Spanish Tenses - Definition & Examples
Spanish tenses are the verb forms that place an action in time, and they are more precise than their English counterparts, distinguishing between completed, ongoing, habitual, hypothetical and future events. The number of forms can look intimidating, but each tense has a single clear function, so once you know what a tense is for, choosing it becomes straightforward.
This page gives an overview of the whole system and links to a full explanation of each tense. Spanish verbs fall into three groups by their infinitive ending, -ar, -er and -ir, and most follow regular patterns within each group.
The Indicative Tenses at a Glance
The indicative mood describes facts and events the speaker treats as real. Spanish is commonly taught with eight core indicative tenses, plus the conditional forms usually learned alongside them.
| Tense | Main function | Example (hablar) |
|---|---|---|
| Present | Habits, facts, current situations | hablo |
| Present continuous | Actions happening right now | estoy hablando |
| Preterite | Completed past actions | hablé |
| Imperfect | Habits and descriptions in the past | hablaba |
| Present perfect | Recent past connected to the present | he hablado |
| Pluperfect | An action before another past action | había hablado |
| Simple future | Predictions and future actions | hablaré |
| Future perfect | An action completed before a future point | habré hablado |
| Conditional | Hypothetical actions, "would" | hablaría |
Explore Spanish Tenses
- Present tenses: the present simple and present continuous, the foundation of everyday Spanish.
- Past tenses: the crucial difference between the two simple past tenses, plus the present perfect and pluperfect.
- Future tenses: the going-to future, the simple future and the future perfect.
- The conditional: how Spanish expresses "would", polite requests and hypotheticals.