Dejar is the 6th most common regular verb in Spanish.
This regular verb also falls into a small category of Spanish verbs that occur frequently but appear in multiple and somewhat confusing contexts.
In many instances, dejar can be translated to the English verb ‘to leave’. But, there are, of course, some interesting exceptions.
In this post, you’ll learn how to use dejar to talk about giving up, granting permission, placing an object somewhere, and leaving someone or something alone.
Use 1 – To place an object
The first and most obvious use of dejar is for describing where you place physical objects. For example:
English: I’m going to leave my glasses here.
Español: Voy a dejar mis gafas aquí.
English: Do you recall where I left the keys?
Español: ¿Recuerdas dónde dejé las llaves?
English: Leave the money on the table!
Español: ¡Deja el dinero en la mesa!
I’m not expecting you to utter this last phrase anytime soon. I think you’ll only need it to understand a quintessential scene from a mafia movie, but you never know.
You may also notice this last example uses the imperative command conjugation. When you are commanding another person to do something in a positive context (eg, do this, not don’t do this) then you simply need to use the third person conjugation of the verb. The use of the imperative mood is commonplace for the verb dejar, you’ll see more examples below.
Use 2 – To allow or give permission
As a less obvious translation from English, dejar can be used to ask for, or give permission. The best equivalent for dejar in this context is the English verb ‘to let’.
English: Will you let me go to the fiesta?
Español: ¿Me dejas ir a la fiesta?
English: I will not let any obstacle stand in our way.
Español: No voy a dejar ningún obstáculo en nuestro camino.
English: Let me live my own life!
Español: ¡Déjame vivir mi propia vida!
Use 3 – To leave alone
The third context of dejar is for asking to be left alone. If you need to concentrate on something, this first phrase will come in handy.
English: Leave me alone!
Español: ¡Déjame en paz!
English: Leave your sister alone, she is trying to study!
Español: ¡Deja a tu hermana, ella está intentando estudiar!
English: Leave it alone, I don’t want to talk about it right now!
Español: ¡Déjalo, no quiero hablar sobre ello ahora mismo!
Use 4 – To quit or stop
This use of dejar is for describing the interruption of a continuing action.
If you want to talk about quitting something such as smoking, you should use dejar here in combination with the preposition de.
English: I have to quit smoking.
Español: Tengo que dejar de fumar.
English: ¡Quit talking! I want to listen to this program.
Español: ¡Deja de hablar! Quiero escuchar a este programa.
English: I had to stop working in the garden because of the rain.
Español: Tuve que dejar de trabajar en el jardín por la lluvia.
Use 5 – To abandon or give in
In contrast to use #4, this last use implies that you stop an action because you don’t have the motivation to continue.
Here you have to use dejar in its reflexive form: dejarse.
English: I mustn’t give in, I have to finish the race.
Español: No me debo dejar, tengo que terminar la carrera.
English: Despite that you think you are failing the program, don’t give up and keep trying it.
Español: A pesar de que crees que suspendes con el programa, no te dejes y sigue intentándolo.
A great phrase with dejar in this last context is dejarse llevar. If you break this phrase down, it could be ‘let oneself be carried’, or more colloquially ‘to let oneself go’. If you want to say ‘let yourself go with … (something), you need dejarse llevar in combination with the preposition por.
English: Let yourself go!
Español: ¡Déjate llevar!
English: I’m going to let myself be carried away with the moment.
Español: Me voy a dejar llevar por el momento.
Your Turn
Want to put this verb and these rules into your long term memory banks? If so, then go out and use them when you next get a chance.
See if you can find an excuse to tell someone you are giving something up such as an old, unwanted habit.
If you enjoyed this post, check out other similar posts for the verbs tomar, poder, faltar, or querer.
How else can you use dejar or dejarse in a Spanish sentence?
Thanks for a great list —
I the last example, why is “Me va a dejar llevar por el momento” not conjugated in the first person?
Thanks Karen, great point, that was a typo, I have updated to ‘me voy’.
Thanks — I feel better 🙂
Is ‘dejar’ used in the situation of telling the driver of a bus or car that you want to get off?
Something like “Quiero dejar por favor.”
The best verb to use with stopping the bus is “parar”. A common way to ask a bus driver to stop is to say “I want this stop, please” – “Quiero esta parada, por favor”, or, you can say “Can you stop here, please? – ¿Puedes parar aquí, por favor? And, you can notice the common derivation of “parada” and “parar”. Thanks for the question Scott!
Gracias. Claro!
Hola Andrew,
In the spirit of RFS, what are the 25 most commonly used verbs in Spanish?
It’s a good question Scott! We haven’t got a post for that, so we will probably have to write one 🙂
RFS?
Real Fast Spanish 🙂
How about intentar / probar / tratar de – any tips?
Hola Steph, you can think of “intentar / tratar de” as “to attempt” and “probar” as “to sample” or “to test”.
Gracias por incluir el ultimo ejemplo Andrew! Recientemente aprendi la cancion “El Gran Varon” por Willie Colon y hay una letra que ahora entiendo mejor!
… se dejo llevar por lo que dice la gente…. Me di cuenta de que me equivocaba quien “dejarse llevar”. Gracias por este post!!
¡Muy bien! Gracias Gabbie! 🙂
Andrew, your examples are really helpful.
Re: Use 1 – To place an object.
Does the meaning change if we use “poner” instead of dejar? eg: Pon el dinero en la mesa.
Hola Rhoda, thanks for the question! 🙂 Both options of “putting something on the table” with “poner” and “leaving something on the table” with “dejar” work in both English and Spanish.