Spanish verbs form one of the more complex areas of Spanish grammar. Spanish is a relatively synthetic language with a moderate to high degree of inflection, which shows up mostly in Spanish conjugation.
As is typical of verbs in virtually all languages, Spanish verbs express an action or a state of being of a given subject, and like verbs in most Indo-European languages, Spanish verbs undergo inflection according to the following categories:
The modern Spanish verb paradigm (conjugation) has 16 distinct complete[1] forms (tenses), i.e. sets of forms for each combination of tense, mood and aspect, plus one incomplete[2] tense (the imperative), as well as three non-temporal forms (the infinitive, gerund, and past participle). Two of the tenses, namely both subjunctive futures, are now obsolete for most practical purposes.
The 16 "regular" forms (tenses) include 8 simple tenses and 8 compound tenses. The compound tenses are formed with the auxiliary verb haber plus the past participle. Verbs can be used in other forms, such as the present progressive, but in grammar treatises they are not usually considered a part of the paradigm but rather periphrastic verbal constructions.
A verbal accident is defined as one of the changes of form that a verb can undergo. Spanish verbs have five accidents. Every verb changes according to the following:
Spanish verbs are conjugated in three persons, each having a singular and a plural form. In some varieties of Spanish, such as that of the Río de la Plata Region, a special form of the second person is used.
Spanish is a pro-drop language, meaning that subject pronouns are often omitted.
The grammatical first person refers to the speaker ("I"). The first person plural refers to the speaker together with at least one other person.
The grammatical second person refers to the addressee, the receiver of the communication ("you"). Spanish has different pronouns (and verb forms) for "you," depending on the relationship, familiar or formal, between speaker and addressee.
Singular forms
Plural forms
The grammatical third person refers to a person or thing other than the speaker or the addressee.
Singular forms
Plural forms
Grammatical mood is one of a set of distinctive forms that are used to signal modality. In Spanish, every verb has forms in three moods. In older classifications there was a fourth mood, the conditional, that included the two conditional tenses (simple and compound), but nowadays those tenses are included in the indicative mood.[3]
The tense of a verb indicates the time when the action occurs. It may be in the past, present, or future.
Non-finite verb forms refer to an action or state without indicating the time or person, and it is not conjugated for subject. Spanish has three non-finite forms: the infinitive, the gerund, and the past participle.
The infinitive is generally the form found in dictionaries. It corresponds to the English "base-form" or "dictionary form" and is usually indicated in English by "to _____" ("to sing," "to write," etc.). The ending of the infinitive is the basis of the names given in English to the three classes of Spanish verbs:
Although in English grammar the gerund refers to the -ing form of the verb used as a noun, in Spanish the term refers to a verb form that behaves more like an adverb. It is created by adding the following endings to the stem of the verb (i.e. the infinitive without the last two letters):
Certain verbs have irregular gerund forms:
The gerund has a variety of uses and can mean (with haciendo, for example) "doing/while doing/by doing/because of one's doing/through doing" and so on. It is also used to form progressive constructions, such as estoy haciendo ("I am doing"). The gerund cannot be used as an adjective and generally has no corresponding adjectival forms. The now-mostly archaic present participle, which ended in -ante or -iente and formerly filled this function, in some cases survives as such an adjective (e.g. durmiente ("sleeping"), interesante ("interesting")), but they are limited, and in cases where it does not, other constructions must be used to express the same ideas: where in English one would say "the crying baby", one would say in Spanish el bebé que llora ("the baby who's crying"; llorante is archaic).
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See also: List of Spanish irregular participles |
The past participle corresponds to the English -en or -ed form of the verb. It is created by adding the following endings to the verb stem:
The past participle, ending invariably in -o, is used following the auxiliary verb haber to form the compound or perfect: (Yo) he hablado ("I have spoken"); (Ellos) habían hablado ("They had spoken"); etc.
When the past participle is used as an adjective, it inflects for both gender and number – for example, una lengua hablada en España ("a language spoken in Spain").
In grammar, the voice of a verb describes the relationship between the action (or state) that the verb expresses and the participants identified by its arguments (subject, object, etc.). When the subject is the agent or doer of the action, the verb is in the active voice. When the subject is the patient, target, or undergoer of the action, it is said to be in the passive voice.
Verbal aspect marks whether an action is completed (perfect), a completed whole (perfective), or not yet completed (imperfective).
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For a set of conjugation tables, see Spanish conjugation. |
In this page, verb conjugation is illustrated with the verb hablar ("to talk," "to speak").
The indicative mood has five simple tenses, each of which has a corresponding perfect form. In older classifications, the conditional tenses were considered part of an independent conditional mood, but now are grouped with the indicative. Continuous forms (such as estoy hablando) are usually not considered part of the verbal paradigm, though they often appear in books addressed to English speakers who are learning Spanish. Modern grammatical studies count only the simple forms as tenses, and the other forms as products of tenses and aspects.
The simple tenses are the forms of the verb without the use of a modal or helping verb. The following are the simple tenses and their uses:
The present tense is formed with the endings shown below:
| Pronoun subject | -ar verbs | -er verbs | -ir verbs | ser |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| yo | -o | -o | -o | soy |
| tú/vos | -as/-ás | -es/-és | -es/-ís | eres/sos |
| él/ella/ello/usted | -a | -e | -e | es |
| nosotros/nosotras | -amos | -emos | -imos | somos |
| vosotros/vosotras | -áis | -éis | -ís | sois |
| ellos/ellas/ustedes | -an | -en | -en | son |
Uses
The present is used to indicate the following:[5]
The imperfect is formed with the endings shown below. There are three irregular verbs in the imperfect tense: ser, ir and ver:
| Pronoun subject | -ar verbs | -er and -ir verbs | ser | ir | ver |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| yo | -aba | -ía | era | iba | veía |
| tú/vos | -abas | -ías | eras | ibas | veías |
| él/ella/ello/usted | -aba | -ía | era | iba | veía |
| nosotros/nosotras | -ábamos | -íamos | éramos | íbamos | veíamos |
| vosotros/vosotras | -abais | -íais | erais | ibais | veíais |
| ellos/ellas/ustedes | -aban | -ían | eran | iban | veían |
Uses
The imperfect is used to express the following:
The preterite is formed with the endings shown below:
| Pronoun subject | -ar verbs | -er and -ir verbs | Most irregular verbs | ser/ir |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| yo | -é | -í | -e | fui |
| tú/vos | -aste | -iste | -iste | fuiste |
| él/ella/ello/usted | -ó | -ió | -o | fue |
| nosotros/nosotras | -amos | -imos | -imos | fuimos |
| vosotros/vosotras | -asteis | -isteis | -isteis | fuisteis |
| ellos/ellas/ustedes | -aron | -ieron | -ieron | fueron |
Uses
The preterite is used to express the following:
The future tense uses the entire infinitive as a stem. The following endings are attached to it:
| Pronoun subject | (All regular verbs) Infinitive form + | Stem changing -dr |
|---|---|---|
| yo | -é | -dré |
| tú/vos | -ás | -drás |
| él/ella/ello/usted | -á | -drá |
| nosotros/nosotras | -emos | -dremos |
| vosotros/vosotras | -éis | -dréis |
| ellos/ellas/ustedes | -án | -drán |
Uses
The future is used to express the following:
Another common way to represent future time is with a present indicative conjugation of ir, followed by a, followed by an infinitive verb: Voy a viajar a Bolivia en el verano ("I'm going to travel to Bolivia in the summer"). The difference between the use of the two forms varies according to dialect, but the "ir a + [infinitive]" construction tends to be more colloquial. Also, this construction—unlike the simple future form—is not used in the "probability" sense to express conjecture.[6]
As with the future, the conditional uses the entire infinitive as the stem. The following endings are attached to it:
| Pronoun subject | (All regular verbs) Infinitive form + |
|---|---|
| yo | -ía |
| tú/vos | -ías |
| él/ella/ello/usted | -ía |
| nosotros/nosotras | -íamos |
| vosotros/vosotras | -íais |
| ellos/ellas/ustedes | -ían |
Uses
The conditional is used to express the following:
All the compound tenses are formed with haber followed by the past participle of the main verb. Haber changes its form for person, number, and the like, while the past participle remains invariable, ending with -o regardless of the number or gender of the subject.
In the present perfect, the present indicative of haber is used as an auxiliary, and it is followed by the past participle of the main verb. In most of Spanish America, this tense has virtually the same use as the English present perfect:
In most of Spain the tense has an additional use—to express a past action or event that is contained in a still-ongoing period of time or that has effects in the present:
Occasionally tener and llevar are used with the past participle of a transitive verb for an effect that is similar to the present perfect. In these cases the participle usually agrees in gender and number with the direct object:
In this tense, the imperfect form of haber is used as a modal, and it is followed by the past participle of the main verb:
Uses
The past perfect is used to express the following:
The past anterior combines the preterite form of haber with the past participle of the main verb. It is very rare in spoken Spanish, but it is sometimes used in formal written language, where it is almost entirely limited to subordinate (temporal, adverbial) clauses. Thus, it is usually introduced by temporal conjunctions such as cuando, apenas, or en cuanto. It is used to express an action that ended immediately before another past action:
For example:
It is often replaced by either the preterite or the pluperfect, with the same meaning:
The future perfect is formed with the future indicative of haber followed by the past participle of the main verb:
For example:
It is used to indicate a future action that will be finished right before another action:
The conditional perfect refers to a hypothetical past action.
For example:
The imperative mood has three specific forms, corresponding to the pronouns tú, vos, and vosotros (tú and vos are used in different regional dialects; vosotros only in Spain). These forms are used only in positive expressions, not negative ones. The subjunctive supplements the imperative in all other cases (negative expressions and the conjugations corresponding to the pronouns nosotros, él/ella, usted, ellos/ellas, and ustedes).
The imperative can also be expressed in three other ways:[7]
The positive form of the imperative mood in regular verbs is formed by adding the following to the stem:
| Pronoun subject | -ar verbs | -er verbs | -ir verbs |
|---|---|---|---|
| tú | -a | -e | |
| vos | -á | -é | -í |
| usted | -e | -a | |
| nosotros/nosotras | -emos | -amos | |
| vosotros/vosotras | -ad (-ar) | -ed (-er) | -id (-ir) |
| ustedes | -en | -an | |
The singular imperative tú coincides with the third-person singular of the indicative for all but a few irregular verbs. The plural vosotros is always the same as the infinitive, but with a final -d instead of an -r in the formal, written form; the informal spoken form is the same as the infinitive. The singular vos drops the -r of the infinitive, requiring a written accent to indicate the stress.
For the negative imperative, the adverb no is placed before the verb, and the following endings are attached to the stem:
| Pronoun subject | -ar verbs | -er and -ir verbs |
|---|---|---|
| tú/vos | -es | -as |
| usted | -e | -a |
| nosotros/nosotras | -emos | -amos |
| vosotros/vosotras | -éis | -áis |
| ustedes | -en | -an |
Note that in the imperative, the affirmative second-person forms differ from their negative counterparts; this is the only case of a difference in conjugation between affirmative and negative in Spanish.
If one wishes to place emphasis on the subject of a command, it is placed after the verbal word:
| Subject | Command | Gloss | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|
| tú | ¡Come! | "Eat!" | General form of the informal singular |
| vos | ¡Comé! | "Eat!" | Used in the Ríoplatense Dialect and much of Central America. Formerly, vos and its verb forms were not accepted by the Real Academia Española, but the latest online dictionary of the RAE shows, for example, the vos imperative comé on a par with the tú imperative come.[8] |
| usted | ¡Coma! | "Eat!" | Formal singular |
| nosotros/nosotras | ¡Comamos! | "Let us eat!" | Used as an order or as an invitation. |
| vosotros/vosotras | ¡Comed! | "Eat!" | Normative plural for informal address, though its use is becoming rare |
| vosotros/vosotras | ¡Comer! | "Eat!" | Common plural used in Spain for informal address, though not accepted by the Real Academia Española |
| ustedes | ¡Coman! | "Eat!" | General plural formal command; used also as familiar plural command in Spanish America |
| Subject | Command | Gloss | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|
| tú/vos | ¡No comas! | "Do not eat!" | General form of the informal singular; the only form accepted by the Real Academia Española, even for standard voseo conjugation. |
| vos | ¡No comás! | "Do not eat!" | Used by the general voseante population; not accepted by the Real Academia Española |
| usted | ¡No coma! | "Do not eat!" | Formal singular |
| nosotros/nosotras | ¡No comamos! | "Let's not eat!" | Used as a suggestion |
| vosotros/vosotras | ¡No comáis! | "Do not eat!" | Informal plural in Spain |
| ustedes | ¡No coman! | "Do not eat!" | General negative plural formal command; used also as familiar plural command in Spanish America |
| Subject | Command | Gloss | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|
| tú | ¡Cómete ...! | "Eat!" | Used emphatically |
| vos | ¡Comete ...! | "Eat!" | Used normatively in the Ríoplatense Dialect; used informally in Central America |
| usted | ¡Cómase ...! | "Eat!" | Formal singular |
| nosotros/nosotras | ¡Comámonos ...! | "Let's eat!" | the original -s ending is dropped before the pronoun nos is affixed to prevent cacophony or dissonant sound |
| vosotros/vosotras | ¡Comeos ...! | "Eat!" | The original -d ending is dropped before the pronoun os is affixed to prevent cacophony or dissonant sound |
| vosotros/vosotras | ¡Comeros ...! | "Eat!" | Colloquial plural used in Spain for informal address, though not accepted by the Real Academia Española |
| ustedes | ¡Cómanse ...! | "Eat!" | General plural formal command; used also as familiar plural command in Spanish America |
Note that the pronouns precede the verb in the negative commands as the mode is subjunctive, not imperative: no te comas/comás; no se coma/coman; no nos comamos; no os comáis.
| Subject Pronoun | Imperative Form | Gloss | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|
| tú | ¡Ve! | "Go!" | General form of the singular imperative |
| vos | ¡Andá! | "Go!" | Used because the general norm in the voseo imperative is to drop the final -d and add an accent; however, if this were done, the form would be í |
| usted | ¡Vaya! | "Go!" | Same as the subjunctive form |
| nosotros/nosotras | ¡Vamos! | "Let's go!" | More common form |
| nosotros/nosotras | ¡Vayamos! | "Let's go!" | Prescribed form, but rarely used |
| vosotros/vosotras | ¡Id! | "Go!" | Prescribed form |
| vosotros/vosotras | ¡Ir! | "Go!" | Colloquial form |
| ustedes | ¡Vayan! | "Go!" | Formal plural; also familiar in Spanish America |
The pronominal verb irse is irregular in the second person plural normative form, because it does not drop the -d or the -r:
The subjunctive mood has a separate conjugation table with fewer tenses. It is used, almost exclusively in subordinate clauses, to express the speaker's opinion or judgment, such as doubts, possibilities, emotions, and events that may or may not occur.
The present subjunctive of regular verbs is formed with the endings shown below:
| Pronoun subject | -ar verbs | -er and -ir verbs | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|
| yo | -e | -a | |
| tú/vos | -es | -as | For vos, the Real Academia Española prescribes Rioplatense Spanish: ames, comas and partas |
| vos | -és | -ás | In Central America, amés, comás, and partás are the preferred present subjunctive forms of vos, but they are not accepted by the Real Academia Española[9] |
| él/ella/ello/usted | -e | -a | |
| nosotros/nosotras | -emos | -amos | |
| vosotros/vosotras | -éis | -áis | |
| ellos/ellas/ustedes | -en | -an |
The imperfect subjunctive can be formed with either of two sets of endings: the "-ra endings" or the "-se endings", as shown below. In Spanish America, the -ra forms are virtually the only forms used, to the exclusion of the -se forms. In Spain, both sets of forms are used, but the -ra forms are predominant as well.
| Pronoun subject | -ar verbs | -er and -ir verbs |
|---|---|---|
| yo | -ara | -iera |
| tú/vos | -aras | -ieras |
| él/ella/ello/usted | -ara | -iera |
| nosotros/nosotras | -áramos | -iéramos |
| vosotros/vosotras | -arais | -ierais |
| ellos/ellas/ustedes | -aran | -ieran |
| Pronoun subject | -ar verbs | -er and -ir verbs |
|---|---|---|
| yo | -ase | -iese |
| tú/vos | -ases | -ieses |
| él/ella/ello/usted | -ase | -iese |
| nosotros/nosotras | -ásemos | -iésemos |
| vosotros/vosotras | -aseis | -ieseis |
| ellos/ellas/ustedes | -asen | -iesen |
The future subjunctive is no longer used in modern language, except in legal language and some fixed expressions. The following endings are attached to the preterite stem:
| Pronoun subject | -ar verbs | -er and -ir verbs |
|---|---|---|
| yo | -are | -iere |
| tú/vos | -ares | -ieres |
| él/ella/ello/usted | -are | -iere |
| nosotros/nosotras | -áremos | -iéremos |
| vosotros/vosotras | -areis | -iereis |
| ellos/ellas/ustedes | -aren | -ieren |
For example:
In the subjunctive mood, the subjunctive forms of the verb haber are used with the past participle of the main verb.
Like the simple future subjunctive, this tense is no longer used in modern Spanish.
In Spanish grammar, continuous tenses are not formally recognized as in English. Although the imperfect expresses a continuity compared to the perfect (e.g., te esperaba ["I was waiting for you"]), the continuity of an action is usually expressed by a verbal periphrasis (perífrasis verbal), as in estoy leyendo ("I am reading"). However, one can also say sigo leyendo ("I am still reading"), voy leyendo ("I am slowly but surely reading"), ando leyendo ("I am going around reading"), and others.
The "true" passive is formed with ser + the past participle, which in this case behaves like a normal adjective. Thus:
The "true" passive is used in a variety of situations, but its use is somewhat more limited than that of its English counterpart.
In the third person, reflexive constructions are often used to express ideas that could also be expressed in the passive. In such constructions, the recipient of the action is said to do the action to itself. Thus:
The se passive is very common in the third person, but equivalent constructions cannot be used for the first and second persons: Yo me amo always translates to "I love myself" and never "I am loved".
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Main article: Spanish irregular verbs |
A considerable number of verbs change the vowel e in the stem to the diphthong ie, and the vowel o to ue. This happens when the stem vowel receives the stress. These verbs are referred to as stem-changing verbs. Examples include pensar ("to think"; e.g., pienso ["I think"]), sentarse ("to sit"; e.g., me siento ["I sit"]), empezar ("to begin"; e.g., empiezo ["I begin"]), volver ("to return"; e.g., vuelvo ["I return"]), and acostarse ("to go to bed"; e.g., me acuesto ["I go to bed"]).
Virtually all verbs of the third conjugation (-ir), if they have an -e- or -o- as the last vowel of their stem, undergo a vowel-raising change whereby e changes to i and o changes to u, in some of their forms (for details, see Spanish irregular verbs). Examples include pedir ("to ask for"; e.g., pide ["he/she asks for"]), competir ("to compete"; e.g., compite ["he/she competes"]), and derretirse ("to melt"; e.g., se derrite ["it melts"]).
The so-called I-go verbs add a medial -g- in the first-person singular present tense (making the Yo ["I"] form end in -go; e.g., tener ["to have"] becomes tengo ["I have"]; venir ["to come"] becomes vengo ["I come"]). The -g- is present in the present subjunctive of such verbs. These verbs are often irregular in other forms as well.
There is no strict distinction between simple and continuous forms in Spanish as there is in English. In English, "I do" is one thing (a habit) and "I am doing" is another (current activity). In Spanish, hago can be either of the two, and estoy haciendo stresses the latter. Although not as strict as English, Spanish is stricter than French or German, which have no systematic distinction between the two concepts at all. This optionally continuous meaning that can be underlined by using the continuous form is a feature of the present and imperfect. The preterite never has this meaning, even in the continuous form, and the future has it only when it is in the continuous form.
Note that since the preterite by nature refers to an event seen as having a beginning and an end, and not as a context, the use of the continuous form of the verb only adds a feeling for the length of time spent on the action. The future has two main forms in Spanish, the imperfect (compound) future and the simple one. The difference between them is one of aspect. The compound future is done with the conjugated ir (which means "to go," but may also mean "will" in this case) plus the infinitive and, sometimes, with a present progressive verb added as well.
Both the present and the future can express future actions, the latter more explicitly so. There are also expressions that convey the future.
The future tense can also simply express guesses about the present and immediate future:
The same is applied to imperfect and conditional:
Studies have shown that Spanish-speaking children learn this use of the future tense before they learn to use it to express future events [citation needed] (the English future with "will" can also sometimes be used with this meaning). The other constructions detailed above are used instead. Indeed, in some areas, such as Argentina and Uruguay, speakers hardly use the future tense to refer to the future.
The future tense of the subjunctive mood is also obsolete in practice. As of today, it is only found in legal documents and the like. In other contexts, the present subjunctive form always replaces it.
Spanish has two fundamental past tenses, the preterite and the imperfect. Strictly speaking, the difference between them is one not of tense but of aspect, in a manner that is similar to that of the Slavic languages. However, within Spanish grammar, they are customarily called tenses.
The difference between the preterite and the imperfect (and in certain cases, the perfect) is often hard to grasp for English speakers. English has just one past-tense form, which can have aspect added to it by auxiliary verbs, but not in ways that reliably correspond to what occurs in Spanish. The distinction between them does, however, correspond rather well to the distinctions in other Romance languages, such as between the French imparfait and passé simple / passé composé or between the Italian imperfetto and passato remoto / passato prossimo.
The imperfect fundamentally presents an action or state as being a context and is thus essentially descriptive. It does not present actions or states as having ends and often does not present their beginnings either. Like the Slavic imperfective past, it tends to show actions that used to be done at some point, as in a routine. In this case, one would say Yo jugaba ("I used to play"), Yo leía ("I used to read"), or Yo escribía ("I used to write").
The preterite (as well as the perfect, when applicable) fundamentally presents an action or state as being an event, and is thus essentially narrative. It presents actions or states as having beginnings and ends. This also bears resemblance to the Slavic perfective past, as these actions are usually viewed as done in one stroke. The corresponding preterite forms would be Yo jugué ("I played"), Yo leí ("I read") or Yo escribí ("I wrote").
As stated above, deciding whether to use the preterite or the imperfect can present some difficulty for English speakers. But there are certain topics, words, and key phrases that can help one decide if the verb should be conjugated in the preterite or the imperfect. These expressions co-occur significantly more often with one or the other of the two tenses, corresponding to a completed action (preterite) or a repetitive action or a continuous action or state (imperfect) in the past.
Key words and phrases that tend to co-occur with the preterite tense:
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E.g.: Esta mañana comí huevos y pan tostado ("This morning I ate eggs and toast")
Key words and phrases that tend to co-occur with the imperfect tense:
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E.g.: Cada año mi familia iba a Puerto Rico. ("Each year my family went to Puerto Rico.")
The English simple past can express either of these concepts. However, there are devices that allow us to be more specific. Consider, for example, the phrase "the sun shone" in the following contexts:
In the first two, it is clear that the shining refers to the background to the events that are about to unfold in the story. It is talking about what was happening. One has a choice between making this explicit with the past continuous, as in (2), or using the simple past and allowing the context to make it clear what is intended, as in (1). In Spanish, these would be in the imperfect, optionally in the imperfect continuous.
In (3) and (4), it is clear that the shining refers to a regular, general, habitual event. It is talking about what used to happen. One has a choice between making this explicit with the expression "used to," as in (4), or using the simple past and allowing the context to make it clear what we mean, as in (3). In Spanish, these would be in the imperfect, optionally with the auxiliary verb soler.
In (5), only the simple past is possible. It is talking about a single event presented as occurring at a specific point in time (the moment John pulled back the curtain). The action starts and ends with this sentence. In Spanish, this would be in the preterite (or alternatively in the perfect, if the event has only just happened).
The imperfect is used for "was" in Spanish because it forms the background to the specific event expressed by "ran over", which is in the preterite.
In both languages, the continuous form for action in progress is optional, but Spanish requires the verb in either case to be in the imperfect, because it is the background to the specific event expressed by "ran over", in the preterite.
The imperfect is used for both verbs since they refer to habits in the past. Either verb could optionally use the expression "used to" in English.
The preterite is used if this refers to a single action or event—that is, the person took a bath last night.
The imperfect is used if this refers to any sort of habitual action—that is, the person took a bath every morning. Optionally, solía bañarme can specifically express "I used to take baths".
The preterite is used if this refers to an event—here, a birth.
The imperfect is used if this refers to the number of children by a certain point, as in "She had one daughter when I met her ten years ago; she may have more now". A description.
Note that when describing the life of someone who is now dead, the distinction between the two tenses blurs. One might describe the person's life saying tenía una hija, but tuvo una hija is very common because the person's whole life is viewed as a whole, with a beginning and an end. The same goes for vivía/vivió en... "he lived in...".
Perhaps the verb that English speakers find most difficult to translate properly is "to be" in the past tense ("was"). Apart from the choice between the verbs ser and estar (see below), it is often very hard for English speakers to distinguish between contextual and narrative uses.
Here the preterite is used because it is an event. A good clue is the tense in which cogió is.
Here the imperfect is used because it is a description (the start and end of the action is not presented; it is something that was in progress at a certain time). Again, a good clue is the tense of the other verbs.
The preterite and the perfect are distinguished in a similar way as the equivalent English tenses. Generally, whenever the present perfect ("I have done") is used in English, the perfect is also used in Spanish. In addition, there are cases in which English uses a simple past ("I did") but Spanish requires a perfect. In the remaining cases, both languages use a simple past.
As in English, the perfect expresses past actions that have some link to the present. The preterite expresses past actions as being past, complete and done with. In both languages, there are dialectal variations.
If it is implicitly or explicitly communicated that the frame of reference for the event includes the present and the event or events may therefore continue occurring, then both languages strongly prefer the perfect.
Sometimes expressions like "today", "this year", and "this week" are used to express the idea these periods are over. This requires the simple past in English. For example, in December one might speak of the year in the simple past because we are assuming that all of that year's important events have occurred and one can talk as though it were over. Other expressions—such as "this weekend", if today is Monday—refer to a period which is definitely over; the word "this" just distinguishes it from other weekends. There is a tendency in Spanish to use the perfect even for this type of time reference, even though the preterite is possible and seems more logical.
As in English, the perfect is used when the consequences of an event are referred to.
These same sentences in the preterite would purely refer to the past actions, without any implication that they have repercussions now.
In English, this type of perfect is not possible if a precise time frame is added or even implied. One cannot say "I have been born in 1978," because the date requires "I was born," despite the fact there is arguably a present consequence in the fact that the person is still alive. Spanish sporadically uses the perfect in these cases.
If the event itself has been happening recently and is also happening right now or expected to continue happening soon, then the preterite is impossible in both languages. English requires the perfect, or better yet the perfect continuous. Spanish requires the perfect, or better yet the present simple:
This is the only use of the perfect that is common in colloquial speech across Latin America.
In the Canary Islands and across Latin America, there is a colloquial tendency to replace most uses of the perfect with the preterite. This use varies according to region, register, and education.
The one use of the perfect that does seem to be normal in Latin America is the perfect for actions that continue into the present (not just the time frame, but the action itself). Therefore, "I have read a lot in my life" and "I read a lot this morning" would both be expressed with leí instead of he leído, but "I have been reading" is expressed by he leído.
A less standard use of the perfect is found in Ecuador and Colombia. It is used with present or occasionally even future meaning. For example, Shakira Mebarak in her song "Ciega, Sordomuda" sings,
The subjunctive mood expresses wishes and hypothetical events. It is often employed together with a conditional verb:
The imperative mood shows commands given to the hearer (the second person). There is no imperative form in the third person, so the subjunctive is used. The expression takes the form of a command or wish directed at the hearer, but referring to the third person. The difference between a command and a wish is subtle, mostly conveyed by the absence of a wishing verb:
With a verb that expresses wishing, the above sentences become plain subjunctive instead of direct commands:
The future tense of the subjunctive is found mostly in old literature or legal language and is even misused in conversation by confusing it with the past tense (often due to the similarity of its characteristic suffix, -ere, as opposed to the suffixes of the past tense, -era and -ese). It is very rare otherwise.
It survives in the common expression sea lo que fuere and the proverb allá donde fueres, haz lo que vieres (allá donde can be replaced by a la tierra donde or si a Roma).
The proverb illustrates how it used to be used:
The past anterior is rare nowadays and restricted to formal use. It expresses a very fine nuance: the fact that an action occurs just after another (had) occurred, with words such as cuando, nada más, and en cuanto ("when", "no sooner", "as soon as"). In English, one must use either the simple past or the past perfect; Spanish has something specific between the two.
The use of hubo salido shows that the second action happened immediately after the first. Salió might imply that it happened at the same time, and había salido might imply it happened some time after.
However, colloquial Spanish has lost this tense and the corresponding nuance, and the preterite must be used instead in all but the most formal of writing.
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Main article: Romance copula |
The differences between ser and estar are considered one of the most difficult concepts for non-native speakers. Both ser and estar translate into English as "to be", but they have different uses, depending on whether they are used with nouns, with adjectives, with past participles (more precisely, passive participles), or to express location.
Only ser is used to equate one noun phrase with another, and thus it is the verb for expressing a person's occupation ("Mi hermano es estudiante"/"My brother is a student"). For the same reason, ser is used for telling the date or the time, regardless of whether the subject is explicit ("Hoy es miércoles"/"Today is Wednesday") or merely implied ("Son las ocho"/"It's eight o'clock").
When these verbs are used with adjectives, the difference between them may be generalized by saying that ser expresses nature and estar expresses state. Frequently—although not always—adjectives used with ser express a permanent quality, while their use with estar expresses a temporary situation. There are exceptions to the generalization; for example, the sentence "Tu mamá está loca" ("Your mother is crazy") can express either a temporary or a permanent state of craziness.
Ser generally focuses on the essence of the subject, and specifically on qualities that include:
Estar generally focuses on the condition of the subject, and specifically on qualities that include:
In English, the sentence "The boy is boring" uses a different adjective than "The boy is bored". In Spanish, the difference is made by the choice of ser or estar.
The same strategy is used with many adjectives to express either an inherent trait (ser) or a transitory state or condition (estar). For example:
When ser is used with the past participle of a verb, it forms the "true" passive voice, expressing an event ("El libro fue escrito en 2005"/"The book was written in 2005"). When the past participle appears with estar, it forms a "passive of result" or "stative passive" ("El libro ya está escrito"/"The book is already written"—see Spanish conjugation).
Location of a person or thing is expressed with estar—regardless of whether temporary or permanent ("El hotel está en la esquina"/"The hotel is on the corner"). Location of an event is expressed with ser ("La reunión es en el hotel"/"The meeting is [takes place] in the hotel").
The verbs haber and tener are easily distinguished, but they may pose a problem for learners of Spanish who speak other Romance languages (where the cognates of haber and tener are used differently), for English speakers (where "have" is used as a verb and as an auxiliary), and others. Haber derives from Latin habeō, with the basic meaning of "to have". Tener derives from Latin teneō, with the basic meaning of "to hold", "to keep". As habeō began to degrade and become reduced to just ambiguous monosyllables in the present tense, the Iberian Romance languages (Spanish, Gallician-Portuguese, and Catalan) restricted its use and started to use teneō as the ordinary verb expressing having and possession.
Haber can be used as an impersonal verb expressing existence ("there is/are"). When used impersonally, haber has a special present-tense form: hay instead of ha. The y is presumed to be a fossilized form of the mediaeval Castilian clitic pronoun y or i, once meaning "there", but now semantically empty, historically cognate with French y, Catalan hi and Italian vi from Latin ibi.
Unlike in English, in standard Spanish the thing that "is there" is not the subject of the sentence, and therefore there is no agreement between it and the verb (there is often agreement though in dialectal Spanish). This echoes constructions seen in languages such as French (il y a = "it there has"), Catalan (hi ha = "[it] there has"), and even Chinese (有 yǒu = "[it] has"):
To form perfect constructions, the past participle habido is used:
It is possible, in certain types of emphasis, to put the verb after the object:
There is a tendency to make haber agree with what follows, as though it were the subject, particularly in tenses other than the present indicative. There is heavier stigma on inventing plural forms for hay, but hain, han, and suchlike are sometimes encountered in non-standard speech. The form habemos is common (meaning "there are, including me"); it very rarely replaces hemos to form the present perfect tense in modern language,[10] and in certain contexts it is even acceptable in formal or literary language:
As an existential verb, haber is never used other than in the third person. To express the existence of a first or second person, the verb estar ("to be [located/present]") or existir ("to exist") is used, and there is subject–verb agreement.
The phrase haber que (in the third person singular and followed by a subordinated construction with the verb in the infinitive) carries the meaning of necessity or obligation without specifying an agent. It is translatable as "it is necessary", but a paraphrase is generally preferable in translation. Note that the present-tense form is hay.
This construction is comparable to French il faut and Catalan cal. Hay que always goes with the infinitive.
A separate construction is haber de + infinitive. It is not impersonal. It tends to express a certain nuance of obligation and a certain nuance of future tense, much like the expression "to be to". It is also often used similarly to tener que and deber ("must", "ought to"). Note that the third personal singular of the present tense is ha.
Haber is also used as an auxiliary to form the perfect, as shown elsewhere. Spanish uses only haber for this, unlike French and Italian, which use the corresponding cognates of haber for most verbs, but cognates of ser ("to be") for certain others.
Tener is a verb with the basic meaning of "to have", in its essential sense of "to possess", "to hold", "to own". As in English, it can also express obligation (tener que + infinitive). It also appears in a number of phrases that show emotion or physical states, expressed by nouns, which in English tend to be expressed by "to be" and an adjective.
There are numerous phrases like tener hambre that are not literally translated in English, such as:[12]
Note: Estar hambriento is a literal translation of "To be hungry", but it is rarely used in Spanish nowadays.
Verbs are negated by putting no before the verb. Other negative words can either replace this no or occur after the verb:
Spanish verbs describing motion tend to emphasize direction instead of manner of motion. According to the pertinent classification, this makes Spanish a verb-framed language. This contrasts with English, where verbs tend to emphasize manner, and the direction of motion is left to helper particles, prepositions, or adverbs.
Quite often, the important thing is the direction, not the manner. Therefore, although "we drove away" translates into Spanish as nos fuimos en coche, it is often better to translate it as just nos fuimos. For example:
La llevé al aeropuerto en coche, pero se le había olvidado el tiquete, así que fuimos a casa [en coche] por él, luego volvimos [en coche] hacia el aeropuerto, pero luego tuvimos que volver [en coche] por el pasaporte, y ya era imposible que consiguiésemos facturar el equipaje... = "I drove her to the airport, but she had forgotten her ticket, so we drove home to get it, then drove back towards the airport, but then had to drive back home for her passport, by which time there was zero chance of checking in..."
Spanish verbal nouns (e.g. "running", "coming", "thinking" in English) are identical in form to the infinitive of the verb from which they are derived, and their gender is masculine. They are generally used with the definite article, and enclitic pronouns attach to them as they would to a normal infinitive. Thus:
