What order should I learn Spanish Verb Tenses?
Hi! I am an 11 year-old living in Florida, where there are a lot of Spanish speakers. Because of this, I am attempting fluency in Spanish. One thing that I really want to master is verb tenses. Does anybody have any advice on what order I should learn verb tenses? Thanks a lot!
4 Answers
It depends whether you are learning with a teacher and or following a course/ using a book.
Do work hard at pronunciation. Spanish pronunciation is logical. The vowel sounds are more important than the consonants. You can learn how to say the sounds and where the stress is on each word and you will have cracked it.
Start with the present tense. When you talk to babies everything is said in the present tense.
Make sure you learn the basic irregular verbs like ser, estar, hacer, ir etc. Learn Haber at this stage. It is used in the word hay = there is and there are then it is also used when you build tenses. Later you will discover that the first person singular forms the root of other tenses
Interestingly the endings of haber in the present tense are the endings of the future tense.
I remember learning the present progressive at this stage, but I do not use it much eg Estoy caminando Estar + gerund I am walking
Then the future tense - but remember you can always fall back on ir a eg voy a viajar I am going to travel.
I then learnt the present perfect ( learn the correct names in Spanish - I know some of the names change). This is your old friend Haber in the present tense + the past participle. I found it easy to learn but it is used much more in Spain than elsewhere.
The basic past tenses are preterite and imperfect. The third person plural of the preterite is later used to form the root of another tense.
This site has various exercises
Listen to music and take note of the verbs.
Of course I have learnt more than this, but think how long you took listening then speaking <English. It is not a race and time spent on the basics is important eg difference between set and estar, using indirect and direct objects, preterite or imperfect.
Meanwhile listen to lots of Spanish and try and find people to speak to
You will benefit from a teacher or a good course to understand the verbs.
When you learn new words try and learn them in a phrase eg I saw a new blue car yesterday.
Good luck
I encourage you to learn conjugation by writing complete sentences. A site like Duolingo will encourage you to type compete sentences with proper conjugations and will teach you the tenses in the approximate order of importance of their use.
When you first start with Duolingo, there is nothing wrong with using a conjugation chart on one screen or tab while you are writing the Spanish sentences in Duolingo. This might seem like cheating, but I don't think of it that way. You are just using the dictionary, the conjugation charts, etc. as tools....something you will want to do for quite awhile as you continue to learn Spanish.
Duolingo lessons are continuously repeated...they come up again when they are "cold" so to speak. So, if the first time or two you do them, you have to use the conjugation chart, you will probably be able to do it from memory after that.
Learning to choose the correct tense/mood and conjugate properly while writing complete sentences is, IMHO, much more beneficial (and fun) than doing conjugation drills.
The usual order is first, Indicative mood, present tense. This is your foundation. After this, the past tenses which are the imperfect and the preterite. One of the future tenses would be included during your present tense studies while studying the verb "ir" to go.
Next you will need to start dealing with the subjunctive mood, and imperative mood. The imperative mood is the one where you give orders and instructions. The subjunctive is used for various reasons such as doubt and uncertainty. Just the present tense of the subjunctive mood for now.
Next continuing in the Indicative mood, you will need to study the future and conditional tenses, followed by the so-called "perfect" tenses. There are several of these. I won't go into detail in this, there is plenty of information elsewhere on SD.
You finish off with a study into the past or imperfect subjunctive.
This is the usual order that is followed in American (US) universities.
This link from 2009 was discussed before with link. Read it thoroughly. What order do you recommend to learn the tenses and subjunctive and why?
