / you were confusing |
| Vos | desorientabas | You were confusing |
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 confused” and “she has confused”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he desorientado | I have confused |
| Tú | has desorientado | You have confused |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha desorientado | He has / she has / you have confused |
| Nosotros / as | hemos desorientado | We have confused |
| Vosotros / as | habéis desorientado | You have confused |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han desorientado | They / you have confused |
| Vos | has desorientado | You have confused |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would confuse” or “she would confuse”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | desorientaría | I would confuse |
| Tú | desorientarías | You would confuse |
| Él / Ella / Usted | desorientaría | He / she / you would confuse |
| Nosotros / as | desorientaríamos | We would confuse |
| Vosotros / as | desorientaríais | You would confuse |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | desorientarían | They / you would confuse |
| Vos | desorientarías | You would confuse |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will confuse” or “they will confuse”.
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 desorientar” means “They are going to confuse”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | desorientaré | I will confuse |
| Tú | desorientarás | You will confuse |
| Él / Ella / Usted | desorientará | He / she / you will confuse |
| Nosotros / as | desorientaremos | We will confuse |
| Vosotros / as | desorientaréis | You will confuse |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | desorientarán | They / you will confuse |
| Vos | desorientarás | You will confuse |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | desoriente |
| Tú | desorientes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | desoriente |
| Nosotros / as | desorientemos |
| Vosotros / as | desorientéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | desorienten |
| Vos | desorientes |
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 | desorientara | desorientase |
| Tú | desorientaras | desorientase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | desorientara | desorientase |
| Nosotros / as | desorientáramos | desorientásemos |
| Vosotros / as | desorientarais | desorientaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | desorientaran | desorientasen |
| Vos | desorientaras | desorientase |
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 | desorientare |
| Tú | desorientares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | desorientare |
| Nosotros / as | desorientáremos |
| Vosotros / as | desorientareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | desorientaren |
| Vos | desorientares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “confuse!” and “don’t confuse!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | desorienta | no desorientes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | desoriente | no desoriente |
| Nosotros / as | desorientemos | no desorientemos |
| Vosotros / as | desorientad | no desorientéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | desorienten | no desorienten |
| Vos | desorientá | no desorientes |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya desorientado |
| Tú | hayas desorientado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya desorientado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos desorientado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis desorientado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan desorientado |
| Vos | hayas desorientado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera desorientado / hubiese desorientado |
| Tú | hubieras desorientado / hubieses desorientado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera desorientado / hubiese desorientado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos desorientado / hubiésemos desorientado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais desorientado / hubieseis desorientado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran desorientado / hubiesen desorientado |
| Vos | hubieras desorientado / hubieses desorientado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere desorientado |
| Tú | hubieres desorientado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere desorientado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos desorientado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis desorientado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren desorientado |
| Vos | hubieres desorientado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté desorientando |
| Tú | estés desorientando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté desorientando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos desorientando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis desorientando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén desorientando |
| Vos | estés desorientando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera desorientando / estuviese desorientando |
| Tú | estuvieras desorientando / estuvieses desorientando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera desorientando / estuviese desorientando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos desorientando / estuviésamos desorientando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais desorientando / estuvieseis desorientando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera desorientando / estuviese desorientando |
| Vos | estuvieras desorientando / estuvieses desorientando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere desorientando |
| Tú | estuvieres desorientando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere desorientando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos desorientando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis desorientando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere desorientando |
| Vos | estuvieres desorientando |
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 desorientás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos desorientaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos desorientabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos desorientarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos desorientarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos desorientes |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos desorientaras / Vos desorientase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos desorientá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no desorientes |