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Common Spanish Tenses

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Learn More About the Spanish Tenses

When learning to speak Spanish, it is important to get to grips with the different tenses. Indeed, understanding tenses will enable you to indicate whether actions or events have taken place in the past, are taking place in the present, or will take place in the future, which can be vitally important.

Nevertheless, there are several different tenses for each of these three time periods, and some do not correspond directly with English tenses, which can make it slightly confusing. To help you to develop your understanding, we have compiled a table of the main Spanish tenses, along with explanations and examples of when to use them.

Name	Past, Present, or Future	When to use this Spanish tense	Frequency of use	Examples of use
Present / Presente	Present	Much like the present tense in English, the presente is used to describe actions in the present, facts or conditions that exist in the present, or to express how long something has been occurring. It can occasionally also be used to describe future actions, when that future time is specified.	High	Este es mi hermano John juega al fútbol cada viernes
Present perfect / Pretérito perfecto	Past and Present	The pretérito perfecto corresponds with the English present perfect tense, and uses the present tense form of haber, followed by the past participle of the verb. It is primarily used to describe completed actions that took place in the past, but have present day implications.	High	Ella le ha dicho a su opinión Santiago ha ordenado su cuarto
Imperfect / Pretérito imperfecto	Past	The pretérito imperfecto is used to describe past situations or habitual actions. It usually places an emphasis on the the progression of an action, but can also be used to give a more general description of a past setting, making it useful for storytelling purposes.	Medium	Cuando era más jóven vivía con mis padres Jugábamos juntos todas las mañanas si hacía buen tiempo
Simple past / Pretérito indefinido	Past	The pretérito indefinido can be used to describe a completed past action that occurred only once, or when talking about a newly started action in the past, which interrupted another action. Additionally, it can describe a general truth, such as a completed past relationship.	High	Mi amigo llegó la semana pasada Vimos esta película en el cine el día de su estreno
Past perfect / Pretérito pluscuamperfecto	Past	The past perfect tense, or pretérito pluscuamperfecto, is utilised when describing an event or action that occurred before another point in the past. For example, if you are telling a story in the simple past tense, but want to refer to an event even earlier, you would use the pretérito pluscuamperfecto.	High	El espectáculo ya había terminado cuando llegamos Había cerrado la puerta antes de salir
Past anterior / Pretérito anterior	Past	Although it is almost never used in conversation, the pretérito anterior does occasionally appear in literature and formal written works. It is similar to the pretérito pluscuamperfecto, but is used to express an action in the past, which took place immediately before another action in the past.	Low	En cuanto hubo empezado la película, Jennifer se sentó
Simple future / Futuro simple	Future	Much like the simple future or future imperfect tense in other languages, we primarily use the futuro simple to express intentions for the future. With that said, it can also be used to make suppositions about the future and, more rarely, about the present.	High	La próxima semana estaré de vacaciones El mes que viene iré a Barcelona
Future perfect / Futuro compuesto	Future	The futuro compuesto, sometimes referred to as the futuro perfecto, is used when expressing a supposition that an event or action will have taken place, either by the time of speaking, or by a specified time in the future.	Medium	Él habrá ido a otro restaurante Cuando yo llegue a la fiesta, ya se habrán marchado todos