Indicative Tenses In Spanish Grammar - Lingolia

Lingolia Spanish DE EN FR ES Deutsch DE EN FR ES IT English DE EN FR ES IT Français DE EN FR ES IT Español DE EN FR ES Esperanto DE EN Level Test German English French Spanish All topics and exercises German English French Spanish Do a random exercise Free Exercise up to A1 level up to A2 level up to B1 level up to B2 level up to C1 level Lingolia Top 15 German English French Spanish ? ? ? ? ? Indicative Tenses in Spanish Grammar

What is the indicative mood?

We use the indicative mood to talk about real things that happen. The other two moods in Spanish are the subjunctive and the imperative.

The indicative mood consists of 10 verb tenses – five simple ones and five compound ones:

• Simple tenses: present, imperfect, preterite, future, conditional
• Compound tenses: perfect, past perfect, preterite perfect, future perfect, conditional perfect

In addition, Spanish also has verbal periphrasis, which is a small “verb team” that works like a tense and places an action in time:

• estar + gerund → for an action happening at the moment of speech
• ir a + infinitive → for an action happening an in the immediate future

Overview of all tenses

This overview of all tenses shows you all the verb tenses that belong to the indicative mood in Spanish in a single table. See all the conjugations in one place and review the rules for using each verb tense.

Present

The present indicative expresses what happens now and what happens always.

Examples: Me llamo Paula.My name is Paula. Trabajo en Madrid.I work in Madrid. Soy pelirroja.I’m a redhead.

It is also used to refer to the future.

Example: Te llamo en cinco minutos.I’ll call you in five minutes.

Visit the present page and learn how and when to use this tense correctly, along with its conjugation rules. Discover which verbs are irregular in the present tense.

estar + gerund

The verbal periphrasis estar + gerundio places an action at the moment of speech. It tells us what is going on.

Examples: Estoy atravesando un túnel, te llamo en cinco minutos.I’m going through a tunnel, I’ll call you in five minutes. ¡Mira, está nevando!Look, it’s snowing!

Visit the page estar + gerund and discover how and when to use this form correctly.

Perfect

The perfect tense expresses a completed action that occurred within an unfinished or ongoing time period.

Examples: Esta mañana me he levantado a las 7.I woke up this morning at 7 am. Este mes me han subido el sueldo.I received a pay rise this month. Todavía no he tenido vacaciones este año.I haven’t had any holidays this year.

Vist the page perfect and learn how and when to use this tense correctly and its conjugation rules. Discover also how the past participle is formed and which verbs have an irregular participle.

Imperfect

The imperfect is a past tense that expresses actions in progress whose beginning and end are not specified.

Example: Aquella noche llovía muchísimo.It rained heavily that night.

Visit the page imperfect and discover how and when to use this tense correctly and how to conjugate regular and irregular verbs.

Preterite

The preterite is another past tense in Spanish. It is used to express one-off or time-limited actions.

Examples: La semana pasada cumplí 32 años.I turned 32 last week. Paula y Jorge vivieron en Londres hasta 2021.Paula and Jorge lived in London until 2021.

Visit the page preterite and discover how and when to use this tense correctly in Spanish and how to conjugate regular and irregular verbs.

Past Perfect

The past perfect, also the pluperfect, is used for actions that took place before a certain time in the past.

Example: Fátima vio ayer Misión Imposible en el cine. Yo ya la había visto la semana anterior.Fatima saw Mission Impossible at the cinema yesterday. I had already seen it the week before.

Visit the page past perfect and discover how and when to use this tense in Spanish and its conjugation rules.

Preterite Perfect

The preterite perfect tense, also past anterior, is a Spanish past tense that is usually only found in literary texts. The preterite perfectindicates an action that took place directly before another past action. In everyday Spanish, it is usually replaced by the preterite tense.

Example: En cuanto hube cobrado mi sueldo, me fui de compras.As soon as I received my salary, I went shopping. = En cuanto cobré mi sueldo, me fui de compras.

Visit preterite perfect and discover how to use this tense correctly in Spanisch, as well as its conjugation rules.

Future ir a + infinitive

The verbal periphrasis ir a + infinitive places an action in the immediate future.

Example: ¡Qué sueño! Voy a dormir.I’m so tired! I'm going to sleep.

Visit ir a + infinitive and discover how and when to use this form correctly.

Future

The future tense expresses a forthcoming action or an intention. It is also used to express a supposition about the present or a supposition or prediction about the future.

Examples: Mañana vendrá el electricista.The electrician will come tomorrow. ¿El gato? Estará dentro del armario.The cat? It will be in the cupboard. A este ritmo, no terminarán la obra a tiempo.At this rate, they won’t finish the work on time.

Visit the page future and discover how and when to use this tense in Spanish and how to conjugate regular and irregular verbs.

Future perfect

The future perfect expresses a forthcoming action that will have concluded before another future action or a moment in the future. It also expresses assumptions or speculations about what may have happened in the past.

Examples: Las obras habrán acabado antes de que termine el lunes.The work will be finished by the end of Monday. Supongo que habrán comprado ya todos los materiales.I suppose they’ve already bought all the materials.

Visit the page future perfect and discover how and when to use this tense in Spanish, as well as its conjugation rules.

Conditional

The conditional tense is used to express recommendations, wishes or hypotheticals. This tense is also used to form in conditional sentences.

Examples: Yo en tu lugar, pediría una segunda opinión.If a were you, I would ask for a second opinion. Me gustaría viajar a todos los países del mundo.I would like to travel to every country in the world. Si hablaras con Maje, te perdonaría.If you talked to Maje, she would forgive you.

Visit the page conditional and discover how and when to use this tense in Spanish and how to conjugate regular and irregular verbs.

Conditional perfect

The conditional perfect is used to express alternative scenarios or actions that could or would have taken place under different circumstances. It is also used to form conditional sentences.

Examples: Habrías podido llamarme.You could have called me. Si me hubieras llamado, te habría ayudado con la mudanza.If you had called me, I would have helped you move.

Visit the page conditional perfect and discover how and when to use this tense in Spanish and how to conjugate regular and irregular verbs.

Grammar Tenses Indicative

• All Tenses Overview
• Present
• Progressive (estar + gerundio)
• Perfect
• Imperfect
• Preterite
• Past Perfect
• Preterite Perfect
• Future (ir + a)
• Future
• Future Perfect
• Conditional
• Conditional Perfect

Tenses Subjunctive Tense Comparison Verbs Verb Conjugator Nouns Articles Pronouns & Determiners Adjectives Adverbs Quantifiers Prepositions Sentence Structure Vocabulary Top 50 Spanish Verbs Numbers, Dates and Time Countries Words with/without an accent Homonyms Confusing Words Connectives Themed Vocabulary Spanish Idioms Vocabulary Calendar Listening/Reading Reading Comprehension Listening Comprehension Writing School Accent Rules Punctuation Help Glossary Sitemap Spanish

How good is your Spanish?

Find out with Lingolia’s free grammar test

Take the test!

Maybe later