The Present Tense of descender is used to describe actions happening right now or habitual actions. For example, Ella desciende las escaleras con cuidado. (She descends the stairs carefully.)

Descender is a stem-changing verb, meaning the stem vowel changes from e to ie in all forms except nosotros and vosotros.

Conjugations

Conjugations of Descender (to descend) in the Present Tense tense (Castilian Spanish):

Descender generally means to go down or descend, but has several different meanings in the Present Tense, some of which might surprise you.

Literal meaning: To move downwards from a higher to a lower level or position, for example, Yo desciendo las escaleras (I go down the stairs). Ellos descienden del autobús (They get off the bus).

Decrease or diminish: To reduce in quantity, intensity or value, for example, La temperatura desciende durante la noche (The temperature drops at night). Sus ventas descienden cada año (Their sales decrease every year).

Descend from ancestors: To be directly descended from a particular ancestor or family line, for example, Desciendo de una familia noble (I descend from a noble family). Ellos descienden de los reyes de España (They descend from the kings of Spain).

Colloquial meaning: In informal contexts, it can mean to relax or take it easy, for example, ¡Desciendo un poco, tío! (Chill out a bit, dude!). Vosotros descendéis demasiado en las fiestas (You guys chill out too much at parties).

Examples

Examples of Descender in the Present Tense

Cada mañana, desciendo las escaleras para desayunar. (Every morning, I go downstairs to have breakfast.)

Mis amigos y yo descendemos la montaña con cuidado después de escalar. (My friends and I carefully descend the mountain after climbing.)

¿Por qué desciendes tan rápido las escaleras? Ten cuidado. (Why are you going down the stairs so quickly? Be careful.)

El avión desciende lentamente hacia la pista de aterrizaje. (The plane slowly descends towards the landing strip.)

Cuando descendéis de la montaña, asegúrense de seguir el sendero marcado. (When you descend from the mountain, make sure to follow the marked trail.)

Los precios de la gasolina descienden un poco esta semana. (Gas prices are going down a bit this week.)

En la obra de teatro, el fantasma desciende por las escaleras haciendo ruidos escalofriantes. (In the play, the ghost descends the stairs making creepy noises.)

Después de la fiesta, todos descienden al primer piso para despedirse. (After the party, everyone goes downstairs to say goodbye.)

El sol desciende en el horizonte, pintando el cielo de colores naranjas y rojos. (The sun descends on the horizon, painting the sky in shades of orange and red.)

Los escaladores expertos descienden la pared de roca con cuerdas y equipo especializado. (The expert climbers descend the rock wall with ropes and specialized equipment.)

Cuando descendemos del autobús, nos damos cuenta de que olvidamos nuestras maletas. (When we get off the bus, we realize we forgot our luggage.)

La temperatura desciende por la noche, así que abríguense bien. (The temperature goes down at night, so bundle up.)

Los paracaidistas descienden lentamente desde el avión, disfrutando de las vistas panorámicas. (The skydivers slowly descend from the plane, enjoying the panoramic views.)

Después de un largo día de caminata, descendemos la colina de regreso al campamento base. (After a long day of hiking, we descend the hill back to the base camp.)

Aunque los precios descienden temporalmente, es mejor ahorrar dinero para el futuro. (Although prices go down temporarily, it’s better to save money for the future.)

Conjugations with English Translations

Conjugations of Descender (to descend) in the Present Tense tense (Castilian Spanish) with English Translations:

This post covers Castilian Spanish. For Latin American Spanish, click here

Synonyms

The Present tense is also known as the Simple Present, Present Simple, Present Tense, or Present Indicative in English, and as Presente de Indicativo, Presente Simple, Tiempo Presente, or Indicativo Presente in Spanish.