Desanimar Conjugation in Spanish
Introduction
desanimar means "to discourage" in English, and it is one of the verbs you will meet constantly in everyday Spanish — for discouraging someone. Learning it properly means more than memorising one form: the verb changes across thirteen tenses, and this page gives you every one of them, with the exact forms from the VerbFlow engine, so you can check any person or tense in seconds. Desanimar is a regular -ar verb verb, and it is regular in every tense. That matters because the patterns on this page are the patterns you will reuse every time you speak or write. Work through the tables first, then read the notes under each tense — they explain when to use each tense and what to watch out for with this verb in particular. A natural example is: Cada día, yo desanimo a nadie con mis palabras. — "Every day, I discourage anyone with my words." Once you can say that sentence confidently, try changing the person and the tense using the tables below.
Quick facts
| Infinitive | desanimar |
| Translation | to discourage |
| Verb type | Regular -ar verb |
| Gerund | desanimando |
| Past participle | desanimado |
| Auxiliary | haber (all compound tenses) |
| Irregular tenses | regular in every tense |
Full conjugation of desanimar
Present indicative
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | desanimo |
| tú | desanimas |
| él / ella / Ud. | desanima |
| nosotros / nosotras | desanimamos |
| vosotros / vosotras | desanimáis |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | desaniman |
Preterite
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | desanimé |
| tú | desanimaste |
| él / ella / Ud. | desanimó |
| nosotros / nosotras | desanimamos |
| vosotros / vosotras | desanimasteis |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | desanimaron |
Imperfect
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | desanimaba |
| tú | desanimabas |
| él / ella / Ud. | desanimaba |
| nosotros / nosotras | desanimábamos |
| vosotros / vosotras | desanimabais |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | desanimaban |
Future
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | desanimaré |
| tú | desanimarás |
| él / ella / Ud. | desanimará |
| nosotros / nosotras | desanimaremos |
| vosotros / vosotras | desanimaréis |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | desanimarán |
Conditional
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | desanimaría |
| tú | desanimarías |
| él / ella / Ud. | desanimaría |
| nosotros / nosotras | desanimaríamos |
| vosotros / vosotras | desanimaríais |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | desanimarían |
Present subjunctive
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | desanime |
| tú | desanimes |
| él / ella / Ud. | desanime |
| nosotros / nosotras | desanimemos |
| vosotros / vosotras | desaniméis |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | desanimen |
Imperfect subjunctive (-ra forms)
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | desanimara |
| tú | desanimaras |
| él / ella / Ud. | desanimara |
| nosotros / nosotras | desanimáramos |
| vosotros / vosotras | desanimarais |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | desanimaran |
Present perfect
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | he desanimado |
| tú | has desanimado |
| él / ella / Ud. | ha desanimado |
| nosotros / nosotras | hemos desanimado |
| vosotros / vosotras | habéis desanimado |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | han desanimado |
Pluperfect
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | había desanimado |
| tú | habías desanimado |
| él / ella / Ud. | había desanimado |
| nosotros / nosotras | habíamos desanimado |
| vosotros / vosotras | habíais desanimado |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | habían desanimado |
Future perfect
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | habré desanimado |
| tú | habrás desanimado |
| él / ella / Ud. | habrá desanimado |
| nosotros / nosotras | habremos desanimado |
| vosotros / vosotras | habréis desanimado |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | habrán desanimado |
Conditional perfect
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | habría desanimado |
| tú | habrías desanimado |
| él / ella / Ud. | habría desanimado |
| nosotros / nosotras | habríamos desanimado |
| vosotros / vosotras | habríais desanimado |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | habrían desanimado |
Imperative — affirmative
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| tú | desanima |
| él / ella / Ud. | desanime |
| nosotros / nosotras | desanimemos |
| vosotros / vosotras | desanimad |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | desanimen |
Imperative — negative
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| tú | desanimes |
| él / ella / Ud. | desanime |
| nosotros / nosotras | desanimemos |
| vosotros / vosotras | desaniméis |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | desanimen |
Gerund: desanimando · Past participle: desanimado
Desanimar in every tense — notes and examples
Present indicative
The present is the tense for habits, facts and what is happening now. It is the first tense to master, because the present subjunctive and the affirmative imperative are both built from the present yo form. Example: Cada día, yo desanimo a nadie con mis palabras. — "Every day, I discourage anyone with my words."
Preterite
The preterite is for completed actions in the past — things that started and finished at a definite moment. Use it for a single event, a sequence of events, or an action with a clear end. Example: Ayer, yo desanimé a nadie con mis palabras. — "Yesterday, I discouraged anyone with my words."
Imperfect
The imperfect is for the past without a definite end: habits, background scenes, descriptions and actions in progress when something else happened. It never states when the action finished. Example: Antes, yo desanimaba a nadie con mis palabras. — "Before, I discouraged anyone with my words."
Future
The future is for what will happen, and also for guesses about the present ("I wonder if…"). For regular verbs it is the infinitive plus the endings -é, -ás, -á, -emos, -éis, -án. Example: Mañana, yo desanimaré a nadie con mis palabras. — "Tomorrow, I will discourage anyone with my words."
Conditional
The conditional is for what would happen — polite requests, hypothetical results and reported expectations. It shares its stem with the future, so any irregular future stem appears here too. Example: Yo desanimaría a nadie con mis palabras si tuviera la oportunidad. — "I would discourage anyone with my words if I had the chance."
Present subjunctive
The present subjunctive is for wishes, doubts, emotions and other non-facts after que, and after expressions such as ojalá, es importante que or no creo que. It is not a tense for stating facts. Example: Espero que ella desanime a nadie con mis palabras. — "I hope she will discourage anyone with my words."
Imperfect subjunctive (-ra forms)
The imperfect subjunctive (-ra forms) is for wishes and doubts about the past, and for the if-part of hypothetical sentences (si + imperfect subjunctive, conditional). This page shows the -ra forms from the engine. Example: Si ella desanimara a nadie con mis palabras, todo cambiaría. — "If she discouraged anyone with my words, everything would change."
Present perfect
The present perfect (haber + past participle) is for past actions connected to the present — recent events, experience, or something that has just happened. The auxiliary is always haber. Example: Yo he desanimado a mi equipo con críticas varias veces. — "I have discouraged my team with criticism several times."
Pluperfect
The pluperfect (había + past participle) is the past of the past: something that had already happened before another past event. Example: Yo había desanimado a nadie con mis palabras antes de la reunión. — "I had discouraged anyone with my words before the meeting."
Future perfect
The future perfect (habré + past participle) is for something that will already be finished by a future moment, or for a guess about the past. It is less common in speech than the simple future. Example: Para mañana, yo habré desanimado a nadie con mis palabras. — "By tomorrow, I will have discouraged anyone with my words."
Conditional perfect
The conditional perfect (habría + past participle) is for what would have happened — the past of the conditional, used for regrets and unreal past conditions. Example: Yo habría desanimado a nadie con mis palabras si hubiera tenido tiempo. — "I would have discouraged anyone with my words if I had had time."
Imperative — affirmative
The affirmative imperative is for direct orders, instructions and invitations. The tú form comes from the present él/ella form, and the formal, nosotros and plural forms come from the present subjunctive. Example: ¡desanima a nadie con mis palabras! — "Discourage anyone with my words!"
Imperative — negative
The negative imperative (no + subjunctive) is for telling someone not to do something. All five persons come from the present subjunctive, which is why they look different from the affirmative tú form. Example: No desanimes a nadie con mis palabras. — "Do not discourage anyone with my words."
Example sentences with desanimar
Yo desanimo a nadie con mis palabras. — "I discourage anyone with my words."
¿Tú desanimas a mi equipo con críticas? — "Do you discourage my team with criticism?"
Ayer, él desanimó a nadie con mis palabras. — "Yesterday, he discouraged anyone with my words."
Nosotros desanimamos a mi equipo con críticas a tiempo. — "We discouraged my team with criticism on time."
Antes, ellos desanimaban a nadie con mis palabras. — "Before, they discouraged anyone with my words."
Mañana, yo desanimaré a mi equipo con críticas. — "Tomorrow, I will discourage my team with criticism."
Nosotros desanimaríamos a nadie con mis palabras si pudiéramos. — "We would discourage anyone with my words if we could."
Yo he desanimado a mi equipo con críticas varias veces. — "I have discouraged my team with criticism several times."
Espero que ella desanime a nadie con mis palabras. — "I hope she will discourage anyone with my words."
Ahora mismo, yo estoy desanimando a mi equipo con críticas. — "Right now, I am discouraging my team with criticism."
Common mistakes with desanimar
1. Dropping the accent on the preterite yo form
The preterite yo form is desanimé — with the accent. Without it the word is misspelled, and in some verbs the accent is the only thing separating one tense from another.
2. Confusing desanimar with animar (to encourage, to cheer up)
desanimar means "to discourage", while animar means "to encourage, to cheer up". They overlap in English but they are not interchangeable in Spanish: use desanimar when you mean discouraging someone, and animar for its own meaning. Check the conjugation of animar before choosing.
3. Mixing up the preterite and the imperfect
Ayer yo desanimé a nadie con mis palabras (preterite: one finished event yesterday) is not the same as antes yo desanimaba a nadie con mis palabras (imperfect: what used to happen). If you can add "yesterday" or "last week", you usually want the preterite; if you can add "used to", you want the imperfect.
4. Using estar instead of haber in the perfect tenses
The present perfect is he desanimado (haber + participle), never estoy desanimado. Haber is the only auxiliary for compound tenses in Spanish.
5. Dropping the preposition before the complement
desanimar takes a here: yo desanimo a nadie con mis palabras. Dropping the preposition (yo desanimo nadie con mis palabras) sounds wrong to a native speaker, so learn the verb together with its preposition.
Quiz: desanimar
1. Yo ___ a nadie con mis palabras.
a. desanima b. desanimo c. desaniman
2. Ella ___ a nadie con mis palabras.
a. desanimo b. desanima c. desaniman
3. Ayer, yo ___ a nadie con mis palabras.
a. desanimo b. desanimé c. desanima
4. Ellos ___ a nadie con mis palabras ayer.
a. desanimo b. desanimaron c. desanima
5. Antes, yo ___ a nadie con mis palabras.
a. desanimo b. desanimaba c. desanima
6. Mañana, yo ___ a nadie con mis palabras.
a. desanimo b. desanimaré c. desanima
7. Yo ___ a nadie con mis palabras si pudiera.
a. desanimo b. desanimaría c. desanima
8. Espero que ella ___ a nadie con mis palabras.
a. desanimo b. desanime c. desanima
9. Ahora mismo, yo estoy ___ a mi equipo con críticas.
a. desanimado b. desanimando c. desanimo
10. Yo he ___ a mi equipo con críticas varias veces.
a. desanimando b. desanimado c. desanimo
Answer key
desanimo — present tense, yo form.
desanima — present tense, él/ella form.
desanimé — preterite, yo form — a finished action yesterday.
desanimaron — preterite, ellos/ellas form.
desanimaba — imperfect, yo form — a past habit.
desanimaré — future, yo form.
desanimaría — conditional, yo form — a hypothetical.
desanime — present subjunctive after 'espero que'.
desanimando — gerund — the progressive is estar + gerund.
desanimado — past participle — the present perfect is haber + participle.
Frequently asked questions about desanimar
What does desanimar mean in English?
Desanimar means "to discourage". It is used for discouraging someone. A simple example is yo desanimo a nadie con mis palabras — "I discourage anyone with my words."
Is desanimar regular or irregular?
Desanimar is a regular -ar verb verb, and it is regular in every tense. The forms that most often catch learners out are the present yo form desanimo, the preterite yo form desanimé and the past participle desanimado — learn those three first, then fill in the rest from the tables above.
What is the gerund and the past participle of desanimar?
The gerund is desanimando (used for the progressive: estoy desanimando) and the past participle is desanimado (used with haber in all perfect tenses: he desanimado). Both forms are used constantly, so they are worth memorising on their own.
How do I say "I discourage" in the past?
It depends on the meaning. For one finished action use the preterite: ayer yo desanimé a nadie con mis palabras — "yesterday I discouraged anyone with my words". For a past habit or background use the imperfect: antes yo desanimaba a nadie con mis palabras — "before, I discouraged anyone with my words". The mistake most learners make is using one for the other.
Does desanimar take the subjunctive?
Not usually. Desanimar on its own takes the indicative — yo desanimo a nadie con mis palabras. You will meet the subjunctive with desanimar only inside a larger construction that itself triggers it, such as no creo que or es importante que, and then the subjunctive form is desanime.