Desear Conjugation in Spanish
Introduction
desear means "to wish, to want" in English, and it is one of the verbs you will meet constantly in everyday Spanish — for expressing wishes and wants. 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. Desear 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 deseo un buen futuro para mis hijos. — "Every day, I wish a good future for my children." Once you can say that sentence confidently, try changing the person and the tense using the tables below.
Quick facts
| Infinitive | desear |
| Translation | to wish, to want |
| Verb type | Regular -ar verb |
| Gerund | deseando |
| Past participle | deseado |
| Auxiliary | haber (all compound tenses) |
| Irregular tenses | regular in every tense |
Full conjugation of desear
Present indicative
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | deseo |
| tú | deseas |
| él / ella / Ud. | desea |
| nosotros / nosotras | deseamos |
| vosotros / vosotras | deseáis |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | desean |
Preterite
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | deseé |
| tú | deseaste |
| él / ella / Ud. | deseó |
| nosotros / nosotras | deseamos |
| vosotros / vosotras | deseasteis |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | desearon |
Imperfect
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | deseaba |
| tú | deseabas |
| él / ella / Ud. | deseaba |
| nosotros / nosotras | deseábamos |
| vosotros / vosotras | deseabais |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | deseaban |
Future
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | desearé |
| tú | desearás |
| él / ella / Ud. | deseará |
| nosotros / nosotras | desearemos |
| vosotros / vosotras | desearéis |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | desearán |
Conditional
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | desearía |
| tú | desearías |
| él / ella / Ud. | desearía |
| nosotros / nosotras | desearíamos |
| vosotros / vosotras | desearíais |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | desearían |
Present subjunctive
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | desee |
| tú | desees |
| él / ella / Ud. | desee |
| nosotros / nosotras | deseemos |
| vosotros / vosotras | deseéis |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | deseen |
Imperfect subjunctive (-ra forms)
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | deseara |
| tú | desearas |
| él / ella / Ud. | deseara |
| nosotros / nosotras | deseáramos |
| vosotros / vosotras | desearais |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | desearan |
Present perfect
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | he deseado |
| tú | has deseado |
| él / ella / Ud. | ha deseado |
| nosotros / nosotras | hemos deseado |
| vosotros / vosotras | habéis deseado |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | han deseado |
Pluperfect
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | había deseado |
| tú | habías deseado |
| él / ella / Ud. | había deseado |
| nosotros / nosotras | habíamos deseado |
| vosotros / vosotras | habíais deseado |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | habían deseado |
Future perfect
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | habré deseado |
| tú | habrás deseado |
| él / ella / Ud. | habrá deseado |
| nosotros / nosotras | habremos deseado |
| vosotros / vosotras | habréis deseado |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | habrán deseado |
Conditional perfect
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | habría deseado |
| tú | habrías deseado |
| él / ella / Ud. | habría deseado |
| nosotros / nosotras | habríamos deseado |
| vosotros / vosotras | habríais deseado |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | habrían deseado |
Imperative — affirmative
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| tú | desea |
| él / ella / Ud. | desee |
| nosotros / nosotras | deseemos |
| vosotros / vosotras | desead |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | deseen |
Imperative — negative
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| tú | desees |
| él / ella / Ud. | desee |
| nosotros / nosotras | deseemos |
| vosotros / vosotras | deseéis |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | deseen |
Gerund: deseando · Past participle: deseado
Desear 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 deseo un buen futuro para mis hijos. — "Every day, I wish a good future for my children."
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 deseé un buen futuro para mis hijos. — "Yesterday, I wished a good future for my children."
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 deseaba un buen futuro para mis hijos. — "Before, I wished a good future for my children."
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 desearé un buen futuro para mis hijos. — "Tomorrow, I will wish a good future for my children."
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 desearía un buen futuro para mis hijos si tuviera la oportunidad. — "I would wish a good future for my children 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 desee un buen futuro para mis hijos. — "I hope she will wish a good future for my children."
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 deseara un buen futuro para mis hijos, todo cambiaría. — "If she wished a good future for my children, 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 deseado que todo salga bien varias veces. — "I have wished that everything goes well 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 deseado un buen futuro para mis hijos antes de la reunión. — "I had wished a good future for my children 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 deseado un buen futuro para mis hijos. — "By tomorrow, I will have wished a good future for my children."
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 deseado un buen futuro para mis hijos si hubiera tenido tiempo. — "I would have wished a good future for my children 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: ¡desea un buen futuro para mis hijos! — "Wish a good future for my children!"
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 desees un buen futuro para mis hijos. — "Do not wish a good future for my children."
Example sentences with desear
Yo deseo un buen futuro para mis hijos. — "I wish a good future for my children."
¿Tú deseas que todo salga bien? — "Do you wish that everything goes well?"
Ayer, él deseó un buen futuro para mis hijos. — "Yesterday, he wished a good future for my children."
Nosotros deseamos que todo salga bien a tiempo. — "We wished that everything goes well on time."
Antes, ellos deseaban un buen futuro para mis hijos. — "Before, they wished a good future for my children."
Mañana, yo desearé que todo salga bien. — "Tomorrow, I will wish that everything goes well."
Nosotros desearíamos un buen futuro para mis hijos si pudiéramos. — "We would wish a good future for my children if we could."
Yo he deseado que todo salga bien varias veces. — "I have wished that everything goes well several times."
Espero que ella desee un buen futuro para mis hijos. — "I hope she will wish a good future for my children."
Ahora mismo, yo estoy deseando que todo salga bien. — "Right now, I am wishing that everything goes well."
Common mistakes with desear
1. Dropping the accent on the preterite yo form
The preterite yo form is deseé — 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 desear with querer (to want, to love)
desear means "to wish, to want", while querer means "to want, to love". They overlap in English but they are not interchangeable in Spanish: use desear when you mean expressing wishes and wants, and querer for its own meaning. Check the conjugation of querer before choosing.
3. Mixing up the preterite and the imperfect
Ayer yo deseé un buen futuro para mis hijos (preterite: one finished event yesterday) is not the same as antes yo deseaba un buen futuro para mis hijos (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 the indicative after desear + que
After desear, the subordinate clause takes the subjunctive: desear que ella desee un buen futuro para mis hijos. The indicative (desea) is wrong here, because desear expresses a wish or a doubt, not a stated fact.
5. Using estar instead of haber in the perfect tenses
The present perfect is he deseado (haber + participle), never estoy deseado. Haber is the only auxiliary for compound tenses in Spanish.
Quiz: desear
1. Yo ___ un buen futuro para mis hijos.
a. desea b. deseo c. desean
2. Ella ___ un buen futuro para mis hijos.
a. deseo b. desea c. desean
3. Ayer, yo ___ un buen futuro para mis hijos.
a. deseo b. deseé c. desea
4. Ellos ___ un buen futuro para mis hijos ayer.
a. deseo b. desearon c. desea
5. Antes, yo ___ un buen futuro para mis hijos.
a. deseo b. deseaba c. desea
6. Mañana, yo ___ un buen futuro para mis hijos.
a. deseo b. desearé c. desea
7. Yo ___ un buen futuro para mis hijos si pudiera.
a. deseo b. desearía c. desea
8. Espero que ella ___ un buen futuro para mis hijos.
a. deseo b. desee c. desea
9. Ahora mismo, yo estoy ___ que todo salga bien.
a. deseado b. deseando c. deseo
10. Yo he ___ que todo salga bien varias veces.
a. deseando b. deseado c. deseo
Answer key
deseo — present tense, yo form.
desea — present tense, él/ella form.
deseé — preterite, yo form — a finished action yesterday.
desearon — preterite, ellos/ellas form.
deseaba — imperfect, yo form — a past habit.
desearé — future, yo form.
desearía — conditional, yo form — a hypothetical.
desee — present subjunctive after 'espero que'.
deseando — gerund — the progressive is estar + gerund.
deseado — past participle — the present perfect is haber + participle.
Frequently asked questions about desear
What does desear mean in English?
Desear means "to wish, to want". It is used for expressing wishes and wants. A simple example is yo deseo un buen futuro para mis hijos — "I wish a good future for my children."
Is desear regular or irregular?
Desear 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 deseo, the preterite yo form deseé and the past participle deseado — learn those three first, then fill in the rest from the tables above.
What is the gerund and the past participle of desear?
The gerund is deseando (used for the progressive: estoy deseando) and the past participle is deseado (used with haber in all perfect tenses: he deseado). Both forms are used constantly, so they are worth memorising on their own.
How do I say "I wish" in the past?
It depends on the meaning. For one finished action use the preterite: ayer yo deseé un buen futuro para mis hijos — "yesterday I wished a good future for my children". For a past habit or background use the imperfect: antes yo deseaba un buen futuro para mis hijos — "before, I wished a good future for my children". The mistake most learners make is using one for the other.
Does desear take the subjunctive?
Yes, often. After desear, a subordinate clause with que usually takes the subjunctive, because desear expresses a wish or a doubt rather than a fact: desear que ella desee un buen futuro para mis hijos. If you use the indicative there, the sentence sounds wrong to a native speaker.