Spanish verbs
Encyclopedia
Spanish verbs are one of the most complex areas of Spanish grammar
. Spanish
is a relatively synthetic language
with a moderate-to-high degree of inflection
, which shows up mostly in the verb
conjugation
.
As is typical of verbs in virtually all languages, Spanish verbs express an action or a state of being of a given subject. And like verbs in most of the Indo-European languages
, Spanish verbs undergo inflection
according to the following categories:
The modern Spanish verb system has 14 distinct complete paradigms (i.e. sets of forms for each combination of tense and mood), plus one incomplete paradigm (the imperative), as well as three non-temporal forms
(infinitive, gerund, and past participle).
The fourteen regular tenses are also subdivided into seven simple tenses and seven compound tenses (also known as the perfect). The seven compound tenses are formed with the auxiliary verb
haber followed by the past participle. Verbs can be used in other forms, such as the present progressive, but in grammar treatises that is not usually considered a special tense but just one of the periphrastic
verbal constructions.
In Old Spanish
there were two tenses (simple and compound future subjunctive) that are virtually obsolete today.
Spanish
verb conjugation is divided in four categories known as mood
s: indicative, subjunctive
, imperative
, and the traditionally so-called infinitive mood (newer grammars in Spanish call it formas no personales, "non-personal forms"). This fourth category contains the three non-finite
forms that every verb has: an infinitive
, a gerund
, and a past participle (more exactly a passive perfect participle). The past participle can agree for number and gender just as an adjective
, giving it four possible forms.
There is also a form traditionally known as the present participle (e.g. cantante, durmiente), but this is generally considered a separate word derived
from the verb, rather than an inherent inflection
of the verb, because (1) not every verb has this form, and (2) the way in which the meaning of the form is related to that of the verb stem is not predictable. Some present participles function mainly as nouns (typically, but not always, denoting a doer
of the action, such as amante, cantante, estudiante), while others have a mainly adjectival function (abundante, dominante, sonriente), and still others can be used as either a noun or an adjective (corriente, dependiente). Unlike the gerund, the present participle takes the -s ending for agreement in the plural.
Many of the most frequent verbs are irregular. The rest fall into one of three regular conjugations, which are classified according to whether their infinitive ends in -ar, -er, or -ir. (The vowel in the ending — a, e, or i — is called the thematic vowel.) The -ar verbs are the most numerous and the most regular; moreover, new verbs usually adopt the -ar form. The -er and -ir verbs are fewer, and they include more irregular verbs. There are also subclasses of semi-regular verbs that show vowel alternation conditioned by stress. See "Spanish irregular verbs
".
See Spanish conjugation
for conjugation tables of regular verbs and some irregular verbs.
, a special form of the second person
is used.
Since Spanish is a "pro-drop language
", the subject pronoun is often omitted.
Singular Forms
Plural Forms
Singular Forms
Plural Forms
verb forms refer to an action or state without indicating the time or the person. Spanish has three impersonal forms:
" refers to the -ing form of a verb used as a noun, in Spanish the term refers to a verb form that behaves more like an adverb.
The past participle, ending invariably in -o, is used following a form of the auxiliary verb
haber to form the compound or perfect: (Yo) he hablado ('I have spoken'), (Ellos) habían hablado ('They had spoken'), etc.
When the past participle is used as an adjective, it agrees with the noun that it modifies, e.g. una lengua hablada en España ('a language spoken in Spain').
The past participle, similarly agreeing with the subject of ser or estar, can be used to form, respectively, the "true" passive voice
(e.g. Los platos fueron preparados en la mañana 'The dishes were prepared in the morning') or the "passive of result" (e.g. Los platos ya están preparados 'The dishes are already prepared').
, object
, etc.).
When the subject is the agent
or doer of the action, the verb is in the active voice. When the subject is the patient
, target or undergoer of the action, it is said to be in the passive voice.
In this page, verb conjugation is illustrated with the verb hablar ('to talk, to speak').
.
The present tense is formed with the endings shown below:
Uses of the present indicative
This tense is used to indicate the following:
The imperfect is formed with the endings shown below:
Uses of the imperfect
This tense is used to express the following:
The preterite is formed with the endings shown below:
Uses of the preterite
This tense is used to express the following:
The future tense uses the entire infinitive as a stem. The following endings are attached to it:
Uses of the future
This tense is used to express the following:
In the present perfect, the present indicative of haber is used as a modal, and it is followed by the past participle of the main verb. In most of Spanish America, this tense has virtually the same use as the English present perfect.
In most of Spain the tense has an additional use, to express a past action or event that is contained in an unfinished period of time, or that has effects in the present:
In this tense, the imperfect form of haber is used as a modal, and it is followed by the past participle of the main verb.
Uses
This form is used to express the following:
This tense combines the preterit form of haber with the past participle of the main verb. It is very rare in spoken Spanish, but it is sometimes used in formal written language, almost entirely limited to subordinate (temporal, adverbial) clauses — thus it is usually introduced by temporal conjunctions such as cuando, apenas, en cuanto, etc. It is used to express an action that ended immediately before another past action.
(tú) hubiste + past participle
(él / ella / usted) hubo + past participle
(nosotros / nosotras) hubimos + past participle
(vosotros / vosotras) hubisteis + past participle
(ellos / ellas / ustedes) hubieron + past participle
E.g.: Apenas María hubo terminado la canción, su padre entró. ('As soon as Maria had finished the song, her father came in.')
This tense is often replaced by either the preterit or the pluperfect, with the same meaning.
E.g.: Apenas María había terminado la canción, su padre entró.
The future perfect is formed with the future indicative form of haber followed by the past participle of the main verb.
(tú) habrás + past participle
(él / ella / usted) habrá + past participle
(nosotros / nosotras) habremos + past participle
(vosotros / vosotras) habréis + past participle
(ellos / ellas / ustedes) habrán + past participle
This tense is used to indicate a future action that will be finished right before another future action.
Uses of the conditional
This tense is used to express the following:
The imperative can also be expressed in three other ways: The first person plural imperative ("Let us...") can also be expressed by Vamos a + infinitive: ¡vamos a comer!.
Indirect commands with que: Que lo llame el secretario (Have the secretary call him).
The singular imperative tú coincides with the third-person singular of the indicative for all but a few irregular verbs. The plural vosotros is always the same as the infinitive, but with a final -d instead of an -r in the formal, written form; the informal spoken form is the same as the infinitive. The singular vos drops the -r of the infinitive, requiring a written accent to indicate the stress. These actual imperative forms are in bold to distinguish them from those that are really just subjunctive forms. Note that in the imperative, the affirmative 2nd-person forms differ from its negative counterparts; this is the only case of a difference in conjugation between affirmative and negative in Spanish.
Beginner's rule:To conjugate something that is negative in the imperative mood for the tú form (which also is used most often), conjugate in the yo form, drop the 'o', add the opposite tú ending (if it is an -ar verb add 'es'; for an -er or -ir verb add as), and then put 'no' in front.
The pronominal verb irse is irregular in the second person plural normative form, because it does not drop the -d or the -r:
but extremely uncommon) ¡iros! (vosotros) – Go away! (common in Spain, not admitted by the Real Academia Española
)
The present subjunctive of regular verbs is formed with the endings shown below:
The imperfect subjunctive can be formed with either of two sets of endings: the "-ra endings" or the "-se endings", as shown below. In Spanish America, the -ra forms are virtually the only forms used, to the exclusion of the -se forms. In Spain, both sets of forms are used, but the -ra forms predominate there also.
This tense is no longer used in the modern language, except in legal language and some fixed expressions. The following endings are attached to the preterite stem:
Like the simple future subjunctive, this tense is no longer used in the modern language.
Observations: The choice between present subjunctive and imperfect subjunctive is determined by the tense of the main verb of the sentence.
The future subjunctive is rarely used in modern Spanish and mostly appears in old texts, legal documents, and certain fixed expressions such as venga lo que viniere ("come what may").
(perífrasis verbal). For example: estoy leyendo 'I am reading'. However, one can also say sigo leyendo 'I am still reading'; voy leyendo 'I am slowly but surely reading'; ando leyendo 'I am going around reading', and others.
Virtually all verbs of the third conjugation (-ir), if they have -e- or -o- in their stem, undergo a vowel-raising change whereby e changes to i and o changes to u, in some of their forms (for details see Spanish irregular verbs
). Examples include pedir 'to ask for' (pide 'he/she asks for'), competir 'to compete' (compite 'he/she competes'), and derretirse 'to melt' (se derrite 'it melts').
The so-called "I-Go" verbs add a medial -g- in the first person singular, present tense (making the Yo [or I] form end in -go — for example, tener 'to have', tengo 'I have'; venir 'to come', vengo 'I come'). These verbs are often irregular in other forms as well.
Though not as strict as English, Spanish is stricter than French or German, which have no systematic distinction between the two concepts at all.
This optionally continuous meaning that can be underlined by using the continuous form is a feature of the present and imperfect. The preterite never has this meaning even in the continuous form, and the future has it only when it is in the continuous form.
Present
Imperfect
Preterit
Note that since the preterit by nature refers to an event seen as having a beginning and an end, and not as a context, the use of the continuous form of the verb only adds a feeling for the length of time spent on the action. The future has two main forms in Spanish, the imperfect (compound) future and the simple one. The difference between them is aspect. The compound future is done with the conjugated "ir" (means "to go", but it also means "will" in this case) plus the infinitive and, sometimes, with a present progressive verb added as well.
Future:
The future tense can also simply express guesses about the present and immediate future:
The same is applied to imperfect and conditional:
Studies have shown that Spanish-speaking children learn this use of the future tense before they learn to use it to express future events (the English future with "will" can also sometimes be used with this meaning). The other constructions detailed above are used instead. Indeed, in some areas such as Argentina and Uruguay, speakers hardly use the future tense to refer to the future.
The future tense of the subjunctive mood is also obsolete in practice. As of today, it is only found in legal documents and the like. In other contexts, the past subjunctive form always replaces it.
but aspect
in a manner that is similar to that of the Slavic languages. However, within Spanish grammar, they are customarily called tenses.
The difference between the preterite and the imperfect (and in certain cases, the perfect) is often hard to grasp for English speakers. English has just one past tense form, which can have aspect added to it by auxiliary verbs, but not in ways that reliably correspond to what occurs in Spanish.
The distinction between them does, however, correspond rather well to the distinctions in other Romance languages, between for example the French imparfait and passé simple / passé composé, or between the Italian imperfetto and passato remoto / passato prossimo.
The imperfect fundamentally presents an action or state as being a context, and is thus essentially descriptive. It does not present actions or states as having ends, and often does not present their beginnings either. Like the Slavic imperfective past, it tends to show actions that used to be done at some point, as in a routine. In this case, one would say "Yo jugaba" (I used to play), "Yo leía" (I used to read), or "Yo escribía" (I used to write).
The preterite (as well as the perfect, when applicable) fundamentally presents an action or state as being an event, and is thus essentially narrative. It presents actions or states as having beginnings and ends. This also bears resemblance to the Slavic perfective past, as these actions are usually viewed as done in one stroke. The corresponding preterite forms would be "Yo jugué" (I played), "Yo leí" (I read) or "Yo escribí" (I wrote).
As stated above, deciding whether to use the preterite or the imperfect can present some difficulty for an English-speaker. But there are certain topics, words, and key phrases that can help one decide if the verb should be conjugated in the preterite or the imperfect. These expressions co-occur significantly more often with one or the other of the two tenses, corresponding to a completed action (preterite) or a repetitive action or a continuous action or state (imperfect) in the past.
Key words and phrases that tend to co-occur with the preterite tense:
Ex: Esta mañana comí huevos y pan tostado.
This morning I ate eggs and toast.
Key words and phrases that tend to co-occur with the imperfect tense:
Ex: Cada año mi familia iba a Puerto Rico.
Each year my family went to Puerto Rico.
In the first two, it is clear that the shining refers to the background to the events that are about to unfold in the story. It is talking about "what was happening". We have a choice between making this explicit with the past continuous as in (2), or just using the simple past as in (1) and allowing the context to make it clear what we mean. In Spanish, these would be in the imperfect, optionally in the imperfect continuous.
In the third and fourth examples, it is clear that the shining refers to a regular, general, habitual type of event. It is talking about "what used to happen". We have a choice between making this explicit with the expression "used to" as in (4), or just using the simple past as in (3) and allowing the context to make it clear what we mean. In Spanish, these would be in the imperfect, optionally with the auxiliary verb soler.
In the fifth example, only the simple past is possible. It is talking about a single event presented as occurring at a specific point in time (the moment John pulled back the curtain). The action starts and ends with this sentence. In Spanish, this would be in the preterite (or alternatively in the perfect, if the event has only just happened).
Imperfect used for "was" in Spanish because it is the background to the specific event expressed by "was run over", in the preterite.
In both languages, the continuous form for action in progress is optional, but Spanish requires the verb in either case to be in the imperfect, because it is the background to the specific event expressed by "was run over", in the preterite.
Imperfect used for both verbs since they refer to habits in the past. Either verb could optionally use the expression "used to" in English.
Preterite used if this refers to a single action or event, i.e. the person had or took a bath last night.
Imperfect used if this refers to any sort of habitual action, i.e. the person had or took a bath every morning. Optionally, solía bañarme can specifically express "I used to take baths".
Preterite used if this refers to an event, i.e., a birth.
Imperfect if this refers to the number of children by a certain point, i.e. in "She had one daughter when I met her ten years ago; she may have more now". A description.
Note that when describing the life of someone who is now dead, the distinction between the two tenses blurs. One might describe the person's life saying tenía una hija, but tuvo una hija is very common because the person's whole life is viewed as a whole, with a beginning and an end. The same goes for vivía/vivió en... "he lived in...".
Perhaps the verb that English speakers find most difficult to translate properly is "to be" in the past tense: "was". Apart from the choice between the verbs ser and estar (see below), it is often very hard for English speakers to distinguish between contextual and narrative uses.
Here the preterite is used because it is an event. A good clue is the tense in which cogió is.
Here the imperfect is used because it is a description (the start and end of the action is not presented; it is something that was in progress at a certain time). A good clue is the tense of the other verbs.
As in English, the perfect expresses past actions that have some link to the present. The preterite expresses past actions as being past, complete and done with. In both languages, there are dialectal variations.
With references including "this" including the present:
With other references to recent periods including the present:
With reference to someone's life experience (his/her life not being over):
These same sentences in the preterite would purely refer to the past actions, without any implication that they have repercussions now.
In English, this type of perfect is not possible if a precise time frame is added or even implied; i.e. one cannot say "I have been born in 1978" because the date requires "I was born", despite the fact there is arguably a present consequence in the fact that the person is still alive. Spanish sporadically uses the perfect in these cases.
This is the only use of the perfect that is common in colloquial speech across Latin America.
The one use for the perfect that does seem to be normal in Latin America is the perfect for actions that continue into the present (not just the time frame, but the action itself). Therefore, "I have read a lot in my life" and "I read a lot this morning" would both be expressed with leí instead of he leído, but "I have been reading" is expressed by he leído.
A less standard use of the perfect is found in Ecuador and Colombia. It is used with present or occasionally even future meaning. For example, Shakira Mebarak in her song Ciega, Sordomuda, sings
The imperative mood shows commands given to the hearer (the second person). There is no imperative form in the third person, so the subjunctive is used. The expression takes the form of a command or wish directed at the hearer, but referring to the third person. The difference between a command and a wish is subtle, mostly conveyed by the absence of a wishing verb:
With a verb that expresses wishing, the above sentences become plain subjunctive instead of direct commands:
It survives in the common expression sea lo que fuere and the proverb allá donde fueres, haz lo que vieres (allá donde can be replaced by a la tierra donde or si a Roma).
The proverb illustrates how it used to be used:
It expresses a very fine nuance: the fact that an action occurs just after another [had] occurred, with words such as cuando, nada más and en cuanto ("when", "no sooner", "as soon as"). In English, we are forced to use either the simple past or the past perfect; Spanish has something specific between the two.
The use of hubo salido shows that the second action happened immediately after. Salió might imply it happened at the same time, and había salido might imply it happened some time after.
However, colloquial Spanish has lost this tense and this nuance, and the preterite must be used instead in all but the most formal of writing.
as "to be" but they both express different ideas. These differences may be generalized so that ser expresses nature and estar expresses state. One easy way to remember it is: "ser" is generally for permanent things; "estar" is generally for things that are temporary.
Ser generally focuses on the essence of the subject but more specifically may be thought of in several ways including:
Estar generally focuses on the condition of the subject but more specifically may be thought of in several ways including:
In English
the sentence "The boy is bored" uses a different adjective than "The boy is boring". In Spanish
the difference is made by the choice of ser vs. estar.
The same strategy is used to express permanent or conditional trait of any adjective, e.g.:
It is important to remember that there are exceptions to the generalization; for example, the sentence Tu mamá está loca (Your mother is crazy) can mean either a temporary or a permanent state of craziness.
Haber derives from the Latin habeō, habēre, habuī, habitum; with the basic meaning of "to have".
Tener derives from the Latin teneō, tenēre, tenuī, tentum; with the basic meaning of "to hold", "to keep".
As habeo began to degrade and become reduced to just ambiguous monosyllables in the present tense, the Iberian Romance languages (Spanish, Gallician-Portuguese and Catalan) restricted its use and started to use teneo as the ordinary verb expressing having and possession. French instead reinforced habeo with obligatory subject pronouns.
Unlike in English, the thing which "is there" is not the subject of the sentence and therefore there is no agreement between that and the verb. This echoes the constructions seen in languages such as French (il y a = "it there has"), Catalan (hi ha = "[it] there has"), and even Chinese (有 yǒu = "[it] has").
It is possible, in cases of certain emphasis, to put the verb after the object:
There is a tendency to make haber agree with what follows, as though it were the subject, particularly in tenses other than the present indicative. There is heavier stigma on inventing plural forms for hay, but hain, han, and suchlike are sometimes encountered in non-standard speech. The form habemos is common (meaning 'there are, including me,...'; it very rarely replaces hemos to form the present perfect tense in modern language, and in certain contexts it is even acceptable in formal or literary language.
Haber as an existence verb is never used in other than the third person. To express existence of a first or second person, the verb estar ("to be [located/present]") or existir ("to exist") is used, and there is subject–verb agreement.
Note that the present-tense form is hay.
This construction is comparable to French il faut and Catalan cal, although it should be noted that a personal construction with the subjunctive is not possible . Hay que always goes with the infinitive.
Note that the third personal singular of the present tense is ha.
There are numerous phrases like "tener hambre" that is not literally translated in English, such as:
Note: "Estar hambriento" is a literal translation of "To be hungry", but is rarely spoken and used in Spanish nowadays.
Other negative words can either replace this no or occur after the verb:
language. This contrasts with English, where verbs tend to emphasize manner, and leave the direction of motion to helper particles, prepositions, or adverb
s.
Quite often, the important thing is the direction, not the manner. Therefore, although "we drove away" translates into Spanish as nos fuimos en coche, it is often better to translate it as just nos fuimos. For example:
Spanish grammar
Spanish grammar is the grammar of the Spanish language , which is a Romance language that originated in north central Spain and is spoken today throughout Spain, some twenty countries in the Americas, and Equatorial Guinea....
. Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
is a relatively synthetic language
Synthetic language
In linguistic typology, a synthetic language is a language with a high morpheme-per-word ratio, as opposed to a low morpheme-per-word ratio in what is described as an isolating language...
with a moderate-to-high degree of inflection
Inflection
In grammar, inflection or inflexion is the modification of a word to express different grammatical categories such as tense, grammatical mood, grammatical voice, aspect, person, number, gender and case...
, which shows up mostly in the verb
Verb
A verb, from the Latin verbum meaning word, is a word that in syntax conveys an action , or a state of being . In the usual description of English, the basic form, with or without the particle to, is the infinitive...
conjugation
Grammatical conjugation
In linguistics, conjugation is the creation of derived forms of a verb from its principal parts by inflection . Conjugation may be affected by person, number, gender, tense, aspect, mood, voice, or other grammatical categories...
.
As is typical of verbs in virtually all languages, Spanish verbs express an action or a state of being of a given subject. And like verbs in most of the Indo-European languages
Indo-European languages
The Indo-European languages are a family of several hundred related languages and dialects, including most major current languages of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and South Asia and also historically predominant in Anatolia...
, Spanish verbs undergo inflection
Inflection
In grammar, inflection or inflexion is the modification of a word to express different grammatical categories such as tense, grammatical mood, grammatical voice, aspect, person, number, gender and case...
according to the following categories:
- TenseGrammatical tenseA tense is a grammatical category that locates a situation in time, to indicate when the situation takes place.Bernard Comrie, Aspect, 1976:6:...
: pastPast tenseThe past tense is a grammatical tense that places an action or situation in the past of the current moment , or prior to some specified time that may be in the speaker's past, present, or future...
, presentPresent tenseThe present tense is a grammatical tense that locates a situation or event in present time. This linguistic definition refers to a concept that indicates a feature of the meaning of a verb...
, futureFuture tenseIn grammar, a future tense is a verb form that marks the event described by the verb as not having happened yet, but expected to happen in the future , or to happen subsequent to some other event, whether that is past, present, or future .-Expressions of future tense:The concept of the future,...
. - NumberGrammatical numberIn linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions ....
: singular or pluralPluralIn linguistics, plurality or [a] plural is a concept of quantity representing a value of more-than-one. Typically applied to nouns, a plural word or marker is used to distinguish a value other than the default quantity of a noun, which is typically one...
. - PersonGrammatical personGrammatical person, in linguistics, is deictic reference to a participant in an event; such as the speaker, the addressee, or others. Grammatical person typically defines a language's set of personal pronouns...
: firstFirst personFirst person may refer to:* First-person narrative, a literary device* First-person interpretation, a museum technique* First Person , an interview-based television series created by Errol Morris...
, secondSecond personSecond person can refer to the following:* A grammatical person, you, your and yours in the English language* Second-person narrative, a perspective in storytelling* Second Person , a trip-hop band from London...
or thirdThird PersonThird Person was animprovising trio formed in 1990 in New York City, led by cellist Tom Cora and drummer Samm Bennett. Each performance featured an invited guest: A third person...
. - MoodGrammatical moodIn linguistics, grammatical mood is a grammatical feature of verbs, used to signal modality. That is, it is the use of verbal inflections that allow speakers to express their attitude toward what they are saying...
: indicative, subjunctiveSubjunctive moodIn grammar, the subjunctive mood is a verb mood typically used in subordinate clauses to express various states of irreality such as wish, emotion, possibility, judgment, opinion, necessity, or action that has not yet occurred....
, or imperativeImperative moodThe imperative mood expresses commands or requests as a grammatical mood. These commands or requests urge the audience to act a certain way. It also may signal a prohibition, permission, or any other kind of exhortation.- Morphology :...
. - AspectGrammatical aspectIn linguistics, the grammatical aspect of a verb is a grammatical category that defines the temporal flow in a given action, event, or state, from the point of view of the speaker...
: Perfective aspectPerfective aspectThe perfective aspect , sometimes called the aoristic aspect, is a grammatical aspect used to describe a situation viewed as a simple whole, whether that situation occurs in the past, present, or future. The perfective aspect is equivalent to the aspectual component of past perfective forms...
or imperfective aspectImperfective aspectThe imperfective is a grammatical aspect used to describe a situation viewed with internal structure, such as ongoing, habitual, repeated, and similar semantic roles, whether that situation occurs in the past, present, or future...
(distinguished only in the past tense as preteritePreteriteThe preterite is the grammatical tense expressing actions that took place or were completed in the past...
or imperfect). - Voice: activeActive voiceActive voice is a grammatical voice common in many of the world's languages. It is the unmarked voice for clauses featuring a transitive verb in nominative–accusative languages, including English and most other Indo-European languages....
or passivePassive voicePassive voice is a grammatical voice common in many of the world's languages. Passive is used in a clause whose subject expresses the theme or patient of the main verb. That is, the subject undergoes an action or has its state changed. A sentence whose theme is marked as grammatical subject is...
.
The modern Spanish verb system has 14 distinct complete paradigms (i.e. sets of forms for each combination of tense and mood), plus one incomplete paradigm (the imperative), as well as three non-temporal forms
Non-finite verb
In linguistics, a non-finite verb is a verb form that is not limited by a subject and, more generally, is not fully inflected by categories that are marked inflectionally in language, such as tense, aspect, mood, number, gender, and person...
(infinitive, gerund, and past participle).
The fourteen regular tenses are also subdivided into seven simple tenses and seven compound tenses (also known as the perfect). The seven compound tenses are formed with the auxiliary verb
Auxiliary verb
In linguistics, an auxiliary verb is a verb that gives further semantic or syntactic information about a main or full verb. In English, the extra meaning provided by an auxiliary verb alters the basic meaning of the main verb to make it have one or more of the following functions: passive voice,...
haber followed by the past participle. Verbs can be used in other forms, such as the present progressive, but in grammar treatises that is not usually considered a special tense but just one of the periphrastic
Periphrasis
In linguistics, periphrasis is a device by which a grammatical category or grammatical relationship is expressed by a free morpheme , instead of being shown by inflection or derivation...
verbal constructions.
In Old Spanish
Old Spanish language
Old Spanish, also known as Old Castilian or Mediaeval Spanish , is an early form of the Spanish language that was spoken on the Iberian Peninsula from the tenth century until roughly the beginning of the fifteenth century, before a consonantic readjustment gave rise to the evolution of modern...
there were two tenses (simple and compound future subjunctive) that are virtually obsolete today.
Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
verb conjugation is divided in four categories known as mood
Grammatical mood
In linguistics, grammatical mood is a grammatical feature of verbs, used to signal modality. That is, it is the use of verbal inflections that allow speakers to express their attitude toward what they are saying...
s: indicative, subjunctive
Subjunctive mood
In grammar, the subjunctive mood is a verb mood typically used in subordinate clauses to express various states of irreality such as wish, emotion, possibility, judgment, opinion, necessity, or action that has not yet occurred....
, imperative
Imperative mood
The imperative mood expresses commands or requests as a grammatical mood. These commands or requests urge the audience to act a certain way. It also may signal a prohibition, permission, or any other kind of exhortation.- Morphology :...
, and the traditionally so-called infinitive mood (newer grammars in Spanish call it formas no personales, "non-personal forms"). This fourth category contains the three non-finite
Non-finite verb
In linguistics, a non-finite verb is a verb form that is not limited by a subject and, more generally, is not fully inflected by categories that are marked inflectionally in language, such as tense, aspect, mood, number, gender, and person...
forms that every verb has: an infinitive
Infinitive
In grammar, infinitive is the name for certain verb forms that exist in many languages. In the usual description of English, the infinitive of a verb is its basic form with or without the particle to: therefore, do and to do, be and to be, and so on are infinitives...
, a gerund
Gerund
In linguistics* As applied to English, it refers to the usage of a verb as a noun ....
, and a past participle (more exactly a passive perfect participle). The past participle can agree for number and gender just as an adjective
Adjective
In grammar, an adjective is a 'describing' word; the main syntactic role of which is to qualify a noun or noun phrase, giving more information about the object signified....
, giving it four possible forms.
There is also a form traditionally known as the present participle (e.g. cantante, durmiente), but this is generally considered a separate word derived
Derivation (linguistics)
In linguistics, derivation is the process of forming a new word on the basis of an existing word, e.g. happi-ness and un-happy from happy, or determination from determine...
from the verb, rather than an inherent inflection
Inflection
In grammar, inflection or inflexion is the modification of a word to express different grammatical categories such as tense, grammatical mood, grammatical voice, aspect, person, number, gender and case...
of the verb, because (1) not every verb has this form, and (2) the way in which the meaning of the form is related to that of the verb stem is not predictable. Some present participles function mainly as nouns (typically, but not always, denoting a doer
Agent noun
In linguistics, an agent noun is a word that is derived from another word denoting an action, and that identifies an entity that does that action. For example, "driver" is an agent noun formed from the verb "drive". The endings "-er", "-or", and "-ist" are commonly used in English to form agent...
of the action, such as amante, cantante, estudiante), while others have a mainly adjectival function (abundante, dominante, sonriente), and still others can be used as either a noun or an adjective (corriente, dependiente). Unlike the gerund, the present participle takes the -s ending for agreement in the plural.
Many of the most frequent verbs are irregular. The rest fall into one of three regular conjugations, which are classified according to whether their infinitive ends in -ar, -er, or -ir. (The vowel in the ending — a, e, or i — is called the thematic vowel.) The -ar verbs are the most numerous and the most regular; moreover, new verbs usually adopt the -ar form. The -er and -ir verbs are fewer, and they include more irregular verbs. There are also subclasses of semi-regular verbs that show vowel alternation conditioned by stress. See "Spanish irregular verbs
Spanish irregular verbs
Spanish verbs are a complex area of Spanish grammar, with many combinations of tenses, aspects and moods . While conjugation rules are relatively straightforward, a large number of verbs are irregular. Among these, some fall into more-or-less defined deviant patterns, while others are uniquely...
".
See Spanish conjugation
Spanish conjugation
This article presents a set of paradigms — that is, conjugation tables — of Spanish verbs, including examples of regular verbs and some of the most common irregular verbs...
for conjugation tables of regular verbs and some irregular verbs.
Accidents of a Verb
A verbal accident is defined as one of the changes of form that a verb can undergo. Spanish verbs have five (5) accidents. Every verb changes according to the following:Person and number
Spanish verbs are conjugated in three persons, each having a singular and a plural form. In some varieties of Spanish, such as the one in Río de la Plata RegionRioplatense Spanish
Rioplatense Spanish or River Plate Spanish is a dialectal variant of the Spanish language spoken mainly in the areas in and around the Río de la Plata basin of Argentina and Uruguay, and also in Rio Grande do Sul, although features of the dialect are shared with the varieties of Spanish spoken...
, a special form of the second person
Voseo
Voseo is the use of the second person singular pronoun vos in many dialects of Spanish. In dialects that have it, it is used either instead of tú, or alongside it....
is used.
Since Spanish is a "pro-drop language
Pro-drop language
A pro-drop language is a language in which certain classes of pronouns may be omitted when they are in some sense pragmatically inferable...
", the subject pronoun is often omitted.
First Person
The grammatical first person refers to the speaker ('I'). The first person plural refers to the speaker together with at least one other person.- (Yo) hablo. 'I speak.'
- (Nosotros) hablamos. 'We speak.' (Used when referring to a group that includes at least one male.)
- (Nosotras) hablamos. 'We speak.' (Used when referring to a group that is composed entirely of females.)
Second person
The grammatical second person refers to the addressee, the receiver of the communication ('you'). Spanish has different pronouns (and verb forms) for 'you', depending on the relationship, familiar or formal, between speaker and addressee.Singular Forms
- (Tú) hablas. Familiar singular. Used when addressing someone who is of close affinity: a member of the family, a close friend, a child, a pet. This is also the form used to address the deityDeityA deity is a recognized preternatural or supernatural immortal being, who may be thought of as holy, divine, or sacred, held in high regard, and respected by believers....
. - (VosVoseoVoseo is the use of the second person singular pronoun vos in many dialects of Spanish. In dialects that have it, it is used either instead of tú, or alongside it....
) hablás. Familiar singular. Generally used the same as tú. Its use is restricted to some areas of Hispanic AmericaHispanic AmericaHispanic America or Spanish America is the region comprising the American countries inhabited by Spanish-speaking populations.These countries have significant commonalities with each other and with Spain, whose colonies they formerly were...
. In areas where tú and vos are both used, vos is used to denote a closer affinity. - (Usted) habla. Formal singular. Used when addressing a person respectfully or addressing a person of some social distance. Although this is a second-person pronoun, it uses third-person verb forms (and object pronouns, and possessives) because it developed as a contraction of vuestra merced ('your mercy').
Plural Forms
- (Vosotros) habláis. Used when addressing people who are of close affinity: members of the family, close friends, children, pets. This form is only used in SpainSpainSpain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
, the Philippines, and Equatorial GuineaEquatoguinean SpanishEquatoguinean Spanish is the variety of Spanish spoken in Equatorial Guinea. This is the only Spanish variety that is official in Sub-Saharan Africa. It is spoken by about 90% of the population, estimated at 1,170,308 for the year 2010 , all of them second-language speakers...
. - (Ustedes) hablan. Used when addressing people respectfully or addressing people of some social distance. Like usted, it uses third-person verb forms, for the same reasons. In Spanish America, the form ustedes serves as the second-person plural for both familiar and formal situations.
Third Person
The grammatical third person refers to a person or thing other than the speaker or the addressee.Singular Forms
- (Él) habla. 'He/it speaks.' Used for a male person or a thing of masculineGrammatical genderGrammatical gender is defined linguistically as a system of classes of nouns which trigger specific types of inflections in associated words, such as adjectives, verbs and others. For a system of noun classes to be a gender system, every noun must belong to one of the classes and there should be...
(grammatical) gender. - (Ella) habla. 'She/it speaks.' Used for a female person or a thing of feminineGrammatical genderGrammatical gender is defined linguistically as a system of classes of nouns which trigger specific types of inflections in associated words, such as adjectives, verbs and others. For a system of noun classes to be a gender system, every noun must belong to one of the classes and there should be...
(grammatical) gender.
Plural Forms
- (Ellos) hablan. 'They speak.' Used for a group of people or things that includes at least one person or thing of masculineGrammatical genderGrammatical gender is defined linguistically as a system of classes of nouns which trigger specific types of inflections in associated words, such as adjectives, verbs and others. For a system of noun classes to be a gender system, every noun must belong to one of the classes and there should be...
(grammatical) gender. - (Ellas) hablan. 'They speak.' Used for a group of people or things that are all of feminineGrammatical genderGrammatical gender is defined linguistically as a system of classes of nouns which trigger specific types of inflections in associated words, such as adjectives, verbs and others. For a system of noun classes to be a gender system, every noun must belong to one of the classes and there should be...
(grammatical) gender.
Mood
Grammatical mood is one of a set of distinctive forms that are used to signal modality. In Spanish, every verb has forms in three moods.- Indicative mood: The indicative mood, or evidential mood, is used for factual statements and positive beliefs. The Spanish conditional — although semantically it expresses the dependency of one action or proposition upon another — is generally considered a "tense" of the indicative mood, because, syntactically, it can appear in an independent clause.
- Subjunctive mood: The subjunctive mood expresses an imagined or desired action in the past, present or future.
- Imperative mood: The imperative mood expresses direct commands, requests, and prohibitions. In Spanish, using the imperative mood may sound blunt or even rude, so it is often used with care.
Verbal Tense
The tense of a verb indicates the time when the action occurs. It may be in the past, present or future.Impersonal or Non-Finite Forms of the Verb
The Spanish non-finiteNon-finite verb
In linguistics, a non-finite verb is a verb form that is not limited by a subject and, more generally, is not fully inflected by categories that are marked inflectionally in language, such as tense, aspect, mood, number, gender, and person...
verb forms refer to an action or state without indicating the time or the person. Spanish has three impersonal forms:
Infinitive
The infinitive is generally the form that is found in dictionaries. This form corresponds to the English "base-form" or "dictionary form". The ending of the infinitive is the basis of the names given in English to the three form classes of Spanish verbs:- "-ar verbs" (primera conjugación).
- Examples: hablar ('to speak'); cantar ('to sing'); bailar ('to dance').
- "-er verbs" (segunda conjugación).
- Examples: beber ('to drink'); leer ('to read'); comprender ('to understand').
- "-ir verbs" (tercera conjugación).
- Examples: vivir ('to live'); sentir ('to feel'); escribir ('to write').
Gerund
Although, in English grammar, "gerundGerund
In linguistics* As applied to English, it refers to the usage of a verb as a noun ....
" refers to the -ing form of a verb used as a noun, in Spanish the term refers to a verb form that behaves more like an adverb.
- For
- Examples:
- For
- Examples:
- For
- Examples:
Past participle
The past participle corresponds to the English -en or -ed form:- For
- Examples:
- For
- Examples:
- For
- Examples:
The past participle, ending invariably in -o, is used following a form of the auxiliary verb
Auxiliary verb
In linguistics, an auxiliary verb is a verb that gives further semantic or syntactic information about a main or full verb. In English, the extra meaning provided by an auxiliary verb alters the basic meaning of the main verb to make it have one or more of the following functions: passive voice,...
haber to form the compound or perfect: (Yo) he hablado ('I have spoken'), (Ellos) habían hablado ('They had spoken'), etc.
When the past participle is used as an adjective, it agrees with the noun that it modifies, e.g. una lengua hablada en España ('a language spoken in Spain').
The past participle, similarly agreeing with the subject of ser or estar, can be used to form, respectively, the "true" passive voice
Passive voice
Passive voice is a grammatical voice common in many of the world's languages. Passive is used in a clause whose subject expresses the theme or patient of the main verb. That is, the subject undergoes an action or has its state changed. A sentence whose theme is marked as grammatical subject is...
(e.g. Los platos fueron preparados en la mañana 'The dishes were prepared in the morning') or the "passive of result" (e.g. Los platos ya están preparados 'The dishes are already prepared').
Voice
In grammar, the voice of a verb describes the relationship between the action (or state) that the verb expresses and the participants identified by its arguments (subjectSubject (grammar)
The subject is one of the two main constituents of a clause, according to a tradition that can be tracked back to Aristotle and that is associated with phrase structure grammars; the other constituent is the predicate. According to another tradition, i.e...
, object
Object (grammar)
An object in grammar is part of a sentence, and often part of the predicate. It denotes somebody or something involved in the subject's "performance" of the verb. Basically, it is what or whom the verb is acting upon...
, etc.).
When the subject is the agent
Agent (grammar)
In linguistics, a grammatical agent is the cause or initiator of an event. Agent is the name of the thematic role...
or doer of the action, the verb is in the active voice. When the subject is the patient
Patient (grammar)
In linguistics, a grammatical patient, also called the target or undergoer, is the participant of a situation upon whom an action is carried out. A patient as differentiated from a theme must undergo a change in state. A theme is denoted by a stative verb, where a patient is denoted by a dynamic...
, target or undergoer of the action, it is said to be in the passive voice.
Verbal Aspect
Verbal aspect marks whether an action is completed (perfect), a completed whole (perfective), or not yet completed (imperfective).- Perfect: In Spanish, verbs that are conjugated with haber ('to have [done something]') are in the perfect aspectPerfect aspectIn linguistics, the perfect , occasionally called the retrospective to avoid confusion with the perfective aspect, is a combination of aspect and tense that calls a listener's attention to the consequences, at some time of perspective , generated by a prior situation, rather than just to the...
. - Perfective: In Spanish, verbs in the preterite are in the perfective aspectPerfective aspectThe perfective aspect , sometimes called the aoristic aspect, is a grammatical aspect used to describe a situation viewed as a simple whole, whether that situation occurs in the past, present, or future. The perfective aspect is equivalent to the aspectual component of past perfective forms...
. - Imperfective: In Spanish, the present, the imperfect, and the future tenses are in the imperfective aspectImperfective aspectThe imperfective is a grammatical aspect used to describe a situation viewed with internal structure, such as ongoing, habitual, repeated, and similar semantic roles, whether that situation occurs in the past, present, or future...
.
Verbal Conjugations in Spanish
- See Spanish conjugationSpanish conjugationThis article presents a set of paradigms — that is, conjugation tables — of Spanish verbs, including examples of regular verbs and some of the most common irregular verbs...
for a set of conjugation tables.
In this page, verb conjugation is illustrated with the verb hablar ('to talk, to speak').
The indicative
The indicative mood has five simple tenses, and each one of them has a corresponding perfect form. In older classifications, the conditional tenses were considered part of an independent conditional mood. Continuous forms (such as estoy hablando) are usually not considered part of the verbal paradigm, though they often appear in books addressed to English-speakers who are learning Spanish. Note that modern grammatical studies would count only the simple forms as "tenses", and the other forms as products of tenses and aspectsGrammatical aspect
In linguistics, the grammatical aspect of a verb is a grammatical category that defines the temporal flow in a given action, event, or state, from the point of view of the speaker...
.
Simple tenses (tiempos simples)
The simple tenses are the forms of the verb without the use of a modal or helping verb. The following are the simple tenses and their uses:Present (presente)
The present tense is formed with the endings shown below:
| Pronoun subject | -ar verbs (primera conjugación) | -er verbs (segunda conjugación) | -ir verbs (tercera conjugación) |
|---|---|---|---|
| yo | -o | -o | -o |
| tú | -as | -es | -es |
| vos | -ás | -és | -ís |
| él / ella / usted | -a | -e | -e |
| nosotros / nosotras | -amos | -emos | -imos |
| vosotros / vosotras | -áis | -éis | -ís |
| ellos / ellas / ustedes | -an | -en | -en |
Uses of the present indicative
This tense is used to indicate the following:
- Actual Present - This expresses an action that is being done at the very moment.
- María habla con Juan por teléfono. ('María is speaking with Juan on the telephone').
- Habitual Present - This expresses an action that is regularly and habitually being done.
- María llega al campo todos los sábados. ('María goes to the countryside every Saturday.')
- Atemporal Present - This expresses general truth that are not bounded by time.
- Dos más dos son cuatro. ('Two plus two equals four.')
- Los planetas giran alrededor del sol. ('The planets revolve around the sun.')
- Historical Present - This expresses an action that happened in the past but accepted as a historical fact.
- Fernando Magallanes descubre las Filipinas el 15 de marzo de 1521. ('Ferdinand Magellan discovered the Philippines on 15 March 1521.')
- An immediate future - This expresses an action that will be done in the very near future with a high degree of certainty.
- Este junio, viajo a España. ('This June, I am travelling to Spain.')
- Imperative Value - In some areas of Spain and Hispanic AmericaHispanic AmericaHispanic America or Spanish America is the region comprising the American countries inhabited by Spanish-speaking populations.These countries have significant commonalities with each other and with Spain, whose colonies they formerly were...
, the present can be used (with an exclamatory tone) with an imperative value.
- ¡Ahora te vas y pides disculpas al señor Ruiz! ('Now go and ask pardon from Mr. Ruiz!')
Imperfect (pretérito imperfecto)
The imperfect is formed with the endings shown below:
| Pronoun subject | -ar verbs | -er verbs | -ir verbs |
|---|---|---|---|
| yo | -aba | -ía | -ía |
| tú / vos | -abas | -ías | -ías |
| él / ella / usted | -aba | -ía | -ía |
| nosotros / nosotras | -ábamos | -íamos | -íamos |
| vosotros / vosotras | -abais | -íais | -íais |
| ellos / ellas / ustedes | -aban | -ían | -ían |
Uses of the imperfect
This tense is used to express the following:
- A habitual action in the past - Expresses an action that done habitually in an indefinite past. This use does not focus on when the action ended.
- Cuando era pequeño, hablaba español con mi abuela. ('When I was young, I used to speak Spanish with my grandmother.')
- An action interrupted by another action - Expresses an action that was in progress when another action took place.
- Tomábamos la cena cuando Eduardo entró. ('We were having dinner when Eduardo came in.')
- General description of the past - Expresses a past setting, as, for example, the background for a narrative.
- Todo estaba tranquilo esa noche. Juan Eduardo miraba el partido de fútbol con su amigo Alejandro. Comían unas porciones de pizza. ('Everything was calm that night. Juan Eduardo was watching the football match with his friend Alejandro. They were eating some slices of pizza.')
Preterite (pretérito indefinido)
The preterite is formed with the endings shown below:
| Pronoun subject | -ar verbs | -er verbs | -ir verbs |
|---|---|---|---|
| yo | -é | -í | -í |
| tú | -aste(s) | -iste(s) | -iste(s) |
| vos | -aste(s) | -iste(s) | -iste(s) |
| él / ella / usted | -ó | -ió | -ió |
| nosotros / nosotras | -amos | -imos | -imos |
| vosotros / vosotras | -asteis | -isteis | -isteis |
| ellos / ellas / ustedes | -aron | -ieron | -ieron |
Uses of the preterite
This tense is used to express the following:
- An action that was done in the past - Expresses an action that is viewed as a completed event. This use is often accompanied by adverbial expressions of time such as ayer, anteayer, la semana pasada
- Ayer, encontré la flor que tú me diste. ('Yesterday, I found the flower that you gave me.')
- An action that interrupts another action - Expresses an event that happened (and was completed) while another action was taking place.
- Tomábamos la cena cuando entró Eduardo. ('We were having dinner when Eduardo came in.')
- A general truth - Expresses a past relationship that is viewed as finished.
- Las Filipinas fueron parte del Imperio Español. ('The Philippines were part of the Spanish Empire.')
Future (futuro simple or futuro imperfecto)
The future tense uses the entire infinitive as a stem. The following endings are attached to it:
| Pronoun subject | -ar verbs | -er verbs | - ir verbs |
|---|---|---|---|
| yo | -é | -é | -é |
| tú / vos | -ás | -ás | -ás |
| él / ella / usted | -á | -á | -á |
| nosotros / nosotras | -emos | -emos | -emos |
| vosotros / vosotras | -éis | -éis | -éis |
| ellos / ellas / ustedes | -án | -án | -án |
Uses of the future
This tense is used to express the following:
- A future action - Expresses an action that will be done in the future.
- El año próximo, visitaré Buenos Aires. ('Next year, I shall/will visit Buenos Aires.')
- Uncertainty or Probability - Expresses inference, rather than direct knowledge.
- ¿Quién estará tocando a la puerta? — Será Fabio. ('Who (do you suppose) is knocking at the door? — It must be Fabio.' or 'Who will that be knocking at the door? — That'll be Fabio.' as this use of the future tense also occurs in English, see Future Tense, Relation among tense, aspect, and modality implications of "will" and "going to")
- Command, prohibition or obligation
- No llevarás a ese hombre a mi casa. ('Do not bring that man to my house.' or more accurately 'You will not bring that man to my house.' as this form is also used to assert a command, prohibition or obligation in English)
- Courtesy
- ¿Te importará encender la televisión? ('Would you mind turning on the television?')
Compound tenses (tiempos compuestos)
All the compound tenses are formed with haber followed by the past participle of the main verb. Haber changes its form for person, number, etc., while the past participle remains invariable, ending with -o regardless of the number or gender of the subject.Present perfect (
pretérito perfecto)In the present perfect, the present indicative of haber is used as a modal, and it is followed by the past participle of the main verb. In most of Spanish America, this tense has virtually the same use as the English present perfect.
- E.g.:
In most of Spain the tense has an additional use, to express a past action or event that is contained in an unfinished period of time, or that has effects in the present:
Past perfect or pluperfect (
pretérito pluscuamperfecto)In this tense, the imperfect form of haber is used as a modal, and it is followed by the past participle of the main verb.
- (yo) había + past participle
- (tú) habías + past participle
- (él / ella / usted) había + past participle
- (nosotros / nosotras) habíamos + past participle
- (vosotros / vosotras) habíais + past participle
- (ellos / ellas / ustedes) habían + past participle
Uses
This form is used to express the following:
- A past action that occurred prior to another past action.
- e.g.: Yo había esperado tres horas cuando él llegó. ('I had been waiting for three hours when he arrived.')
Past anterior (pretérito anterior)
This tense combines the preterit form of haber with the past participle of the main verb. It is very rare in spoken Spanish, but it is sometimes used in formal written language, almost entirely limited to subordinate (temporal, adverbial) clauses — thus it is usually introduced by temporal conjunctions such as cuando, apenas, en cuanto, etc. It is used to express an action that ended immediately before another past action.
- E.g.:
This tense is often replaced by either the preterit or the pluperfect, with the same meaning.
- E.g.:
Future perfect (
futuro compuesto)The future perfect is formed with the future indicative form of haber followed by the past participle of the main verb.
- e.g.:
This tense is used to indicate a future action that will be finished right before another future action.
- e.g.:
Simple conditional (
condicional simple or pospretérito) As in the case of the future tense, the conditional uses the entire infinitive as a stem. The following endings are attached to it:| Pronoun subject | -ar verbs | -er verbs | -ir verbs |
|---|---|---|---|
| yo | -ía | -ía | -ía |
| tú / vos | -ías | -ías | -ías |
| él / ella / usted | -ía | -ía | -ía |
| nosotros / nosotras | -íamos | -íamos | -íamos |
| vosotros / vosotras | -íais | -íais | -íais |
| ellos / ellas / ustedes | -ían | -ían | -ían |
Uses of the conditional
This tense is used to express the following:
- Courtesy - Using this mood softens a request, making it more polite.
- E.g.: Señor, ¿podría darme una copa de vino? ('Sir, could you give me a glass of wine?')
- Polite expression of a desire (using
- E.g.:
- In a
- Speculation about past events (the speaker's knowledge is indirect, unconfirmed, or approximating).
- E.g.:
- A future action in relation to the past - Expresses future action that was imagined in the past.
- E.g.:
- A suggestion.
- E.g.:
Conditional perfect or compound conditional (
condicional compuesto or antepospretérito) This form refers to a hypothetical past action.- E.g.:
The imperative
The imperative mood has three specific forms, corresponding to the pronouns: tú, vos and vosotros (tú and vos are used in different regional dialects, vosotros only in Spain); these forms are only used in positive expressions, not the negative ones. The subjunctive supplements the imperative in all other cases (the negative, and the conjugations corresponding to the pronouns nosotros, él/ella, usted, ellos/ellas and ustedes).The imperative can also be expressed in three other ways:
- Using the present or future indicative to form an emphatic command:
Affirmative imperative (
imperativo positivo) The positive form of the imperative mood in regular verbs is formed by removing the infinitive ending and adding the following:| Pronoun subject | -ar verbs | -er verbs | -ir verbs |
|---|---|---|---|
| tú | -a | -e | -e |
| vos | -á | -é | -í |
| usted | -e | -a | -a |
| nosotros / nosotras | -emos | -amos | -amos |
| vosotros / vosotras | -ad (-ar) | -ed (-er) | -id (-ir) |
| ustedes | -en | -an | -an |
Negative imperative (
imperativo negativo) For the negative imperative, the adverb no is placed before the verb, and the following endings are attached to the stem:| Pronoun subject | -ar verbs | -er verbs | -ir verbs |
|---|---|---|---|
| tú | -es | -as | -as |
| vos | -á | -é | -í |
| usted | -e | -a | -a |
| nosotros / nosotras | -emos | -amos | -amos |
| vosotros / vosotras | -éis | -áis | -áis |
| ustedes | -en | -an | -an |
The singular imperative tú coincides with the third-person singular of the indicative for all but a few irregular verbs. The plural vosotros is always the same as the infinitive, but with a final -d instead of an -r in the formal, written form; the informal spoken form is the same as the infinitive. The singular vos drops the -r of the infinitive, requiring a written accent to indicate the stress. These actual imperative forms are in bold to distinguish them from those that are really just subjunctive forms. Note that in the imperative, the affirmative 2nd-person forms differ from its negative counterparts; this is the only case of a difference in conjugation between affirmative and negative in Spanish.
Beginner's rule:
- To conjugate something that is positive in the imperative mood for the
The Positive Command Forms of the verb comer
| Subject | Command | Gloss | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|
| tú | ¡Come! | 'Eat!' | General form of the informal singular. |
| vos | ¡Comé! | 'Eat!' | Used in the Ríoplatense Dialect Rioplatense Spanish Rioplatense Spanish or River Plate Spanish is a dialectal variant of the Spanish language spoken mainly in the areas in and around the Río de la Plata basin of Argentina and Uruguay, and also in Rio Grande do Sul, although features of the dialect are shared with the varieties of Spanish spoken... and much of Central America; not accepted by the Real Academia Española Real Academia Española The Royal Spanish Academy is the official royal institution responsible for regulating the Spanish language. It is based in Madrid, Spain, but is affiliated with national language academies in twenty-one other hispanophone nations through the Association of Spanish Language Academies... . |
| usted | ¡Coma! | 'Eat!' | Formal singular. |
| nosotros / nosotras | ¡Comamos! | 'Let us eat!' | Used as an invitation. |
| vosotros / vosotras | ¡Comed! | 'Eat!' | normative Linguistic prescription In linguistics, prescription denotes normative practices on such aspects of language use as spelling, grammar, pronunciation, and syntax. It includes judgments on what usages are socially proper and politically correct... plural for informal address, though its use is becoming rare. |
| vosotros / vosotras | ¡Comer! | Eat! | Common plural used in Spain for informal address, though not admitted by the Real Academia Española Real Academia Española The Royal Spanish Academy is the official royal institution responsible for regulating the Spanish language. It is based in Madrid, Spain, but is affiliated with national language academies in twenty-one other hispanophone nations through the Association of Spanish Language Academies... . |
| ustedes | ¡Coman! | 'Eat!' | General plural formal command; used also as familiar plural command in Spanish America. |
Negative command forms of the verb comer
| Subject | Command | Gloss | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|
| tú | ¡No comas! | Do not eat! | General form of the Informal Singular |
| vos | ¡No comas! | Do not eat! | Used in the voseo Voseo Voseo is the use of the second person singular pronoun vos in many dialects of Spanish. In dialects that have it, it is used either instead of tú, or alongside it.... areas; the only form accepted by the Real Academia Española Real Academia Española The Royal Spanish Academy is the official royal institution responsible for regulating the Spanish language. It is based in Madrid, Spain, but is affiliated with national language academies in twenty-one other hispanophone nations through the Association of Spanish Language Academies... |
| vos | ¡No comás! | Do not eat! | Used by the general voseante Voseo Voseo is the use of the second person singular pronoun vos in many dialects of Spanish. In dialects that have it, it is used either instead of tú, or alongside it.... population; not accepted by the Real Academia Española Real Academia Española The Royal Spanish Academy is the official royal institution responsible for regulating the Spanish language. It is based in Madrid, Spain, but is affiliated with national language academies in twenty-one other hispanophone nations through the Association of Spanish Language Academies... |
| usted | ¡No coma! | Do not eat! | Formal Singular |
| nosotros / nosotras | ¡No comamos! | Let us not eat! | Used as a suggestion |
| vosotros / vosotras | ¡No comáis! | Do not eat! | Informal Plural in Spain |
| ustedes | ¡No coman! | Do not eat! | General Negative Plural Formal Command; Used also as Familiar Plural Command in Hispanic America Hispanic America Hispanic America or Spanish America is the region comprising the American countries inhabited by Spanish-speaking populations.These countries have significant commonalities with each other and with Spain, whose colonies they formerly were... |
The pronominal verb comerse
| Subject | Command | Gloss | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|
| tú | ¡Cómete ...! | Eat! | Used emphatically |
| vos | ¡Comete ...! | Eat! | Used in the Ríoplatense Dialect Rioplatense Spanish Rioplatense Spanish or River Plate Spanish is a dialectal variant of the Spanish language spoken mainly in the areas in and around the Río de la Plata basin of Argentina and Uruguay, and also in Rio Grande do Sul, although features of the dialect are shared with the varieties of Spanish spoken... ; not accepted by the Real Academia Española Real Academia Española The Royal Spanish Academy is the official royal institution responsible for regulating the Spanish language. It is based in Madrid, Spain, but is affiliated with national language academies in twenty-one other hispanophone nations through the Association of Spanish Language Academies... |
| usted | ¡Cómase ...! | Eat! | Formal Singular |
| nosotros / nosotras | ¡Comámonos ...! | Let us eat! | the original -s ending is dropped before the pronoun nos is affixed to prevent cacophony or dissonant sound |
| vosotros / vosotras | ¡Comeos ...! | Eat! | The original -d ending is dropped before the pronoun os is affixed to prevent cacophony or dissonant sound |
| vosotros / vosotras | ¡Comeros ...! | Eat! | Colloquial plural used in Spain for informal address though not admitted by the Real Academia Española Real Academia Española The Royal Spanish Academy is the official royal institution responsible for regulating the Spanish language. It is based in Madrid, Spain, but is affiliated with national language academies in twenty-one other hispanophone nations through the Association of Spanish Language Academies... |
| ustedes | ¡Cómanse ...! | Eat! | General Plural Formal Command; Used also as Familiar Plural Command in Spanish America Hispanic America Hispanic America or Spanish America is the region comprising the American countries inhabited by Spanish-speaking populations.These countries have significant commonalities with each other and with Spain, whose colonies they formerly were... |
The verb ir
| Subject Pronoun | Imperative Form | Gloss | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|
| tú | ¡Ve! | Go! | General form of the Singular Imperative |
| vos | ¡Andá! | Go! | This is used because the general norm in the voseo Voseo Voseo is the use of the second person singular pronoun vos in many dialects of Spanish. In dialects that have it, it is used either instead of tú, or alongside it.... imperative is to drop the final '-d' and add an accent. However, if we do this, the form will be 'í'. |
| usted | ¡Vaya! | Go! | Same as the subjunctive form |
| nosotros / nosotras | ¡Vamos! | Let's go! | More common form |
| nosotros / nosotras | ¡Vayamos! | Let's go! | Prescribed form, but rarely used |
| vosotros / vosotras | ¡Id! | Go! | Prescribed form |
| vosotros / vosotras | ¡Ir! | Go! | Colloquial form |
| ustedes | ¡Vayan! | Go! | Formal Plural; also Familiar in Hispanic America Hispanic America Hispanic America or Spanish America is the region comprising the American countries inhabited by Spanish-speaking populations.These countries have significant commonalities with each other and with Spain, whose colonies they formerly were... |
The pronominal verb irse is irregular in the second person plural normative form, because it does not drop the -d or the -r:
Real Academia Española
The Royal Spanish Academy is the official royal institution responsible for regulating the Spanish language. It is based in Madrid, Spain, but is affiliated with national language academies in twenty-one other hispanophone nations through the Association of Spanish Language Academies...
but extremely uncommon)
Real Academia Española
The Royal Spanish Academy is the official royal institution responsible for regulating the Spanish language. It is based in Madrid, Spain, but is affiliated with national language academies in twenty-one other hispanophone nations through the Association of Spanish Language Academies...
)
The subjunctive
The subjunctive mood has a separate conjugation table with fewer tenses. It is used, almost exclusively in subordinate clauses, to express the speaker's opinion or judgment, such as doubts, possibilities, emotions, and events that may or may not occur.Present subjunctive (
presente de subjuntivo)The present subjunctive of regular verbs is formed with the endings shown below:
| Pronoun subject | -ar verbs | -er verbs | - ir verbs |
|---|---|---|---|
| yo | -e | -a | -a |
| tú | -es | -as | -as |
| vos | -és | -ás | -ás |
| él / ella / usted | -e | -a | -a |
| nosotros / nosotras | -emos | -amos | -amos |
| vosotros / vosotras | -éis | -áis | -áis |
| ellos / ellas / ustedes | -en | -an | -an |
Imperfect subjunctive (
imperfecto de subjuntivo)The imperfect subjunctive can be formed with either of two sets of endings: the "-ra endings" or the "-se endings", as shown below. In Spanish America, the -ra forms are virtually the only forms used, to the exclusion of the -se forms. In Spain, both sets of forms are used, but the -ra forms predominate there also.
Imperfect subjunctive,
-ra forms| Pronoun subject | -ar verbs | -er verbs | -ir verbs |
|---|---|---|---|
| yo | -ara | -iera | -iera |
| tú / vos | -aras | -ieras | -ieras |
| él / ella / usted | -ara | -iera | -iera |
| nosotros / nosotras | -áramos | -iéramos | -iéramos |
| vosotros / vosotras | -arais | -ierais | -ierais |
| ellos / ellas / ustedes | -aran | -ieran | -ieran |
Imperfect subjunctive,
-se forms| Pronoun subject | -ar verbs | -er verbs | -ir verbs |
|---|---|---|---|
| yo | -ase | -iese | -iese |
| tú | -ases | -ieses | -ieses |
| él / ella / usted | -ase | -iese | -iese |
| nosotros / nosotras | -ásemos | -iésemos | -iésemos |
| vosotros / vosotras | -aseis | -ieseis | -ieseis |
| ellos / ellas / ustedes | -asen | -iesen | -iesen |
Future subjunctive (
futuro (simple) de subjuntivo)This tense is no longer used in the modern language, except in legal language and some fixed expressions. The following endings are attached to the preterite stem:
| Pronoun subject | -ar verbs | -er verbs | -ir verbs |
|---|---|---|---|
| yo | -are | -iere | -iere |
| tú / vos | -ares | -ieres | -ieres |
| él / ella / usted | -are | -iere | -iere |
| nosotros / nosotras | -áremos | -iéremos | -iéremos |
| vosotros / vosotras | -areis | -iereis | -iereis |
| ellos / ellas / ustedes | -aren | -ieren | -ieren |
- E.g.:
Compound tenses (
tiempos compuestos) In the subjunctive mood, the subjunctive forms of the verb haber are used with the past participle of the main verb.Present perfect subjunctive (
pretérito perfecto de subjuntivo)- E.g.:
Pluperfect subjunctive (
pluscuamperfecto de subjuntivo)- E.g.:
Future perfect subjunctive (
futuro compuesto de subjuntivo)Like the simple future subjunctive, this tense is no longer used in the modern language.
- E.g.:
Observations:
- The present subjunctive is formed from the stem of the first person present indicative of a verb. Therefore, for an irregular verb like
Continuous Tenses
In Spanish grammars, "continuous tenses" are not formally recognized as in English. Though the imperfect expresses a relative continuity compared to the perfect (for example te esperaba 'I was waiting for you'), the continuity of an action is usually expressed by a verbal periphrasisPeriphrasis
In linguistics, periphrasis is a device by which a grammatical category or grammatical relationship is expressed by a free morpheme , instead of being shown by inflection or derivation...
(perífrasis verbal). For example: estoy leyendo 'I am reading'. However, one can also say sigo leyendo 'I am still reading'; voy leyendo 'I am slowly but surely reading'; ando leyendo 'I am going around reading', and others.
Irregular verbs
A considerable number of verbs change the vowel e in the stem to the diphthong ie, and the vowel o to ue. This happens when the stem vowel receives the stress. These verbs are referred to as stem-changing verbs. Examples include pensar 'to think' (pienso 'I think'), sentarse 'to sit' (me siento 'I sit'), empezar 'to begin' (empiezo 'I begin'), volver 'to return' (vuelvo 'I return'), and acostarse 'to go to bed' (me acuesto 'I go to bed').Virtually all verbs of the third conjugation (-ir), if they have -e- or -o- in their stem, undergo a vowel-raising change whereby e changes to i and o changes to u, in some of their forms (for details see Spanish irregular verbs
Spanish irregular verbs
Spanish verbs are a complex area of Spanish grammar, with many combinations of tenses, aspects and moods . While conjugation rules are relatively straightforward, a large number of verbs are irregular. Among these, some fall into more-or-less defined deviant patterns, while others are uniquely...
). Examples include pedir 'to ask for' (pide 'he/she asks for'), competir 'to compete' (compite 'he/she competes'), and derretirse 'to melt' (se derrite 'it melts').
The so-called "I-Go" verbs add a medial -g- in the first person singular, present tense (making the Yo [or I] form end in -go — for example, tener 'to have', tengo 'I have'; venir 'to come', vengo 'I come'). These verbs are often irregular in other forms as well.
Contrasting simple and continuous forms
There is no strict distinction between simple and continuous forms in Spanish as there is in English. In English, "I do" is one thing (a habit) and "I am doing" is another (current activity). In Spanish, hago can be either of the two, and estoy haciendo stresses the latter.Though not as strict as English, Spanish is stricter than French or German, which have no systematic distinction between the two concepts at all.
This optionally continuous meaning that can be underlined by using the continuous form is a feature of the present and imperfect. The preterite never has this meaning even in the continuous form, and the future has it only when it is in the continuous form.
Present
- ¿Qué haces? could be either "what do you do?" or "what are you doing?"
- ¿Qué estás haciendo? is only "what are you doing?"
Imperfect
- ¿Qué hacías? could be either "what did you use to do?" or "what were you doing?"
- ¿Qué estabas haciendo? is definitely only "what were you doing?"
Preterit
- ¿Qué hiciste? is "what did you do?"
- ¿Qué estuviste haciendo? is "what were you doing (all of that time?)"
Note that since the preterit by nature refers to an event seen as having a beginning and an end, and not as a context, the use of the continuous form of the verb only adds a feeling for the length of time spent on the action. The future has two main forms in Spanish, the imperfect (compound) future and the simple one. The difference between them is aspect. The compound future is done with the conjugated "ir" (means "to go", but it also means "will" in this case) plus the infinitive and, sometimes, with a present progressive verb added as well.
Future:
- ¿Qué vas a hacer?: is "what are you going to do?" (implies that it will be done again, as in a routine)
- ¿Qué vas a estar haciendo?: "what are you going to be doing?" (does not necessarily imply that it shall be done)
- ¿Qué harás? is "what will you do?" (will be completed immediately, or done just once)
- ¿Qué estarás haciendo? is "what will you be doing?"
Contrasting the present and the future
Both the present and the future can express future actions, the latter more explicitly so. There are also expressions that convey the future.- Mi padre llega mañana = "My father arrives tomorrow" (out of context, llega could mean both he is arriving now or he usually arrives)
- Mi padre estará llegando mañana = "My father will be arriving tomorrow"
- Mi padre va a llegar mañana = "My father is going to arrive tomorrow" (future with ir)
- Mi padre llegará mañana = "My father will arrive tomorrow" (future tense)
- Mi padre está a punto de llegar = "My father is about to arrive" (immediate future with estar a punto)
The future tense can also simply express guesses about the present and immediate future:
- ¿Qué hora es? Serán las tres = "What time is it?" "It is about three (but I have not checked)."
- ¿Quién llama a la puerta? Será José = "Who is at the door? It must be José"
The same is applied to imperfect and conditional:
- ¿Qué hora era? Serían las tres = "What time was it?" "It was about three (but I had not checked)."
- ¿Quién llamaba a la puerta? Sería José = "Who was at the door? It must have been José"
Studies have shown that Spanish-speaking children learn this use of the future tense before they learn to use it to express future events (the English future with "will" can also sometimes be used with this meaning). The other constructions detailed above are used instead. Indeed, in some areas such as Argentina and Uruguay, speakers hardly use the future tense to refer to the future.
The future tense of the subjunctive mood is also obsolete in practice. As of today, it is only found in legal documents and the like. In other contexts, the past subjunctive form always replaces it.
Fundamental meanings of the preterite and the imperfect
Spanish has two fundamental past tenses: the preterite and the imperfect. Strictly speaking, the difference between them is not tenseGrammatical tense
A tense is a grammatical category that locates a situation in time, to indicate when the situation takes place.Bernard Comrie, Aspect, 1976:6:...
but aspect
Grammatical aspect
In linguistics, the grammatical aspect of a verb is a grammatical category that defines the temporal flow in a given action, event, or state, from the point of view of the speaker...
in a manner that is similar to that of the Slavic languages. However, within Spanish grammar, they are customarily called tenses.
The difference between the preterite and the imperfect (and in certain cases, the perfect) is often hard to grasp for English speakers. English has just one past tense form, which can have aspect added to it by auxiliary verbs, but not in ways that reliably correspond to what occurs in Spanish.
The distinction between them does, however, correspond rather well to the distinctions in other Romance languages, between for example the French imparfait and passé simple / passé composé, or between the Italian imperfetto and passato remoto / passato prossimo.
The imperfect fundamentally presents an action or state as being a context, and is thus essentially descriptive. It does not present actions or states as having ends, and often does not present their beginnings either. Like the Slavic imperfective past, it tends to show actions that used to be done at some point, as in a routine. In this case, one would say "Yo jugaba" (I used to play), "Yo leía" (I used to read), or "Yo escribía" (I used to write).
The preterite (as well as the perfect, when applicable) fundamentally presents an action or state as being an event, and is thus essentially narrative. It presents actions or states as having beginnings and ends. This also bears resemblance to the Slavic perfective past, as these actions are usually viewed as done in one stroke. The corresponding preterite forms would be "Yo jugué" (I played), "Yo leí" (I read) or "Yo escribí" (I wrote).
As stated above, deciding whether to use the preterite or the imperfect can present some difficulty for an English-speaker. But there are certain topics, words, and key phrases that can help one decide if the verb should be conjugated in the preterite or the imperfect. These expressions co-occur significantly more often with one or the other of the two tenses, corresponding to a completed action (preterite) or a repetitive action or a continuous action or state (imperfect) in the past.
Key words and phrases that tend to co-occur with the preterite tense:
- ayer (yesterday)
- anteayer (the day before yesterday)
- anoche (last night)
- durante dos siglos (for two centuries)
- por un rato (for a while)
- el otro día (the other day)
- entonces (then)
- luego (then; and then)
- esta mañana (this morning)
- esta tarde (this afternoon)
- la semana pasada (last week)
- el mes pasado (last month)
- el año pasado (last year)
- hace dos días, años (two days, years ago)
- de repente (suddenly)
- en 1954 (etc.)
- el 25 de enero (etc.) (dates)
- durante(during)
- muchas veces (many times)
- dos veces, tres veces (twice, three times)
- tantas veces (so many times)
- varias veces (several times)
- nunca (never)
- tan pronto como (as soon as)
- después de que (after)
- desde que (since)
Ex: Esta mañana comí huevos y pan tostado.
This morning I ate eggs and toast.
Key words and phrases that tend to co-occur with the imperfect tense:
- a menudo (often)
- a veces (sometimes)
- cada día (every day)
- cada semana (every week)
- cada mes (every month)
- cada año (every year)
- con frecuencia (frequently)
- de vez en cuando (from time to time)
- en aquella época (at that time)
- frecuentemente (frequently)
- generalmente (usually)
- todas las semanas (every week)
- todos los días (every day)
- todo el tiempo (all the time)
- constantemente (constantly)
- mientras (while)
- regularmente (regularly)
- por lo general (generally)
- todavía (still)
- ya (already)
- Eran las tres (etc.) (It was three o'clock, etc.)
- Estaba nublado (etc.) (It was cloudy, etc.)
Ex: Cada año mi familia iba a Puerto Rico.
Each year my family went to Puerto Rico.
Comparison with English usage
The English simple past can express either of these concepts. However, there are devices that allow us to be more specific. Consider, for example, the phrase "the sun shone" in the following contexts:- "The sun shone through his window; John knew that it was going to be a fine day."
- "The sun was shining through his window; John knew that it was going to be a fine day."
- "The sun shone through his window back in those days."
- "The sun used to shine through his window back in those days."
- "The sun shone through his window the moment that John pulled back the curtain."
In the first two, it is clear that the shining refers to the background to the events that are about to unfold in the story. It is talking about "what was happening". We have a choice between making this explicit with the past continuous as in (2), or just using the simple past as in (1) and allowing the context to make it clear what we mean. In Spanish, these would be in the imperfect, optionally in the imperfect continuous.
In the third and fourth examples, it is clear that the shining refers to a regular, general, habitual type of event. It is talking about "what used to happen". We have a choice between making this explicit with the expression "used to" as in (4), or just using the simple past as in (3) and allowing the context to make it clear what we mean. In Spanish, these would be in the imperfect, optionally with the auxiliary verb soler.
In the fifth example, only the simple past is possible. It is talking about a single event presented as occurring at a specific point in time (the moment John pulled back the curtain). The action starts and ends with this sentence. In Spanish, this would be in the preterite (or alternatively in the perfect, if the event has only just happened).
Further examples
Imperfect used for "was" in Spanish because it is the background to the specific event expressed by "was run over", in the preterite.
In both languages, the continuous form for action in progress is optional, but Spanish requires the verb in either case to be in the imperfect, because it is the background to the specific event expressed by "was run over", in the preterite.
Imperfect used for both verbs since they refer to habits in the past. Either verb could optionally use the expression "used to" in English.
Preterite used if this refers to a single action or event, i.e. the person had or took a bath last night.
Imperfect used if this refers to any sort of habitual action, i.e. the person had or took a bath every morning. Optionally, solía bañarme can specifically express "I used to take baths".
Preterite used if this refers to an event, i.e., a birth.
Imperfect if this refers to the number of children by a certain point, i.e. in "She had one daughter when I met her ten years ago; she may have more now". A description.
Note that when describing the life of someone who is now dead, the distinction between the two tenses blurs. One might describe the person's life saying tenía una hija, but tuvo una hija is very common because the person's whole life is viewed as a whole, with a beginning and an end. The same goes for vivía/vivió en... "he lived in...".
Perhaps the verb that English speakers find most difficult to translate properly is "to be" in the past tense: "was". Apart from the choice between the verbs ser and estar (see below), it is often very hard for English speakers to distinguish between contextual and narrative uses.
Here the preterite is used because it is an event. A good clue is the tense in which cogió is.
- Había una persona que miraba los CD. ¿Quién era?
Here the imperfect is used because it is a description (the start and end of the action is not presented; it is something that was in progress at a certain time). A good clue is the tense of the other verbs.
Contrasting the preterite and the perfect
The preterite and the perfect are distinguished in a similar way as the equivalent English tenses. Generally, whenever the present perfect ("I have done") is used in English, the perfect is also used in Spanish. In addition, there are cases in which English uses a simple past ("I did") but Spanish requires a perfect. In the remaining cases, both languages use a simple past.As in English, the perfect expresses past actions that have some link to the present. The preterite expresses past actions as being past, complete and done with. In both languages, there are dialectal variations.
Frame of reference includes the present: perfect
If it is implicitly or explicitly communicated that the frame of reference for the event includes the present and the event or events may therefore continue occurring, then both languages strongly prefer the perfect.With references including "this" including the present:
- Este año me he ido de vacaciones dos veces = "This year I have gone on vacation twice"
- Esta semana ha sido muy interesante = "This week has been very interesting"
With other references to recent periods including the present:
- No he hecho mucho hoy = "I have not done much today"
- No ha pasado nada hasta la fecha = "Nothing has happened to date"
- Hasta ahora no se me ha ocurrido = "Until now it has not occurred to me"
With reference to someone's life experience (his/her life not being over):
- ¿Alguna vez has estado en África? = "Have you ever been in Africa?"
- Mi vida no ha sido muy interesante = "My life has not been very interesting"
- Jamás he robado nada = "Never have I stolen anything"
Frame of reference superficially includes the present: perfect
Sometimes, we say "today", "this year", but we mean to express these periods as finished. This requires the simple past in English. For example, in December we might speak of the year in the simple past because we are assuming that all of that year's important events have occurred and we can talk as though it were all over. Other expressions — such as "this weekend" if today is Monday — refer to a period which is definitely over; the word "this" just distinguishes it from other weekends. There is a certain tendency in Spanish to use the perfect even for this type of time reference, even though the preterite is possible and seems more logical.- Este fin de semana hemos ido al zoo = "This weekend we went to the zoo"
- Hoy he tenido una jornada muy aburrida = "Today I had a boring day's work"
Consequences continue into the present: the perfect
As in English, the perfect is used when the consequences of which an event are referred.- Alguien ha roto esta ventana = "Someone has broken this window" (the window is currently in a broken state)
- Nadie me ha dicho qué pasó aquel día = "Nobody has told me what happened that day" (therefore, I still do not know)
These same sentences in the preterite would purely refer to the past actions, without any implication that they have repercussions now.
In English, this type of perfect is not possible if a precise time frame is added or even implied; i.e. one cannot say "I have been born in 1978" because the date requires "I was born", despite the fact there is arguably a present consequence in the fact that the person is still alive. Spanish sporadically uses the perfect in these cases.
- He nacido en 1978 (usually Nací en 1978) = "I was born in 1978"
- Me he criado en Madrid (usually Me crié en Madrid) = "I grew up in Madrid"
The event itself continues into the present: perfect or present tense
If the event itself has been happening recently and is also happening right now or expected to continue happening soon, then the preterite is impossible in both languages. English requires the perfect, or better yet the perfect continuous. Spanish requires the perfect, or better yet the present simple:- Últimamente ha llovido mucho / Últimamente llueve mucho = "It has rained / It has been raining a lot recently"
This is the only use of the perfect that is common in colloquial speech across Latin America.
Dialectal variation
In the Canary Islands and across Latin America, there is a colloquial tendency to replace most uses of the perfect with the preterite. There are variations in this according to region, register and education.- † ¿Y vos alguna vez estuviste allá? = ¿Y tú alguna vez has estado allí? = "And have you ever been there?"
The one use for the perfect that does seem to be normal in Latin America is the perfect for actions that continue into the present (not just the time frame, but the action itself). Therefore, "I have read a lot in my life" and "I read a lot this morning" would both be expressed with leí instead of he leído, but "I have been reading" is expressed by he leído.
A less standard use of the perfect is found in Ecuador and Colombia. It is used with present or occasionally even future meaning. For example, Shakira Mebarak in her song Ciega, Sordomuda, sings
- Bruta, ciega, sordomuda, / torpe, traste, testaruda; / es todo lo que he sido = "Clumsy, blind, dumb, / blundering, useless, pig-headed; / that is all that I had been"
Contrasting the subjunctive and the imperative
The subjunctive mood expresses wishes and hypothetical events. It is often employed together with a conditional verb:- Desearía que estuvieses aquí. = "I wish that you were here."
- Me alegraría mucho si volvieras mañana. = "I would be very glad if you came back tomorrow."
The imperative mood shows commands given to the hearer (the second person). There is no imperative form in the third person, so the subjunctive is used. The expression takes the form of a command or wish directed at the hearer, but referring to the third person. The difference between a command and a wish is subtle, mostly conveyed by the absence of a wishing verb:
- Que venga el gerente. = "Let the manager come.", "Have the manager come."
- Que se cierren las puertas. = "Let the doors be closed.", "Have the doors closed."
With a verb that expresses wishing, the above sentences become plain subjunctive instead of direct commands:
- Deseo que venga el gerente. = "I wish for the manager to come."
- Quiero que se cierren las puertas. = "I want the doors (to be) closed."
Contrasting the present and the future subjunctive
The future tense of the subjunctive is found mostly in old literature or legalese and is even misused in conversation by confusing it with the past tense (often due to the similarity of its characteristic suffix, "-ere", as opposed to the suffixes of the past tense, -era and -ese). Many Spanish speakers live their lives without ever knowing about or realizing the existence of the future subjunctive.It survives in the common expression sea lo que fuere and the proverb allá donde fueres, haz lo que vieres (allá donde can be replaced by a la tierra donde or si a Roma).
The proverb illustrates how it used to be used:
- With si referring to the future, as in si a Roma fueres.... This is now expressed with the present indicative: si vas a Roma... or si fueras a Roma...
- With cuando, donde etc., referring to the future, as in allá donde fueres.... This is now expressed with the present subjunctive: vayas adonde vayas...
Contrasting the preterite and the past anterior
The past anterior is rare nowadays and restricted to formal use.It expresses a very fine nuance: the fact that an action occurs just after another [had] occurred, with words such as cuando, nada más and en cuanto ("when", "no sooner", "as soon as"). In English, we are forced to use either the simple past or the past perfect; Spanish has something specific between the two.
- En cuanto el delincuente hubo salido del cuarto, la víctima se echó a llorar = "As soon as the criminal [had] left the room, the victim burst into tears"
The use of hubo salido shows that the second action happened immediately after. Salió might imply it happened at the same time, and había salido might imply it happened some time after.
However, colloquial Spanish has lost this tense and this nuance, and the preterite must be used instead in all but the most formal of writing.
Contrasting ser and estar
The differences between ser and estar are considered one of the most difficult concepts for non native speakers. Both ser and estar translate into EnglishEnglish language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
as "to be" but they both express different ideas. These differences may be generalized so that ser expresses nature and estar expresses state. One easy way to remember it is: "ser" is generally for permanent things; "estar" is generally for things that are temporary.
Ser generally focuses on the essence of the subject but more specifically may be thought of in several ways including:
- Nationality
- Time and date
- Possession
- Occupation
- Physical and personality traits
- Events
- Material
- Origin
Estar generally focuses on the condition of the subject but more specifically may be thought of in several ways including:
- Physical condition
- Feelings and emotions
- Location
- Appearance
In English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
the sentence "The boy is bored" uses a different adjective than "The boy is boring". In Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
the difference is made by the choice of ser vs. estar.
- El chico es aburrido uses ser to mean a permanent trait or "The boy is boring"
- El chico está aburrido uses estar to mean a conditional trait or "The boy is bored"
The same strategy is used to express permanent or conditional trait of any adjective, e.g.:
- María es guapa uses ser to mean a permanent trait or "María is beautiful" (she was beautiful yesterday, and will be tomorrow)
- María está guapa uses estar to mean a conditional trait or "María looks beautiful" (right now, but it does not necessarily mean that she is always beautiful).
It is important to remember that there are exceptions to the generalization; for example, the sentence Tu mamá está loca (Your mother is crazy) can mean either a temporary or a permanent state of craziness.
Contrasting haber and tener
The verbs haber and tener are easily distinguished, but they may pose a problem for learners of Spanish that are speakers of other Romance languages (where the cognates of haber and tener are used differently), for English speakers (where have is used as a verb and as an auxiliary), and others.Haber derives from the Latin habeō, habēre, habuī, habitum; with the basic meaning of "to have".
Tener derives from the Latin teneō, tenēre, tenuī, tentum; with the basic meaning of "to hold", "to keep".
As habeo began to degrade and become reduced to just ambiguous monosyllables in the present tense, the Iberian Romance languages (Spanish, Gallician-Portuguese and Catalan) restricted its use and started to use teneo as the ordinary verb expressing having and possession. French instead reinforced habeo with obligatory subject pronouns.
Haber: expressing existence
Haber is used as an impersonal verb to show existence of an object or objects, which is generally expressed as an indefinite noun phrase. In English, this corresponds to the use of there + the corresponding inflected form of to be. When used in this sense, haber has a special present-tense form: hay instead of ha. The y is a fossilised form of the mediaeval Castilian pronoun y or i, meaning "there", which is cognate with French y and Catalan hi, and comes from the Latin ibi.Unlike in English, the thing which "is there" is not the subject of the sentence and therefore there is no agreement between that and the verb. This echoes the constructions seen in languages such as French (il y a = "it there has"), Catalan (hi ha = "[it] there has"), and even Chinese (有 yǒu = "[it] has").
- Hay un gato en el jardín. = "There is a cat in the garden."
- En el baúl hay fotografías viejas. = "In the trunk there are old photographs."
It is possible, in cases of certain emphasis, to put the verb after the object:
- ¿Revistas hay? = "Are there any magazines?"
There is a tendency to make haber agree with what follows, as though it were the subject, particularly in tenses other than the present indicative. There is heavier stigma on inventing plural forms for hay, but hain, han, and suchlike are sometimes encountered in non-standard speech. The form habemos is common (meaning 'there are, including me,...'; it very rarely replaces hemos to form the present perfect tense in modern language, and in certain contexts it is even acceptable in formal or literary language.
- Había un hombre en la casa. = "There was a man in the house."
- Había unos hombres en la casa. = "There were some men in the house." (standard)
- Habían unos hombres en la casa. = "There were some men in the house." (non-standard)
- En esta casa habemos cinco personas. = "In this house there are five of us." (non-standard and barbarism).
- Nos las habemos con un gran jugador. = "We are confronting a great player." (standard)
Haber as an existence verb is never used in other than the third person. To express existence of a first or second person, the verb estar ("to be [located/present]") or existir ("to exist") is used, and there is subject–verb agreement.
Haber: impersonal obligation
The phrase haber que (in the 3rd person singular and followed by a subordinated construction with the verb in the infinitive) carries the meaning of necessity or obligation without specifying an agent. It is translatable as "it is necessary", but a paraphrase is generally preferable in translation.Note that the present-tense form is hay.
- Hay que abrir esa puerta. = "That door needs opening", "We have to open that door".
- Habrá que abrir esa puerta. = "That door will need opening", "We are going to have to open that door".
- Aunque haya que abrir esa puerta. = "Even if that door needs to be opened".
This construction is comparable to French il faut and Catalan cal, although it should be noted that a personal construction with the subjunctive is not possible . Hay que always goes with the infinitive.
Haber: personal obligation
A separate construction is haber de + infinitive. It is not impersonal. It tends to express a certain nuance of obligation and a certain nuance of future tense, much like the expression "to be to". It is also often used similarly to tener que and deber ("must", "ought to").Note that the third personal singular of the present tense is ha.
- Mañana he de dar una charla ante la Universidad = "Tomorrow I am to give a speech before the University".
- Ha de comer más verduras = "She/he ought to eat more vegetables".
Haber: forming the perfect
Haber is also used as an auxiliary to form the perfect, as shown elsewhere. Spanish uses only haber for this, unlike French and Italian, which use the corresponding cognates of haber for most verbs, but cognates of ser ("to be") for certain others.- Ella se ha ido al mercado. = "She has gone to the market."
- Ellas se han ido de paseo. = "They have gone on a walk."
- ¿Habéis fregado los platos? = "Have you (you-all) done the washing-up?"
Tener
Tener is a verb with the basic meaning of "to have", in its essential sense of "to possess", "to hold", "to own". As in English, it can also express obligation (tener que + infinitive). It also appears in a number of phrases that show emotion or physical states, expressed by nouns, which in English tend to be expressed by to be and an adjective.- Mi hijo tiene una casa nueva. = "My son has a new house."
- Tenemos que hablar. = "We have to talk."
- Tengo hambre. = "I am hungry", literally: "I have hunger."
There are numerous phrases like "tener hambre" that is not literally translated in English, such as:
- tener hambre – to be hungry; to have hunger
- tener sed – to be thirsty; to have thirst
- tener cuidado – to be careful; to have caution
- tener __ años – to be __ years old; to have __ years
- tener celos – to be jealous; to have jealousy
- tener éxito – to be successful; to have success
- tener vergüenza – to be ashamed; to have shame
Note: "Estar hambriento" is a literal translation of "To be hungry", but is rarely spoken and used in Spanish nowadays.
Negation
Verbs are negated by putting no before the verb.Other negative words can either replace this no or occur after the verb:
- Hablo español = "I speak Spanish"
- No hablo español = "I do not speak Spanish"
- Nunca hablo español = "I never speak Spanish"
- No hablo nunca español = "I do not ever speak Spanish"
Expressing movement
Spanish verbs describing motion tend to emphasize direction instead of manner of motion. According to the pertinent classification, this makes Spanish a verb-framedVerb framing
In linguistics, verb-framing and satellite-framing are typological descriptions of how verb phrases in different languages describe the path of motion or the manner of motion, respectively....
language. This contrasts with English, where verbs tend to emphasize manner, and leave the direction of motion to helper particles, prepositions, or adverb
Adverb
An adverb is a part of speech that modifies verbs or any part of speech other than a noun . Adverbs can modify verbs, adjectives , clauses, sentences, and other adverbs....
s.
- "We drove away" = Nos fuimos en coche (literally, "We went by car").
- "He swam to Ibiza" = Fue a Ibiza nadando (literally, "He went to Ibiza swimming").
- "They ran off" = Huyeron corriendo (literally, "They fled running").
- "She crawled in" = Entró a gatas (literally, "She entered on all fours").
Quite often, the important thing is the direction, not the manner. Therefore, although "we drove away" translates into Spanish as nos fuimos en coche, it is often better to translate it as just nos fuimos. For example:
- "I drove her to the airport, but she had forgotten her ticket, so we drove home to get it, then drove back towards the airport, but then had to drive back home for her passport, by which time there was zero chance of checking in..."
- La llevé al aeropuerto en coche, pero se le había olvidado el tiquete, así que fuimos a casa [en coche] por él, luego volvimos [en coche] hacia el aeropuerto, pero luego tuvimos que volver [en coche] por el pasaporte, y ya era imposible que consiguiésemos facturar el equipaje...
See also
- Spanish conjugationSpanish conjugationThis article presents a set of paradigms — that is, conjugation tables — of Spanish verbs, including examples of regular verbs and some of the most common irregular verbs...
- List of Spanish irregular participles
- Wikiversity Spanish verb database, underconstruction help appreciated!
External links
- Conjugación Spanish conjugator. 12,000 verbs conjugated.
- Verbix Spanish verb conjugator. It conjugates all regular and irregular verbs, and even invented verbs. It warns about unknown verbs.
- Onoma Spanish conjugator. It provides information about the irregularities and conjugates invented verbs.
- Spanish Verb Tenses Verb conjugations and information about irregular verbs and verbs with prepositions.
- Free Online Course on the Spanish Subjunctive Verb tense and Listening Activities
- Spanish Verb Conjugation: Grammar - Spanish Verbs
- WebWorkbooks: Grammar - Spanish Verbs
- Verb Conjugations: Grammar: Online Spanish Help
- ¡Es fácil! - Spanish Verb conjugations with online practice
- Intro2Spanish - Extensive List of Spanish Verbs
- Spanish Verb Conjugation
- Online Spanish verb conjugation Free online Spanish verb conjugation
- El verbo en español Downloadable handbook to learn the Spanish verb paradigm in an easy ruled-based method. It also supplies the guidelines to know whenever a Spanish verb is regular or irregular
- Language by Video Short Videos Demonstrating Use of Spanish Verbs
- StudySpanish.com Verb conjugation practice for all tenses