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Spanish/Verb Tenses
Reference material by Wikibooks contributors. This retains its source identity and is not 411 news reporting.
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../Verbs/ | ../Verbs List/
Vosotros
../Vosotros Usage/
Los tiempos de los verbos: por simples y compuestos
infinitivo estudiar - to study
gerundio estudiando - studying
participio presente estudiando - studying
participio pasado estudiado - studied - used with Haber
Siete tiempos sencillos
presente de indicativo estudio - I study
imperfecto de indicativo estudiaba
pretérito estudié
futuro estudiaré
potencial simple estudiaría
presente de subjuntivo estudie
imperfecto de subjuntivo estudiara
Siete tiempos compuestos
perfecto de indicativo he estudiado
pluscuamperfecto de indicativo había estudiado
pretérito anterior hube estudiado
futuro perfecto habré estudiado
potencial compuesto habría estudiado
perfecto de subjuntivo haya estudiado
pluscuamperfecto de subjuntivo hubiera estudiado
Los tiempos de los verbos: por modos
Gramatically, there are different ways of classifying Spanish verb forms (as well as the verbs of any language). The one most people understand is "tense", but another very important classification is the "mood." A "mood" is differentiated from a "tense" in that it does not express time per se (which is what "tense" really means). Unfortunately, "mood" is not really a very good name either because moods do not express moods of the speaker (happy, sad, etc.) The mood is used to classify how the verb is used grammatically in the sentence; that is, how the verb usage works together with the other parts of the sentence. Spanish has the following verb moods:
Indicative (indicativo): Used to express statements of fact as the main verb of a clause
Participial (participio, gerundio): Used to convert a verb into a noun or adjective to express not actions but rather qualities or objects related to the verb
Conditional (potencial): Used together with other clauses to indicate a potential fact.
Subjunctive (subjuntivo): Used together with a main clause to indicate that the subordinate clause is somehow under discussion (mooted).
Imperative (imperativo): Used to express a direct command.
In many cases, along with the name of the mood also goes a tense. A given form of a verb normally has both mood and tense, although when the mood is indicative usually the name of the mood is not stated. This is one thing that makes the concept of moods hard to understand. When we talk about the "present tense" of a verb, we really should say "indicative mood, present tense". This would make it clear that when we say "subjunctive mood, present tense" we're not dealing with anything particularly strange, only a little different.
infinitivo
gerundio
participio presente
participio pasado
El modo indicativo
En el tiempo presente
presente de indicativo, presente progresivo de indicativo
En el pasado
imperfecto de indicativo, imperfecto progresivo de indicativo
perfecto de indicativo
pretérito
pluscuamperfecto de indicativo
pretérito anterior
En el futuro
futuro
futuro perfecto
El modo subjuntivo
En el presente
presente de subjuntivo
En el pasado
imperfecto de subjuntivo
perfecto de subjuntivo
pluscuamperfecto de subjuntivo
El futuro subjuntivo (estudiare)
El futuro perfecto subjuntivo (hubiere estudiado)
El modo potencial
potencial simple
potencial compuesto
El modo imperativo
imperativo
Spanish | ../Verbs/ | ../Verbs List/