Hablar? Y Futuro y Pasado?
Hi,
I am wondering, what is the best way to start learning how to use future and past tense? How to start being able to use it and remember it?
Any methods or tips that have worked for you personally?
I look at the tables for the verbs and it looks complex and confusing, and then the irregular verbs are crazy.
Also I have a question about Hablar. I met a girl from Panama at my University today as part of a language exchange program (and she texts back extremely fast and wants to talk more, so hopefully I can get in some practice before I go to Chile this summer!).
I asked what one of her texts was saying as she was using hablar. She said "Ya te explicarse la proxima vez que hablemos" and I asked about hablemos.
She said this "Hablemos es en futuro, habalmos es pasado. Hoy fue la primera vez que habalmos"
Now I am looking at the verb table for hablar on spanishdict, it says the preterite form of hablar with nosotros is just the same as the present tense, hablamos. It also says the future tense is hablaremos, but that the subjunctive form is hablemos.
So my question is, is the future tense ever used in spanish? She used the Subjunctive form, should I use that for future?
And I have a hard time thinking she misspelt hablamos that many times by typing it habalmos. Have as any ever heard of this?
CLIFFS 1. How can I start learning past, present, etc for verbs and how to get started, remember, learn effectively, etc. 2. Is future tense ever used in Spanish or should I use subjunctive for future? (not really sure what subjunctive indicates). 3. Ever heard of habalmos?
4 Answers
It's hablamos; not habalmos. Is your friend, perhaps, dyslexic?
The future tense is, indeed, used in Spanish (not always with the same meaning as in English). Spanish also uses the present tense for future time periods just as we do in English. (I'm vacationing in Spain this summer.) In conversation the ir+a+verb infinitive periphrasis is commonly substituted for the future tense.
Ya te explicarse la proxima vez que hablemos.
....the next time that we speak. (the subjunctive mood is used in adverbial clauses that refer to future time) (notice that it is present tense, subjunctive mood-the future tense, subjunctive mood isn't used much anymore.) Again, using present tense to refer to a future time action.
"Hablemos es en futuro (not the future tense, but in future time), habalmos (hablamos) es pasado. (preterite-3rd person, plural same in preterite as present tense, (indicative mood)
.
Hoy fue la primera vez que hablamos" (adverbial clause refers to past action so indicative mood is used)
Just to mention it, the future tense in Spanish is often used to express probability or conjecture. (the likelihood that something may occur) If you wish to say that it is highly probable, the the indicative mood is used. To express doubt (low probability) the subjunctive mood is used.
Welcome to the forum!
If she had said 'I'll explain it to you next time' I think she would have used the future tense wouldn't she?
Te lo explicaré la próxima vez....(que hablemos)
Voy a explicártelo la próxima vez.....
Could one get away with using the "gerund" by saying - "I will be explaining it to you next time" ?
I was wondering the same thing yesterday, I think I made my own sense of the difference between using the future tense and the subjunctive, but it's not that easy because I never went deeply enough into dissecting my native language to be comfortable with terms like 'adverbial clause'.
If she had said 'I'll explain it to you next time' I think she would have used the future tense wouldn't she? It's the presence of 2 verbs, 'explain', and 'talk', talk being modified by 'next time', that puts 'we talk' into the subjunctive?
I'll be watching this thread, thanks for asking it, halfstepdown (can we call you 'half'?)
As to the first part of your question, I don't have a system as such, but I think it will come with practice and familiarity, there are many many forum topics that get us all being more adventurous with our spanish, and plenty of lovely people giving their time to correct mistakes. 
