This cheat sheet covers the major Spanish verb tenses students need for reading, writing, and speaking accurately. It helps students compare when each tense is used and how regular forms are built. A master chart is useful because Spanish often changes meaning through tense, mood, and endings.
Students can use it as a quick reference while practicing sentences and choosing the correct verb form.
The core idea is to match the time and purpose of an action with the correct tense or mood. Regular tenses use predictable endings for -ar, -er, and -ir verbs, while many high-frequency verbs have irregular stems or forms. Compound tenses use haber plus a past participle, and progressive tenses use estar plus a present participle.
Subjunctive forms are used after many expressions of doubt, emotion, desire, uncertainty, or necessity.
Key Facts
- Present tense regular endings are -ar: o, as, a, amos, áis, an; -er: o, es, e, emos, éis, en; -ir: o, es, e, imos, ís, en.
- Preterite tense describes completed past actions, with regular endings -ar: é, aste, ó, amos, asteis, aron and -er/-ir: í, iste, ió, imos, isteis, ieron.
- Imperfect tense describes ongoing, repeated, or background past actions, with endings -ar: aba, abas, aba, ábamos, abais, aban and -er/-ir: ía, ías,ía, íamos, íais, ían.
- Future tense uses the infinitive plus endings é, ás, á, emos, éis, án, as in hablaré, comerás, and vivirán.
- Conditional tense uses the infinitive plus endings ía, ías, ía, íamos, íais, ían, as in tendría, hablaríamos, and vivirían.
- Present perfect uses present haber plus past participle: he, has, ha, hemos, habéis, han plus -ado for -ar verbs or -ido for -er and -ir verbs.
- Present progressive uses estar plus present participle: estoy, estás, está, estamos, estáis, están plus -ando for -ar verbs or -iendo for -er and -ir verbs.
- Present subjunctive usually starts from the yo form of the present tense, drops -o, and adds opposite endings: -ar uses e, es, e, emos, éis, en and -er/-ir uses a, as, a, amos, áis, an.
Vocabulary
- Tense
- A verb form that shows when an action happens, such as present, past, or future.
- Mood
- A verb category that shows the speaker's attitude, such as fact, command, doubt, wish, or possibility.
- Infinitive
- The unconjugated verb form ending in -ar, -er, or -ir, such as hablar, comer, or vivir.
- Participle
- A verb form used in compound tenses, often ending in -ado or -ido in regular Spanish verbs.
- Subjunctive
- A mood used to express doubt, desire, emotion, uncertainty, recommendations, or necessity.
- Irregular verb
- A verb that does not follow the regular conjugation pattern in one or more tenses.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Using the preterite for background descriptions is wrong when the sentence describes ongoing past conditions, age, time, weather, or repeated habits. Use the imperfect in sentences like Era tarde or Íbamos a la escuela cada día.
- Forgetting accents in preterite forms changes the correctness and sometimes the meaning of the verb. Write hablé, comió, and viví with accents where required.
- Using tener plus a past participle for perfect tenses is wrong in standard Spanish. Use haber plus past participle, such as He estudiado, not Tengo estudiado.
- Translating the English future with will too directly can lead to incorrect forms. In Spanish, the simple future is usually infinitive plus endings, such as hablaré, not voy hablaré.
- Using the indicative after expressions of doubt or desire is often wrong. After phrases like Espero que or Dudo que, use the subjunctive, such as Espero que estudies.
Practice Questions
- 1 Conjugate hablar in the yo form of the preterite, the nosotros form of the imperfect, and the ellos form of the future.
- 2 Complete the sentence with the correct form of haber and the past participle: Nosotros _____ _____ la tarea. Use terminar.
- 3 Choose the correct tense and conjugate the verb: Ayer mis amigos _____ al cine. Use ir.
- 4 Explain why Me alegra que tú vengas uses the subjunctive instead of the indicative.