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Verbos: Los siete tiempos sencillos

Why do you want to know this?

We spend a lot of our time using simple verb tenses and while some of them are very easy (like the present and the future) some are a bit more complicated (like the preterite, imperfect and subjunctive). Whether you have already studied them or you have no idea what these verb tenses are, you will benefit from practicing them below!

1. Los tiempos sencillos

What are they? 

Simple verb tenses are the verbs that are conjugated with one word

  • I eat – Yo como
  • I danced – Yo bailé

This is in contrast to compound verb tenses that use two verbs (an auxiliary and the verb)

  • I have eaten – Yo he comido
  • I had danced – Yo había bailado

Which are the seven simple tenses?

They are: present, future, preterite, imperfect, conditional, present subjunctive and imperfect subjunctive. If you learned Spanish at home chances are you use them without knowing what they are called. If you learned Spanish in a classroom setting, you will probably remember learning them.

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2. Presente

We use the present to speak about things happening in the present (Yo como una manzana) and sometimes also to talk in the future after we establish we are doing (Mañana llego a las ocho)

How do we conjugate it? 

 
 

AR

ER

IR

Yo

canto

como

vivo

cantas

comes

vives

Él/ Ella/ Usted

canta

come

vive

Nosotros 

cantamos

comemos

vivimos

Ellos/ Ellas/ Ustedes

cantan

comen

viven

There are verbs that change their root or spelling in the present. You can always consult a dictionary or this verb conjugator to find answers. Also, this site gives a deep explanation if you want to look.

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3. Futuro

We use this tense to talk about something that will happen. While this tense is the “oficial” future tense, we also use the construction ir + infinitive to refer to the future. 

 

  • Yo voy a comer

  • Ella va a bailar

 

Sometimes we use the above construction more than the actual “oficial” future, but it is still good to practice it.  

 

How do we conjugate it? 

 

AR

ER

IR

Yo

cantaré

comeré

viviré

cantarás

comerás

vivirás

Él/ Ella/ Usted

cantará

comerá

vivirá

Nosotros 

cantaremos

comeremos

viviremos

Ellos/ Ellas/ Ustedes

cantarán

comerán

vivirán

Some things to remember:

 

  • Remember to put accent marks

  • Some verbs are irregular in the future tense, for example 

    • decir  → dir-

    • poder → podr-

    • poner → pondr-

    • querer → querr-

    • tener → tendr-

    • venir → vendr-

 

There are verbs that change their root or spelling in the future. You can always consult a dictionary or this verb conjugator to find answers. Also, this site gives a deep explanation if you want to look.

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4. Pretérito

The Preterite Tense is one of two ways to talk about events that happened in the past in Spanish (the other one is the “Imperfect”. The preterite tense is used to indicate a completed action that took place at a specific point in time. For example

  • Armando me llamó a las nueve.
  • Regresaron de España ayer.
  • Olivia se fue esta tarde.

How do we conjugate it? 

 

 

AR

ER

IR

Yo

canté

comí

viví

cantaste

comiste

viviste

Él/ Ella/ Usted

cantó

comió

vivió

Nosotros 

cantamos

comimos

vivimos

Ellos/ Ellas/ Ustedes

cantaron

comieron

vivieron

Some things to remember: 

 

  • Use the accent mark for “yo” and “él/ella/ud.” every time!

  • There are a lot of verbs that change their root or spelling in the preterite. You can always consult a dictionary or this verb conjugator to find answers. Also, this site gives a deep explanation if you want to look. 

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5. Imperfecto

The Imperfect Tense is one of two ways to talk about events that happened in the past in Spanish (the other one is the “Preterite”. The imperfect tense is used to:

 

  • describe repeated, habitual, or usual actions in the past

    • Siempre llegaba a la escuela temprano.

  • describe actions that were ongoing in the past

    • Yo dibujaba mientras que ella pintaba.

  • describe what things were like in the past

    • La ciudad era vieja y sucia.

  • describe time and people’s ages in the past

    • Isabel tenía ocho años.

How do we conjugate it? 

 

 

AR

ER

IR

Yo

cantaba

comía

vivía

cantabas

comías

vivías

Él/ Ella/ Usted

cantaba

comía

vivía

Nosotros 

cantábamos

comíamos

vivíamos

Ellos/ Ellas/ Ustedes

cantaban

comían

vivían

Some things to remember: 

 

  • Use the accent mark every time with ER and IR verbs!

 

There are a lot of verbs that change their root or spelling in the imperfect. You can always consult a dictionary or this verb conjugator to find answers. Also, this site gives a deep explanation if you want to look

¡Practiquemos!

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6. Condicional

The conditional is a verb conjugation used when some action is based upon some condition or somehow contingent on something else. This corresponds to the English use of the word “would.” For example:

 

  •  “What would you do?” “I would sing louder.”

  • ¿Qué harías? Yo cantaría más alto

How do we conjugate it? 

 

 

AR

ER

IR

Yo

cantaría

comería

viviría

cantarías

comerías

vivirías

Él/ Ella/ Usted

cantaría

comería

viviría

Nosotros 

cantaríamos

comeríamos

viviríamos

Ellos/ Ellas/ Ustedes

cantarían

comerían

vivirían 

Some things to remember: 

 

  • Use the accent mark every time in all of them!

  • There are a lot of verbs that change their root or spelling in the conditional. You can always consult a dictionary or this verb conjugator to find answers. Also, this site gives a deep explanation if you want to look. 

¡Practiquemos!

 

¿Quieres practicar más? Practica aquí

¡Hola! A continuación tienes algo para practicar. Debes lograr al menos 80% ¡Suerte!

7. Presente del subjuntivo

Chances are if you learned Spanish at home you use the subjunctive to some degree unless English became extremely dominant before you were twelve, which is the average age when a monolingual child acquires the subjunctive. Now, if you learned Spanish in the classroom, you probably remember the subjunctive and hopefully enjoy trying to figure out when to use it. 

 

Unlike the other verb tenses we have visited, the subjunctive is tricky because it doesn’t express actual things that have happened or will happen, instead it is used to convey desire, express doubt, or discuss non-concrete situations.

 

  • Yo dudo que me llamen

  • Mi mamá quiere que yo estudie

 

We go into the subjunctive in more depth in THIS UNIT, for now let’s just review its conjugation

How do we conjugate it? 

It can be helpful to use “que” before conjugating the subjunctive. For example, 

 

Mi mamá quiere que…

 

 

AR

ER

IR

Yo

cante

coma

viva

cantes

comas

vivias

Él/ Ella/ Usted

cante

coma

viva

Nosotros 

cantemos

comamos

vivamos

Ellos/ Ellas/ Ustedes

canten

coman

vivan

Some things to remember: 

 

  • There are a some of verbs that change their root or spelling in the conditional. You can always consult a dictionary or this verb conjugator to find answers. If you want to get into the subjunctive deeper, you can read more about it here

¡Practiquemos!

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8. Imperfecto del subjuntivo

From all the simple tenses, the imperfect subjunctive is the one people struggle with the most because there are ways of saying the same thing to avoid using it so many just avoid it. Still, it can be a very helpful tense to convey desire, express doubt, or discuss non-concrete situations that happened in the past. 

  • Yo dudaba que me llamaran

  • Mi mamá quería que yo estudiara

We go into the imperfect subjunctive in more depth in THIS UNIT, for now let’s just review its conjugation

How do we conjugate it? 

There are two ways to do it (ej. Cantara or cantase)

It can be helpful to use “que” before conjugating the subjunctive. For example, 

Mi mamá quería que…

 

 

AR

ER

IR

Yo

Cantara – cantase

Comiera – comiese

Viviera – viviese

Cantaras – cantases

Comieras – comieses

Vivieras – vivieses

Él/ Ella/ Usted

Cantara – cantase

Comiera – comiese

Viviera – viviese

Nosotros 

Cantáramos – cantásemos

Comiéramos – comiésemos

Viviéramos – viviésemos

Ellos/ Ellas/ Ustedes

Cantaran – cantasen

Comiera- comiesen

Vivieran – viviesen

Some things to remember: 

  • Don’t forget the accent marks in the “nosotros”

There are some of verbs that change their root or spelling in the conditional. You can always consult a dictionary or this verb conjugator to find answers. If you want to get into the subjunctive deeper, you can read more about it here

¡Practiquemos!

 

¿Quieres practicar más? Practica aquí

This unit “Los siete tiempos simples” was created by Alegría Ribadeneira by combining original material and sections about verbs from Spanish411.net, licensed CC BY-NC-SA and Spanish Grammar Manual by Enrique Yépez licensed  CC BY-NC-SA.