TENSES, IMPERATIVES AND PAST PARTICIPLES



TENSES, IMPERATIVES AND PAST PARTICIPLES

Present tense

The present tense in Spanish has two equivalent English meanings:-

Example: Hablo, I speak; I am speaking.

It is used in Spanish instead of the English past tense to express an action (or state) which began in the past and is still continuing in the present (cf. French depuis):-

Examples: Hace una hora que le espero, I’ve been waiting for him for an hour.

Estoy aquí desde hace un mes, I’ve been here for a month.

Future tense

The future tense in Spanish has two equivalent English meanings:-

Example: Hablaré, I will speak; I will be speaking.

It often denotes in Spanish the idea of probability in the present time:-

Examples: ¿Qué hora es? Será la una. What time is it? It’s probably 1 o’clock.

Se habrá marchado, he must have left.

Conditional tense

The conditional tense in Spanish has two equivalent English meanings:-

Example: Hablaría, I should speak, I should be speaking.

It often denotes in Spanish the idea of probability in the past time:-

Examples: ¿Qué hora era? Sería la una. What time was it? It was probably 1 o’clock.

¿Estaría enferma? Could she be ill?

PAST TENSES

Preterite tense

This tense is used to indicate what happened at a specific moment in the past, equivalent to the simple past in English or the passé simple in French:-

Examples: fui, I went; vieron, they saw; ella vino, she came.

La profesora vio a sus alumnos, the teacher saw her pupils.

In Spanish, this tense is also used in conversation, unlike the passé simple in French.

Imperfect tense

This tense is used to translate the English ‘was/were – ing’, or ‘used to’ (occasionally ‘would’ or to translate the English simple past, when these convey the meaning of ‘used to’). It expresses an action or state of indefinite duration.

Examples: Fumaba, he was smoking, or he used to smoke or he smoked.

Era verdad, it was true (start/end/length is unknown).

Trabajaba cuando le vi, I was working when I saw him.

Cuando era joven, vivíamos en el campo, when we were young, we lived (i.e. used to live) in the country.

Yo daba un paseo todas las mañanas cuando estaba en casa de mi tía, I went for a walk (i.e. used to go) every morning when I stayed (i.e. used to stay) at my aunty’s house.

The imperfect tense is also used in Spanish instead of the pluperfect tense in English to express an action or state which began in the past and was still continuing in the past when something else happened (cf. French depuis):-

Examples: Yo le esperaba desde hacía una hora cuando empezó a llover,

I had been waiting for him for an hour when it started to rain.

Hacía un mes que vivía allí, I had been living there for a month.

Continuous tenses

The tenses of estar, ir, venir, andar and quedar are sometimes used with the present participle of the verb (cf. to be with present participle in English) in order to express continuity of a given action:-

Examples: ¿Dónde está papá? Está trabajando en el jardín. Where is dad? He’s working in the garden.

Siempre estaba trabajando (or trabajaba) cuando le visitaba, he was always working when I visited him.

Imperative mood

The imperative mood is used to express a command. The usted and ustedes forms of the imperative are taken from the present subjunctive. The imperative of the 1st person plural can be expressed by the present subjunctive or by using the immediate future, vamos a + infinitive. (The verb ir is not used in the first person subjunctive form).

Examples: ¡Trabaje (usted)! Work!

¡Trabajen (ustedes)! Work!

¡Trabajemos! Or ¡Vamos a trabajar! Let’s work!

Note: all negative imperatives are expressed using the present subjunctive.

Examples: ¡Busca tus deberes! Look for your homework! But:

¡No busques tus deberes ahora! Don’t look for your homework now!

Note: the first person plural of the positive imperative is not usually used with reflexive verbs and the indicative is more often than not used with negative imperatives too. With the positive forms, the final s of the verb is dropped before the reflexive pronoun and any required accent is added to maintain the stress:-

Examples: ¡Vámanos! Let’s go! Or:

¿Nos vamos? Shall we go?

COMPOUND TENSES (i.e. auxiliary verb haber + past participle)

Pluperfect tense

The pluperfect tense in Spanish has two equivalent English meanings:-

Examples: Había dicho, I had said; I had been saying.

Yo sabía que habías decidido salir, I knew that you had decided to leave.

Yo no había hablado, I had not been speaking.

Past Anterior

This tense is often replaced by the preterite but, in formal Spanish, can be used instead of the pluperfect tense in the subordinate clause of a compound tense when the main clause is in the preterite tense and the subordinate clause is introduced by a conjunction of time such as apenas, hardly, scarcely; cuando, when; luego que, after; no bien, no sooner; así que, tan pronto como, en cuanto, as soon as.

Examples: Cuando hubo terminado el trabajo, salió, when he had finished the work, he left.

Tan pronto como hubo encendido la luz, vio al hombre muerto, as soon as he had opened the door, he saw the dead man.

Perfect tense

The perfect tense is used to translate ‘has’ or ‘have’ with a past participle:-

Examples: No he estado nunca por aquí, I never been around here.

Aún no han llegado, they still haven’t arrived.

Note: there are many irregular past participles, for example:

|Abrir |To open |Abierto |

|Cubrir |To cover |Cubierto |

|Decir |To say |Dicho |

|Descubrir |To discover |Descubierto |

|Escribir |To write |Escrito |

|Hacer |To do, make |Hecho |

|Morir |To die |Muerto |

|Poner |To put |Puesto |

|Romper |To break |Roto |

|Volver |To return |Vuelto |

And verbs whose stems end in a vowel require an accent – ído:-

|Caer |To bring |Caído |

|Leer |To read |Leído |

|Traer |To bring |Traído |

Note: the perfect tense is used in Spanish to express an action which has taken place at an unspecified time in the immediate past, often where the simple past is used in English:-

Examples: Recientemente he visitado a mi abuelo, I recently visited my grandfather.

¿Me has oído? Did you hear me?

The Participles

The present participle is always invariable in Spanish. It is mainly used verbally or to form the continuous tenses with the verbs estar, ir, quedar…

The present participle cannot be used as a verbal noun in Spanish, instead an infinitive is used:-

Example: Ver es creer, seeing is believing.

‘By’ followed by a present participle in English is usually translated by a present participle in Spanish:-

Example: Me harás muy feliz terminándolo, you’ll make me very happy by finishing it.

Note: The present participle ending – ando or – iendo, being invariable can only be used verbally and not as an adjective agreeing with a noun. If an adjectival use is required, it is replaced as follows: – ando becomes – ante; – iendo becomes – iente:-

Examples: Había agua corriendo por las paredes, there was water running down the walls.

Había agua corriente en la habitación, there was running water in the room.

Past participles used as adjective or in an ‘absolute’ construction vary as with adjectives:-

Examples: Las niñas, muy cansadas, se acostaron, the girls, very tired, went to bed.

Terminados sus deberes, salieron, their homework finished, they went out.

But:

Habiendo terminado el trabajo, salió, having finished the work, he went out.

Past participles conjugated with haber in compound tenses are invariable (no pdo agreement, as in French), but agree in gender and number with the subject of the sentence when conjugated with ser (in the passive) or estar, i.e. when acting as adjectives:-

Examples: La chica fue herida en el accidente, the girl was injured in the accident.

Ella no está tan emocionada hoy, she’s not so exited today.

Mis abuelos nos han visitado varias veces, my grandparents have visited us several times.

Tener, llevar, quedar etc., are used with the past participle of the verb to indicate that the action is finished; the past participle agrees with the object in this construction:-

Example: Tengo/llevo escritas todas las cartas, I have written all the letters.

JCW

01.01.06

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