PRESENTE SIMPLE (PRESENT)
FUTURO SIMPLE (FUTURE ‘will’)
PRETERITO (PAST – completed actions)
hablar to speak
comer to eat
vivir to live
(I) habl-o
(you) habl-as
(he/she) habl-a
(we) habl-amos
(you all) habl-áis
(they) habl-an
com-o
com-es
com-e
com-emos
com-éis
com-en
viv-o
viv-es
viv-e
viv-imos
viv-ís
viv-en
The present tense is used to describe what you’re doing at the
present moment in time, e.g: “I am eating breakfast” or what you do
routinely, e.g: “I eat breakfast every day”.
nadar to swim
beber to drink
abrir to open
(I) nadar-é
(you) nadar-ás
(he/she) nadar-á
(we) nadar-emos
(you all)nadar-éis
(they) nadar-án
beber-é
beber-ás
beber-á
beber-emos
beber-éis
beber-án
abrir-é
abrir- ás
abrir-á
abrir-emos
abrir-éis
abrir-án
The future tense is used to say what you will do in the future.
preguntar to ask
escribir to write
pregunt-é
pregunt-aste
pregunt-ó
pregunt-amos
pregunt-ásteis
pregunt-aron
escrib-í
escrib-iste
escrib-ió
escrib-imos
escrib-ísteis
escrib-ieron
The preterite is sometimes known as the simple past. It’s used to
talk about events in the past, e.g. I asked, I ate, I wrote.
PRESENTE CONTINUO (PRESENT CONTINUOUS)
CONDICIONAL (‘would’)
IMPERFECTO (IMPERFECT – ‘used to’)
hablar to speak
comer to eat
vivir to live
estoy hablando
estás hablando
está hablando
estamos hablando
estáis hablando
están hablando
estoy comiendo
estás comiendo
está comiendo
estamos comiendo
estáis comiendo
están comiendo
estoy viviendo
estás viviendo
está viviendo
estamos viviendo
estáis viviendo
están viviendo
The present continous tense is used to indicate what is happening at
the time of speaking, or when one action is happening at the same
time as another. Estar+past participle
nadar to swim
beber to drink
abrir to open
nadar-ía
nadar-ías
nadar-ía
nadar-íamos
nadar-íais
nadar-ían
beber-ía
beber-ías
beber-ía
beber-íamos
beber-íais
beber-ían
abrir-ía
abrir-ías
abrir-ía
abrir-íamos
abrir-íais
abrir-ían
The conditional is recognised in English by the use of the word
“would” or sometimes “should”, e.g. “I would swim”
trabajar to work
escribir to write
trabaj-aba
trabaj-abas
trabaj-aba
trabaj-ábamos
trabaj-ábais
trabaj-aban
escrib-ía
escrib-ías
escrib-ía
escrib-íamos
escrib-íais
escrib-ían
The imperfect tense is used for things that ‘used to happen’ or
‘were happening’ e.g.I worked, I used to work, I was working
PARTICIPIO PRESENTE
PARTICIPIO PASADO
FUTURO INMEDIATO (FUTURE - I am going to… )
PRESENTE PERFECTO (PRESENT PERFECT ‘I have done’)
-AR
-ando hablando
-AR
-ado hablado
-ER
-iendo comiendo
-ER
-ido comido
-IR
-iendo viviendo
-IR
-ido vivido
The present participle or gerund is recognised in English by the
ending –ing .e.g. talking, eating, living.
To find the past participle of a verb in English, just imagine that the
words ‘ I have’ are in front of it. E.g. ‘to eat’ put ‘I have’ in front of it
you would say ‘I have eaten’ so ‘eaten’.
voy
vas
va
vamos
vais
van
a
a
a
a
a
a
trabajar I am going to work
estudiar
beber
comer
abrir
vivir
The immediate future tense can be used to express what is going to
happen in the future. E.g. I am going to work, I am going to study, I
am going to drink, I am going to eat….
hablar to speak
vivir to live
he hablado
has hablado
ha hablado
hemos hablado
habéis hablado
han hablado
he vivido
has vivido
ha vivido
hemos vivido
habéis vivido
han vivido
The present perfect in English always contains ‘has’ or ‘have’ in it.
E.g.I have spoken, I have eaten, I have lived.
There is/are= hay
There was/were= había
Most verbs in Spanish have six forms which correspond to their
respective pronouns and which will be listed in the following order:
1) yo (I)
2) tú (you-familiar a person you know well, a familiar relationship)
3) él/ella/usted (he/she/you-formal a person you don’t know, a
formal relationship)
4) nosotros/nosotras (we)
5) vosotros/vosotras (you-plural-familiar [only used in Spain])
6) ellos/ellas/ustedes (they/you-plural-formal [Spain]/you-plural [L.
America])
It’s essential that you get the correct ending for the person you’re
talking about in Spanish because pronouns don’t tend to be used in
Spanish.
PASADO PERFECTO
In Spanish the infinitive form of a verb always ends with the letter r
and falls into three categories:
1) those which end with -ar (ar verbs) e.g. hablar = to speak
2) those which end with -er (er verbs) e.g. comer = to eat
3) those which end with -ir (ir verbs) e.g. vivir = to live
For regular verbs in the present, preterite and imperfect tenses, you
must first remove the -ar, -er or -ir endings from the infinitive form
of the verb, and then add the correspondent endings.
hablar to speak
vivir to live
había hablado
habías hablado
había hablado
habíamos hablado
habíais hablado
habían hablado
había vivido
habías vivido
había vivido
habíamos vivido
habíais vivido
habían vivido
The past perfect is used to indicate an action that happened and
was completed before another action took place in the past. E.g.I
had spoken/lived/eaten
Regular verbs