All Spanish Tenses on One Page

Spanish has a lot of tenses, but they're arranged in a clean, almost mathematical grid. Once you can see all of them laid out together — with a single verb conjugated in parallel — the system stops feeling like a long list and starts feeling like a chart you can navigate. This page is that chart.

We'll use hablar (to speak), comer (to eat), and vivir (to live) throughout. Each tense is shown with a one-sentence description of when to use it, a parallel conjugation table for all three verb groups, and a representative example. Every tense also cross-links to its dedicated page so you can dive deeper when you need drills, usage notes, or edge cases.

A note on terminology before we start. Spanish grammar splits "tense" (when something happens) from "mood" (the speaker's stance toward the action) and from "aspect" (whether the action is completed or ongoing). In casual English we lump all of these together and call them "tenses," and this page will do the same for readability. But under the hood, Spanish distinguishes three moods (indicative, subjunctive, imperative), two aspects for the past (preterite = completed, imperfect = ongoing or habitual), and several tenses within each mood.

The grid

Before we go tense by tense, here's the overall shape. Every finite Spanish tense falls into one of three moods (indicative, subjunctive, imperative) and is either simple (one word) or compound (two words: haber + past participle).

There are also three non-finite forms: the infinitive, the gerund, and the past participle. These don't conjugate for a subject — they're the building blocks of the compound tenses and of many other constructions.

Simple indicative tenses

These are the five one-word indicative tenses. Each row of the table shows hablar, comer, and vivir for the yo form. The short description tells you the main use.

Present indicative

Use: Current actions, habits, general truths, and near-future events.

See present indicative usage.

Preterite

Use: Completed, bounded actions in the past. Single events or whole stretches that are finished.

See preterite usage.

Imperfect

Use: Background descriptions, habitual past actions, ongoing past states, age and time in the past.

See imperfect descriptions and preterite vs imperfect.

Future

Use: Future events, predictions, and probability in the present ("must be...").

In conversation, ir a + infinitive (voy a hablar) is often used for the near future. See future vs ir a and future regular.

Conditional

Use: Hypothetical situations, polite requests, future-in-the-past, probability in the past.

See conditional regular and conditional hypothetical.

Compound indicative tenses

Every compound tense is haber (in some simple tense) + past participle (hablado, comido, vivido). The past participle never changes form in these constructions.

Present perfect

Use: Past actions with relevance or connection to the present.

See present perfect usage and present perfect vs preterite.

Pluperfect

Use: An action that happened before another past action ("had done").

See pluperfect usage.

Future perfect

Use: An action that will have been completed by a future point.

See future perfect usage.

Conditional perfect

Use: Hypothetical past situations ("would have done").

See conditional perfect usage.

Subjunctive tenses

The subjunctive expresses doubt, emotion, desire, commands, and hypothetical situations. It has fewer tenses than the indicative — just four in practice.

Present subjunctive

Use: Triggered by expressions of will, emotion, doubt, necessity, or impersonal opinion (in the present or future).

See present subjunctive triggers overview.

Imperfect subjunctive

Use: Same triggers as the present subjunctive, but in past contexts. Also used in si-clauses for contrary-to-fact conditions.

There's also a parallel -se form (hablase, comiese, viviese) used more in Spain than Latin America. See imperfect subjunctive ra forms and si-clauses.

Present perfect subjunctive

Use: Present subjunctive trigger + completed action.

See perfect subjunctive.

Pluperfect subjunctive

Use: A past action under a subjunctive trigger. Common in si-clauses about unreal pasts.

See pluperfect subjunctive and si-clauses type 3.

Imperative

The imperative is the tense of direct commands. It has only one form per person and only exists for second person (tú / vos / ustedes) and nosotros. Third person commands are expressed through que + subjunctive.

Notice that negative commands are just present subjunctive forms. Affirmative tú is different (it matches the third-person present indicative: habla, come, vive), but everything else — usted, ustedes, nosotros, and every negative command — uses subjunctive endings.

See imperative overview, tú affirmative, usted commands, and ustedes commands.

Three words that aren't tenses but feel like they should be

A few common constructions pack tense-like meaning but aren't technically separate tenses. You'll hear them constantly.

Ir a + infinitive — the "near future" or "going to" construction. It competes with and often replaces the simple future in everyday speech.

Acabar de + infinitive — "to have just (done)." It's how Spanish expresses the immediate past.

Soler + infinitive — "to usually (do)." Another way to express habit, alternative to the imperfect.

These three periphrases — ir a, acabar de, soler — aren't in the tense chart but you'll use them as often as many of the tenses that are.

Non-finite forms

These three forms have no subject. They appear inside compound tenses, in progressive constructions, after prepositions, and as the "dictionary form."

See infinitive overview, gerund usage, and past participle formation.

How the compound tenses line up

The compound tenses are worth viewing separately from the simple ones — they're symmetric and mechanical once you know the trick. Every compound tense is haber in some simple tense + past participle. The past participle never changes; only the auxiliary does. So if you know the simple conjugations of haber, you get every compound tense for free.

Notice how cleanly the pattern repeats. Each simple tense has a "perfect" sibling, and they're built by the same rule. Once you master the simple tenses, the compound tenses are mostly vocabulary: learn the six forms of haber and the participle of the verb you want, and you're done.

Progressive tenses

Spanish has a parallel set of progressive tenses formed with estar + gerund. They aren't separate tenses in the traditional sense — they're just the relevant simple tense of estar plus -ando or -iendo. But they're common enough in speech to deserve their own row.

Unlike English, Spanish progressive is used less often — the simple present (leo) often covers "I read" and "I am reading." Reserve the progressive for actions that are literally in progress at the moment you're describing.

See present progressive and future progressive.

One-sentence summary of each tense

If you only read one thing, read this. It's the full tense map with its defining use in a single line each.

Common time expressions by tense

Some adverbs and phrases are natural partners for specific tenses. Seeing them will help you lock in the choice.

Notice how siempre can signal either the present (habit in general), the preterite (if the habit is now over), or the imperfect (if you're narrating a past habit). Context decides.

A learner's order of acquisition

If you're planning how to actually learn all this, here's a practical order. It's not the only valid order, but it matches how most textbooks sequence it and reflects roughly what CEFR levels expect.

Don't take the grid too literally. In practice, intermediate learners already dabble in present subjunctive through fixed triggers like quiero que and espero que, and they hear the imperfect subjunctive long before they produce it confidently. The point of the grid is to show that you don't need everything at once.

How Spanish and English tenses line up

This table maps each English verb construction to its closest Spanish equivalent. The matches aren't always one-to-one — Spanish often has finer distinctions — but this is a useful starting map.

The tricky matches are usually preterite vs imperfect (both are "spoke"), present vs present perfect (both can be "have spoken"), and imperfect subjunctive in si-clauses (English doesn't mark the contrast grammatically).

Navigating the rest of the guide

Each tense has its own dedicated section:

• Present indicative
• Preterite
• Imperfect
• Preterite vs imperfect
• Future regular
• Conditional regular
• Present perfect
• Pluperfect
• Present subjunctive triggers
• Imperfect subjunctive si-clauses
• Imperative overview
• Tenses overview
• Moods