[1] The décima deals with a wide range of subject matters, including themes that are philosophical, religious, lyrical, and political.

A decimero would frequently challenge the target of the satire or his/her defender to respond in kind with a décima, thereby setting up a duel that tests the originality and wit of contending composers.

The variations based on the word's accents (agudas, graves, and esdrújulas) in the last word of the verse also allows for different numbers of metric syllables:[5] "Juyzio hallado y trobado""La vida es sueño" Pedro Calderón de la Barca wrote in décimas some stanzas of Life is a Dream.

The Ecuadorian décima is an oral poetic form that exists among the black population of the Esmeraldas Province.

This is reflected in the structure of the poems as well: a transcription of a décima will invariably have a period or a semicolon at the end of the fourth line.

Some older decimeros add an additional pause between the eighth and ninth line of each ten-line stanza.