Conjugating the Spanish Verb Dejar (to Leave Something)

Spanish verbs fall into different groups, and each group is conjugated a little differently. If you’re going to master Spanish verbs like dejar, you need to be able to identify which group a verb belongs to: regular (follows regular conjugation rules for -ar, -er, and -ir verbs), stem-changing (morphs depending on how you use it in a sentence), spelling-changing (has consonant-spelling changes in some forms to follow pronunciation rules), or reflexive (reflects the action back on the subject of the sentence).

Dejar (deh-Hahr) (to leave something somewhere) is a regular -ar verb, so its conjugation is pretty straightforward. Here it is in the present tense:

The following examples show you dejar in action:

• ¿Dejas tú algo para mí? (Do you leave something for me?)

• Dejo a mis hermanos en la escuela. (I leave my brothers in the school.)

Need to know how to conjugate dejar in another tense? The following tables show you the preterit, imperfect, and future forms.

You use the preterit tense like this:

• María dejó sus zapatos en la tienda. (María left her shoes in the store.)

• Ellos dejaron sus libros y cerraron la puerta. (They left their books and closed the doors.)

Here are some examples of the imperfect tense:

• Los soldados dejaban sus armas en el ejército. (The soldiers used to leave their guns in the army.)

• Dejaba mis llaves en mi bolso. (I used to leave my keys in my purse.)

The following samples put the future tense to work:

• ¿Dejará usted su carro en el garaje? (Will you leave your car in the garage?)

• Sí. Lo dejaré en el garaje (Yes. I will leave it in the garage.)