Tense
From Tomísimo
Tense, or verb tense (tiempo in Spanish) is how a verb in a sentence denotes when the described action took or will take place. English often uses other words near the verb (modals, auxilliary verbs) to convey the notion of time. Spanish almost always makes a change to the verb itself to convey that notion.
Simple verb tenses
There are 7 simple verb tenses in Spanish.
- Present indicative (presente de indicativo) - You're simply indicating something
- Simple past or preterit (pretérito) - An action that took place and was finished in the past
- Imperfect past (imperfecto de indicativo) - An action or ongoing event that began in the past (we don't know or care if it's finished yet)
- Future (futuro) - A future action
- Conditional (potencial) - An action that may or may not take place (now or in the future) depending on some condition
- Present subjunctive (presente de subjuntivo) - Used a lot more in Spanish than in English. Of course in normal English we often use an infinitive were Spanish uses the subjunctive, but the subjunctive *does* exist in Englsih. An example would be I'd really prefer that he come dressed as a pirate. or I'd rather he come dressed as a pirate. In both of these examples, you can substitute came for come that's a regional difference. Now let's examine those examples. What's up with that verb come? It should be he comes with an s if it's present right? Well, it's actually subjunctive and in English the subjunctive has the same form as the simple past.
- Imperfect subjunctive or past subjunctive - (imperfecto de subjuntivo)
Compound verb tenses
There are also seven corresponding compound verb tenses. These use the verb haber, conjugated in the seven simple tenses, along with the past participle of the main verb to form the compound tenses.
