Indicative

The Spanish Present tense is more flexible than English – it can mean “I do,” “I am doing,” or even “I will do” when talking about the near future. Use it for actions or situations that are happening right now, that happen regularly, or that are about to happen soon.

The Preterite (sometimes called the past simple) is used for completed actions in the past – things that happened once and are now finished. It works a lot like the English simple past: “I ate,” “You went,” “She called.”

Think of the Preterite as a single dot on a timeline – a one-time event that started and ended. You’ll often see this tense used with time markers that point to a specific moment, like ayer (yesterday), anoche (last night), el año pasado (last year), or a las 8:00 (at 8 o’clock).

It’s easy to confuse the Preterite with the Imperfect because English often uses simple past tense for both.

To avoid mixing them up, apply the movie rule:

• Imperfect sets the background scene – it answers “What was going on?” or “What used to happen?”
• Preterite moves the story forward with completed actions – it answers “What happened?”

Think of the Imperfect as the setting (weather, time, emotions, ongoing actions), and the Preterite as the plot (clear events that started and ended).

The Imperfect is used for ongoing or habitual situations in the past. It describes how things were, like background details or actions that happened over time without a clear beginning or end.

It’s easy to confuse the Imperfect with the Preterite because English often uses simple past tense for both.

To avoid mixing them up, apply the movie rule:

• Imperfect sets the background scene – it answers “What was going on?” or “What used to happen?”
• Preterite moves the story forward with completed actions – it answers “What happened?”

Think of the Imperfect as the setting (weather, time, emotions, ongoing actions), and the Preterite as the plot (clear events that started and ended).

The Conditional tense works like “would + verb” in English. Use it for hypothetical situations, polite requests, or to say what someone would like to do.

It often describes things that aren’t real right now, but could happen under the right conditions, or simply makes a statement sound more polite and less direct.

The Conditional and the Subjunctive can overlap in meanings such as uncertainty, unreality, or politeness, but they are not interchangeable. The Conditional usually carries a meaning like “would/could,” while the Subjunctive is most often triggered by specific words or sentence patterns.

The Future tense is mostly used for promises, predictions, or strong intentions. It’s not as common in everyday conversation, because Spanish speakers tend to use “ir a” + infinitive for near-future plans. This construction is just like “going to” in English – for example: “Vamos a viajar mañana” – “We’re going to travel tomorrow.”

As a beginner, you can rely on “ir a” for most future situations. But it’s helpful to know the regular future tense when you want to sound more certain, more formal, or talk about something further ahead.