As you are used in English, there are three basic varieties of Spanish verb tenses: past, present and future. We define a tense as the time the action described by the verb takes place. We will learn introduce the basic Spanish verb tenses and their most common usage. The examples and definitions are not covering all the conjugations, just the most used ones.

The first and most used tense is the presente. This verb tense is used to describe current actions or habitual situations. When you’re wanting to fluently speak Spanish and write Spanish, you have to remember to use it to talk about the past or the future or describe general truths.

Let’s see some examples:

Current Actions or Events

  • I’m sick.
  • Estoy enfermo.

Habitual Actions

  • I eat an ice cream everyday.
  • Como un helado todos los días.

Talking about the Near Future

  • I’ll travel tomorrow.
  • Viajo mañana.

Honestly, we feel that the best way to learn Spanish is to learn a little day by day.  An intense training course is also a great way to go as it guides you step by step through what you need to learn.

You can use it to express an situation taking place right now, as you can do it with the Present Continuous verb tense.

An example will clarify the definition:

Actions or Situations Taking Place In the Present

  • I’m writing.
  • Estoy escribiendo.

Spanish has two basic and frequently used Past verb tenses: the imperfecto which is analogous to the English imperfect while the pretérito is analogous to the English simple past or the English present perfect. You will use the pretérito to talk about single or several events that began and ended in the past.

Now an example about using the pretérito:

Single or Several Events that began and ended in the past

  • I went to Argentina last year.
  • Fui a Argentina el año pasado.

The imperfecto is used to talk about habitual or repeated action  and an ongoing action with no specified completion.

Habitual or repeated action

  • I went to the beach every year.
  • Iba a la playa cada año.

Ongoing action with no specified completion

  • I was seeing a movie.
  • Estaba mirando una película.

Now, we will explore the futuro, one of the simplest Spanish verb tenses you use it to talk about events that will occur in the future.

Again, we will see an example:

Talk about events that will occur in the future

  • I’ll call you.
  • Te llamaré.

Spanish verb tenses is one of the most complicated subjects when you are learning this language. Fortunately, you can speak fluently mastering the fore-mentioned verb tenses.  Just keep practicing these tenses listed here on this page and you will be off to a good start.

Filed under: Learn Spanish

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