The Spanish tenses
When something happens and how it is seen — finished, in progress, already done before: that is the question every tense answers. Here are all the topics about it, each with its own page and its own exercises.
All 26 topics on tense and time
A1Present tense: regular verbsThree sets of endings for three groups of verbs.A1Stem-changing verbsThe vowel changes — everywhere except with we and you plural.A1The irregular verbsTen verbs you need on the first day — and that follow no rule.A1Reflexive verbsThe pronoun goes in front — and more verbs need one than in English.A1gustar and similar verbsNot «I like the book» — «the book pleases me».A2Present progressive: estar + -andoFor what is going on at this very instant.A2saber or conocer?You know a fact; you are acquainted with a person.A2Irregular yo forms: hago, pongoOne form steps out of line, five are regular.B1Other uses of the presentWith a time expression it talks about tomorrow; in a story, about back then.A2Preterite (indefinido)What happened, once, and was then over.A2Imperfect (imperfecto)How things were, what always was, what was going on.B1Preterite or imperfect?Frame or event — and whoever is in the frame is not counted.A2Present perfect (perfecto)What happened inside a stretch of time that is still running.B1Past perfect (pluscuamperfecto)What was already over when something else happened.B1Irregular preterites: tuve, hiceTheir own stem, their own set of endings — and no stress on the last syllable.B2Meaning shifts in the preteriteA state in the indefinido becomes its beginning.B1Telling a story in the pastThe imperfecto sets the stage, the indefinido moves the action.B1Present perfect or preterite?If the stretch of time reaches today, the perfecto is used.A2Habits: imperfecto, soler, indefinidoWhat always used to happen — and when a repetition still belongs in the indefinido.C2Pretérito anterior and the ra-form as a pluperfecthubo terminado and la casa donde naciera — two written forms worth being able to read.A1Going to: ir a + infinitiveThe future people actually speak.A2Simple future (futuro)Endings on the whole infinitive — and twelve verbs shorten it.B1Conditional (condicional)The stems of the futuro, the endings of the imperfecto.B1The future as a guessSerán las tres is not «it will be three» but «it is probably three».B2Future perfect: habré hechohabré plus participle — for everything that will be finished before a point in the future.B1Which future form to useIn everyday speech nearly always ir a; the future sounds written.
Practise the tenses
Exercises from every topic on tense and time, mixed together. That is exactly the hard part: almost anyone can build a form when it says next to it which one is meant.