Overview of Spanish Verb Tenses

It almost goes without saying that the tense of a verb depends upon when the verbs action takes place. So it shouldnt be surprising that the Spanish word for tense in the grammatical sense is tiempo, the same as the word for time. In the simplest sense, there are three tenses: the past, present, and future. Unfortunately for anyone learning most languages, including English and Spanish, it is seldom that simple. Spanish also has a tense not connected to time, as well as two types of simple past tenses. Overview of Spanish Tenses Although both Spanish and English have complex tenses that use auxiliary verbs, students often begin by learning four types of simple tenses: The present tense is the most common tense and the one invariably learned first in Spanish classes.The future tense is most often used to refer to events that havent happened yet, but it can also be used for emphatic commands and, in Spanish, to indicate uncertainty about current happenings.The past tenses of Spanish are known as the preterite and the imperfect. To simplify, the first is usually used to refer to something that happened at a specific point in time, while the latter is used to describe events where the time period isnt specific.The conditional tense, also known in Spanish as el futuro hipotà ©tico, the future hypothetical, is different than the others in that it isnt clearly connected with a particular time period. As the name implies, this tense is used to refer to events that are conditional or hypothetical in nature. This tense should not be confused with the subjunctive mood, a verb form that also can refer to actions that arent necessarily real. Verb Conjugation In Spanish, verb tenses are formed by changing the endings of verbs, a process known as conjugation. We sometimes  conjugate verbs  in English, for example adding -ed to indicate the past tense. In Spanish, the process is much more extensive. For example, the future tense is expressed using conjugation rather than by using an additional word such as will or shall in English. There are five types of conjugation for simple tenses: Present tenseImperfectPreteriteFutureConditional In addition to the simple tenses already listed, it is possible in both Spanish and English to form what is known as the perfect tense by using a form of the verb haber in Spanish, to have in English, with the past participle. These compound tenses are known as present perfect, the pluperfect or past perfect, the preterite perfect (limited mostly to literary use), the future perfect and the conditional perfect. A Closer Look at Spanish Tenses Although the tenses of Spanish and English are very much alike—after all, the two languages share a common ancestor, Indo-European, with origins dating to prehistoric times—Spanish has some peculiarities in its tense usage: The differences in the past tenses of ser and estar can be especially subtle.Sometimes, the word used to translate a Spanish verb can vary depending on the tense used.It is possible to describe events that will happen in the future without using the future tense.While the English auxiliary verb would is often an indication that the conditional tense is being used, such isnt always the case.Although the conditional tense is a common one, there are also  conditional sentences that use other forms of verbs.By using estar as an auxiliary verb in the various tenses, it is possible to form progressive verbs that can be used in various tenses.