Spanish Tenses

Progressive

  • Estar in tense + present participle

  • Conjugation

    • AR: ar → ando

    • IR/ER: ir/er → iendo

Present Perfect

  • Definition

    • Recent past or past actions that are still true

    • Have, has

    • I have eaten, she has played

  • Conjugation

    • Haber in present + past participle

    • He, has, ha, hemos, han; none

    • Past participles

      • AR: ar → ado

      • ER: er → ido

      • IR: ir → ido

  • Notes

    • Object pronouns always precede conjugated haber

  • Irregular past participles

    • Atraer - atraído

    • Caer

    • Creer

    • Leer

    • Oír

    • Poseer

    • Sonreír

    • Traer

    • —----

    • Abrir - abierto

    • Cubrir - cubierto

    • Decir - dicho

    • Describir - descrito

    • Descubrir - descubierto

    • Devolver - devuelto

    • Disolver - disuelto

    • Envolver - envuelto

    • Escribir - escrito

    • Freír - frito

    • Hacer - hecho

    • Morir - muerto

    • Oponer - opuesto

    • Poner - puesto

    • Proveer - provisto

    • Pudrir - podrido

    • Resolver - resuelto

    • Romper - roto

    • Ver - visto

    • Volver - vuelto


Past Perfect

  • Definition

    • Remote past or actions that occurred prior to a specific point in time

    • Had

    • I had traveled, We had studied

  • Conjugation

    • Haber in imperfect + past participle

    • Había; all


Imperfect

  • Definition

    • Nonspecific, continuous past actions

    • Used to, would, was ___ing

    • Took place in the past repeatedly or over an extended period of time

    • Descriptions

      • Background description

      • What things were like

      • Ser for origin and time

      • Estar for location, short-term conditions, result of an action

      • Non physical things

      • Feelings/mental actions

      • Age in the past

  • Conjugation

    • Drop infinitive ending

    • AR: aba; ábamos

    • ER/IR: ía, íamos; all

  • Irregular

    • Ser: era; éramos 

    • Ir: iba; íbamos

    • Ver: veía; all

  • Haber

    • Había for existence

    • Hubo for action

Present Subjunctive

  • Definition

    • Uncertain present or future

    • Desire

    • Ignorance

    • Emotional statement/comment

    • Impersonal opinion

    • Uncompleted action

    • Vague or indefinite antecedent

    • Perhaps and Maybe

    • Even if

  • Conjugation

    • 1) Yo present tense

    • 2) Remove o or oy

    • 3) Add opposite ending (no accents) (ar → emos) (er/ir → amos)

    • No stem changes in the nosotros form except for -ir verbs

      • O → ue

      • E → ie

      • E → i

  • Sentences

    • Will contain a main clause–“que”--subordinate clause

      • Generally separated by a “que”


Imperfect Subjunctive

  • Definition

    • Refers to the past

    • Same use as present subjunctive except time frame is past, not present

    • Refers to actions in the imagined or hypothetical past (“If I were”/”If I was”)

    • If clauses in the present usually followed by either present or the future indicative

    • “As if” “as though” (como si) in the imperfect subjunctive

      • Main clause can be present, past, or conditional

  • Conjugation

    • 1) Ellos preterite tense

    • 2) Drop the -ron

    • 2) Add these endings (interchangable)

  • 1st ending

    • -ra, -ras, -ra, -ramos, -ran

  • 2nd ending

    • -se, -ses, -se, -semos, -sen

  • Querer

    • Imperfect subjunctive: to wish in the main clause when there is no change of subject

    • “I wish that I had a million dollars” “Yo quisiera tener un millon de dolares”


Present Perfect Subjunctive

  • Definition

    • Refers to the relatively recent past

    • “Has” or “Have” + Past participle key phrase

    • Actions that may have taken place

      • It’s possible that I’ve read it (Main clause present)

      • It’s unlikely that we’ve met before (Main clause present)

      • Will you stay after I’ve gone? (Main clause future)

      • We will speak when John has finished (Main clause future)

  • Conjugation

    • Haber in present subjunctive + past participle

  • Haber

    • Haya, hayas, haya, hayamos, hayan



Pluperfect Subjunctive

  • Definition

    • Refers to the relatively remote past

    • “Had” + past participle key phrase

    • AKA Past perfect subjunctive

    • Time frame: completed action before another action occurred

    • Main clause past: refers to action that only possibly had taken place

      • “Was it possible that I had done such a thing”

      • He acted as if we had met before”

      • “I hoped you had eaten”

    • Hypothetical “if”

      • If followed by reference to action that had only possibly taken place

      • I wouldn’t have asked you if I had known the answer

      • If you hadn’t lied to me, I wouldn’t have gotten mad at you

  • Conjugation

    • Haber + past participle

  • Haber

    • Hubiera, hubieras, hubiera, hubiéramos, hubieran


Conditional

  • Definition

    • Hypothetical future

    • Would

    • Conditional if ___

  • Conjugation

    • Infinitive + ending

    • Ía, íamos; all

  • Irregular

    • Caber - cabría

    • Haber

    • Poder

    • Querer - querría

    • Saber

    • —------

    • Poner - pondría

    • Salir

    • Tener

    • Valer

    • Venir

    • —-----

    • Decir - diría

    • Hacer - haría

  • Haber

    • There would be

    • Habría for both singular and plural


Preterite

  • Definition

    • Refers to specific, completed past actions

  • Conjugation

    • Verb base + verb ending

    • AR

      • Yo -é, Tú -aste, Él -ó, Nosotros -amos, Ellos -aron

    • ER/IR

      • Yo -í, Tú -iste, Él -ió, Nosotros -imos, Ellos -ieron


Future

  • Definition

    • Will

  • Conjugation

    • Infinitive + ending

    • É, ás, á, án; emos no accent

  • Irregular

    • Caber - cabré

    • Haber

    • Poder

    • Querer - querré

    • Saber

    • —------

    • Poner - pondré

    • Salir

    • Tener

    • Valer

    • Venir

    • —-----

    • Decir - diré

    • Hacer - haré

  • Haber

    • There will be both for singular and plural = habrá


Present

  • Defenition

    • Refers to right now in this moment and the general now (these days)

  • Conjugation

    • Verb base + verb ending

    • AR

      • Yo -o, Tú -as, Él -a, Nosotros -amos, Ellos -an

    • ER/IR

      • Yo -o, Tú -es, Él -e, Nosotros -emos, Ellos -en

Imperative

  • Definition

    • Commands

  • Tú

  • Tú affirmative

    • Verb conjugated in el/ella/usted form

  • Tú negative

    • 1) Present yo form

    • 2) remove o or oy

    • 3) add ending for opposite verb (ar for ir/er and ir/er for ar)

    • “No” in front

  • Irregular tú commands

  • Decir - di - no digas

  • Hacer - haz - no hagas

  • Ir - ve - no vayas

  • Poner - pon - no pongas

  • Salir - sal - no salgas

  • Ser - sé - no seas **accent

  • Tener - ten - no tengas

  • Venir - ven - no vengas

  • For negative, use the usted command and add an ‘s’ at the end

  • Object Pronouns

    • Reflective, Indirect, Direct

    • Dáselo - Give it (direct) to him (indirect)

    • Negative commands: object pronoun precedes form

    • No lo hagas - Don’t do it

  • Used command

    • Same form for affirmative and negative with the “no”

    • Conjugation

      • 1) present tense yo

      • 2) remove o or oy

      • 3) add opposite ending (ar → er/ir ; er/ir → ar)

    • Irregular

      • Ir - vaya

      • Saber - sepa

      • Ser - sea

  • Ustedes command

    • Usted command + n for both affirmative and negative with a “no”

  • Nosotros command

    • Let’s ___

    • Don’t apply stem changes EXCEPT for ir verbs (Durmamos)

    • Pronouns

      • Reflexive: drop the s of the conjugated verb before adding nos

      • Object: add directly to end

    • Conjugation

      • 1) present tense yo form

      • 2) remove o or oy

      • 3) add opposite nosotros ending (ar → emos ; er/ir → amos)

    • Irregular

      • Ir - vamos - no vayamos

      • Irse - vámonos - no nos vayamos

      • Saber - sepamos - no sepamos

      • Ser - seamos - no seamos