Overview

1. Main characteristics of the Spanish verb system
2. Present tense indicative
3. Preterite
4. Imperfect
5. Perfect tenses
6. Subjunctive
7. Commands

PRINCIPALES CARACTERÍSTICAS DEL SISTEMA VERBAL EN ESPAÑOL
MAIN CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SPANISH VERB SYSTEM

[llega Elena 0:05-0:08]

 ¡Ya estamos aquí!
We are here already.

Subjects do not always appear explicitly, because the verbs have endings that indicate the subject.

Besides not needing an explicit subject in every sentence, Spanish is flexible regarding the subject position, which can appear before or after the verb, and not only in questions.

INSERT MINICLIP

Nos lo recomendó Andrea.
Andrea recommended it to us.

-¿Donde está mi celular?   –Tu celular está en la mesa.
-Where’s my cellphone?   -Your cellphone is on the table.

Me dijo mi hermana que estás estudiando biología.
My sister told me you are studying biology.

En esa fiesta nos conocimos mi marido y yo.
At that party my husband and I met.

Subject pronouns

-¿De dónde eres?
–Soy de Italia. Soy el asistente de italiano.

The endings of verbs are formed (conjugated) according to the infinitive endings: -ar/-er/-ir.

Infinitive endings determine the conjugation, that is, all other endings for the verb, besides any internal irregularity the verb may have.

In terms of regularity, there are 3 kinds of verbs, depending to what happens to the stem (or root) when the verb is conjugated. The stem is the infinitive minus -ar/-er/-ir  endings:
estudi-ar     extend-er     asist-ir

A verb is not always stem-changing or irregular in every tense.

Conjugated verbs also indicate tense (time) and mood (real versus potential or subjective), or commands.

In Wespañol, the only tenses presented are the present of indicative and subjunctive, the past tenses of the indicative, and commands.

There are 3 verbal constructions in Spanish that appear very frequently but don’t have exact English equivalents.

• Recurrent actions in the present

Me levanto a las 8 todos los días.
I get up at 8 every day.

• Generalizations

Hace frío en invierno.
It is cold in winter.

•  Actions in development at the present moment: estar + -ando / -iendo

Me estoy levantando ahora mismo.
I’m getting up right now.

Están comiendo en la cafetería.
They are eating in the cafeteria.

• Historic present

Obama llega a la Casa Blanca en enero de 2009.
Obama arrives at the White House in January of 2009.

• Planned future actions ir a + infinitive

Mañana voy a levantarme a las 10.
Tomorrow I’m going to get up at 10.

The ending forms are presented below according to regularity patterns: 

For space efficiency, conjugations are presented without the subject pronouns, according to the following pattern:

yo  / tú  / usted-él-ella / nosotras-nosotros /  ustedes-ellas-ellos
Example: ayudar:  ayudo / ayudas / ayuda / ayudamos / ayudan

• Completed actions in the past

Ayer me levanté a las 8.
I got up at 8 yesterday.

• The beginning or the end of a past action

El partido comenzó a las 8 y terminó a las 10.
The game started at 8 and ended at 10.

• In a series of actions, often indicating the sequence in which they occurred

Me levanté, me duché, me vestí y salí para el trabajo.
I got up, showered, dressed, and left for work.

-Bueno, Elena, ¿Y cuándo llegaste?
-Well, Elena, when did you arrive?
-Llegué hace una semana, el miércoles pasado.
-I arrived a week ago, last Wednesday.

Forms are presented according to the following categories of verbs:

The imperfect (el imperfecto) has several equivalents in English:
(yo) comía = I ate / I used to eat / I would eat / I was eating

•  Habitual, recurrent actions in the past.

Cuando era niña, vivíamos en Madrid.
When I was a child we lived/were living in Madrid.

Cuando era pequeño, visitábamos a mis abuelos en Maine todos los veranos.
When I was a child, we would visit my grandparents in Maine every summer.

• Descriptions (of people, things, weather, …) in the past.

Era un día de noviembre y llovía.
It was a November day and it was raining.

Eran las 7 de la mañana y ya hacía calor.
It was 7 in the morning and it was already hot.

• An action that was happening in the past when another one occurred — often the developing action is expressed in the progressive.

Estaba lloviendo cuando salimos de casa.
It was raining when we left home.

• The imperfect progressive is often used to accentuate the sense of an action in development.

Estábamos comiendo cuando llamaste.
We were eating when you called.

The imperfect is an easy tense in terms of forms — only 3 irregular verbs.

LOS TIEMPOS PERFECTOS DE INDICATIVO
PERFECT TENSES

• Perfect tenses are compound verb tenses that include a conjugated form of  haber plus a past participle (eaten, given, done, etc…)
  
• There are two in the past indicative: present perfect and pluperfect (or past perfect)

EL PRESENTE PERFECTO   PRESENT PERFECT

• The present perfect  in Spanish is very similar to English — it expresses past actions that are relevant in the present, or actions that originated in the past but are still current.

Mi familia ha viajado por todo el mundo.
My family has traveled all over the world.

Bueno, he llegado ayer, así que…
Well, I have just arrived, so…

•  Pronouns (reflexive or object) appear before the haber form.

¿Se han levantado los niños ya?
Have the kids woken up yet?

No nos hemos ido todavía.
We have not left yet.

The pluperfect in Spanish is identical to English — it expresses actions that occurred (or didn’t occur) prior to another action or moment in the past.

James había estudiado español varios años
antes de estudiarlo en la universidad.
James had studied Spanish for several years
before studying it in college.

No había empezado la tarea cuando llegaron mis amigas.
I hadn’t started the homework when my friends arrived.

Para el 2016 todavía no nos habíamos graduado de la universidad.
By 2016, we still had not graduated from college.

In general terms, subjunctive verbs:

• Often express actions that have not taken place yet at the time of the sentence; in other words, they often refer to a possible future action; OR they express reality in a manner that reflects the speaker’s attitude towards it.
• Almost always are subordinate (or dependent) verbs in a complex sentence (there is a part of the sentence in the indicative mood).
• Follow que or another conjunction (word or group of words that connect ideas within a sentence).

There are 4 subjunctive tenses: present, imperfect, present perfect, and pluperfect. Wespañol only presents the present subjunctive.

There are command forms for tú, usted, ustedes, vosotras/os and nosotras/os. In Wespañol only the forms for usted/ustedes and tú are presented, which are the most common and widely used commands.