Leave your fear about Spanish verbs behind with a simple, easy reading! (II)

In this article, we show you how Spanish verbs can be defined.  Also how we can use just a few key words to establish an order towards our future learning of the Spanish language.

Before the panic sets in, let us tell you: don’t worry! Here, at Isbilia Spanish Online, we make sure our students are completely familiar with the process. Not only for its theoretical and mental importance, but also because we truly believe it reinforces your knowledge and boosts your learning immediately!

Let’s get into it, then!

Besides other concepts that might be more familiar to us (person and number), Verbs are also described by time (Pasado, Presente and Futuro.), finality (is it on-going or finished?) and tense (simple or compuesto). Let’s work on these concepts grabbing the Spanish verb COMER, which is an INFINITIVE or neutral form of the verb TO EAT:

So, in “Sandra come tortilla”, COMER is conjugated in a present, singular and third person form.

In “Sandra comió tortilla”, COMER is conjugated in a past, singular and third person form;

TIME: 

We can notice all of these previous conjugations are only differentiated by suffixes of TIME, but what if we start working with more complex tenses that require more specification? Unlike English, the variety of verbal tenses present in Spanish is very wide – let us help you understand the following key concepts:

TENSE:

According to the speech time, any finished action is a PERFECT action. On the other hand, any unfinished action at speech time is described as IMPERFECT. Logically, present actions are naturally considered to be on-going or imperfect, so they cannot contain an auxiliary form.

Looking at past and future forms, though, our communicational purposes would fail if we don’t specify the terminality of the actions.

So, eventually, the terms “perfecto” and “imperfecto” come in necessary to order our thoughts chronologically. Past actions that are related to the present are marked against past actions that has no impact at all in our current present.

• “Sandra ha comido una manzana” <->“Sandra has eaten an apple”

            *When?:  probably now, today, not further.

• “Sandra comió una manzana” <-> “Sandra ate an apple”

            *When?: we provide the specific reference in time or context for it to make sense, it could be anywhere in the past.

 

This differentiation has its grammatical mark in the appearance of an auxiliary verb, as “have” in English or “haber” in Spanish, while imperfect forms don’t contain any auxiliary form. 

“Sandra has eaten tortilla” → 1 auxiliary verb (have) + 1 main verb → Perfect, past tense.

“Sandra ha comido tortilla” → 1 verbo auxiliar (haber) + 1 verbo principal → Pretérito perfecto compuesto.

 

Careful here! The no realization of an action is also a finished action!

“Sandra didn’t eat an apple” → the action of not eating was finished. → Perfect.

Negative actions can also be imperfect:

“Sandra wasn’t eating an apple” → the action of not eating wasn’t finished. → Imperfect

 

This way, we could classify a verbal tense according to time of the action (pretérito, presente y futuro), tense (perfectos o imperfectos) and composition (simples o compuestos).

“Sandra comió tortilla” → pretérito perfecto simple. 

“Sandra ha comido tortilla” → pretérito perfecto compuesto.