Names of tenses in English and Spanish
Can anybody tell me the names of tenses used in Spanish and English with atleast one example in both languages. It is difficult for me to under which tense of English is named what in Spanish.
11 Answers
Can anybody tell me the names of tenses used in Spanish and English with atleast one example in both languages. It is difficult for me to under which tense of English is named what in Spanish.
Tenses are used differently in many circumstances, but these are the rough equivalents:
Present / Presente: I am here / Estoy aquí
Present perfect / Pretérito perfecto: I have eaten / He comido
Present progressive / Presente progresivo (not the standard name): I am eating / Estoy comiendo
Present perfect progressive / Pretérito perfecto progresivo (not the standard name): I have been eating / He estado comiendo
Simple Past / Pretérito (simple) or (Pretérito) Indefinido: I went / Fui
Past perfect / Pretérito anterior: I had comido / Hube comido
Past progressive / Pretérito "progresivo" or Indefinido "progresivo"(not the standard names): I was eating / Estuve comiendo
Past perfect progressive / Pretérito anterior "progresivo" (not the standard names): I had been eating / Hube estado comiendo
Future simple / Futuro simple: I will eat / Comeré
Future perfect / Futuro compuesto: I will have eaten / Habré comido
Future progressive/ Futuro "progresivo" (not the standard name): I will be eating / Estaré comiendo
Future perfect progressive/ Futuro compuesto "progresivo" (not the standard name): I will have been eating / Habré estado comiendo
Conditional / condicional : I would eat / Comería
Conditional perfect / condicional compuesto: I would have eaten / Habría comido
Conditional progressive / condicional "progresivo" (not the standard name): I would be eating / Estaría comiendo
Conditional perfect progressive / condicional compuesto "progresivo" (not the standard name): I would have been eating / Habría estado comiendo
Spanish has two past tenses, and although I wrote above that "preterite" = "pretérito", they are not always used the same. To this list, we have to add the pretérito imperfecto (imperfect), which does not exist in English:
Pretérito Imperfecto: Comía (roughly, I was eating)
Pretérito pluscuamperfecto: había comido (roughly, I had been eating)
Pretérito Imperfecto "progresivo" (not the standard name): Estaba comiendo (roughly, I was eating)
Pretérito pluscuamperfecto"progresivo" (not the standard name): Había estado comiendo (roughly, I had been eating)
This, of course, not include the non-finite forms and the subjunctive ones.
I'll give you a link to the Spanish names, but you may find them confusing at first. Books written in English describing Spanish grammar often use the terms imperfect and preterit(e) for Spanish's two simple past tenses. As you will see both tenses actually have the word preterit(e) in their name so if you use the names correctly you are probably going to get unusual reactions from your fellow students.
This table conjugates the verb HABER into the various tenses.
This table only shows the simple tenses and not the compound tenses. (I'm looking for the link)
Also, you cannot see all the verbs endings unless you also mention that you wish to see all 3 or 4 moods(the conditional tense seems to be listed in some sites as a mood, and in others as a tense). [RAE-tense; not mood]
Spanish moods
indicative
subjunctive
imperative
(conditional-mood or tense depending on whom you ask)[RAE-tense; not mood]
Well... it was also to remind you, English natives, that you also have a lot of tenses (we have more, I know), because I keep hearing that Spanish has too many tenses, and they are often referring to tenses that also exist in English, more or less. Many people who study English find that it has a lot of tenses too (compared to their languages). Imagine what this list of tenses must feel like for a Chinese student of English, considering that there are no tenses in Chinese.
Tenses are used differently in many circumstances, but these are the rough equivalents:
Lazarus:
This is the best English/Spanish verb tense comparison I have ever seen. WOW.
In supplement to the list Lazarus gave:
Both Spanish and English have a passive and active voice. These are both formed with the past participle preceded by a form of 'to be' (ser). Furthermore, both idioms have three moods: indicative, imperative, and subjunctive, but, in English, the subjunctive is impossibly rare, limited to subordinate clauses in sentences such as "John would eat, were he hungry."
What you asked for was a list, and Lazarus' is beautiful. My only reminder is not to get confused between the Perfect aspect and the perfective/imperfective tense.
Perfect aspect in the present tense (present perfect): I have talked; He hablado.
Perfective (Preterite Perfect): I talked; Hablé Imperfective (Preterite Imperfect): I talked (English only has a single past tense); Yo hablaba.
How about this: there are no equivalent tenses in English and Spanish.
English is English and Spanish is Spanish and any supposed similarities are in fact just tricks of the mind.
If you are trying to learn Spanish then I personally think that trying to relate everything back to English will not work.
Classic example:
How do you do?
¿Cómo hace tú haces'
Thanks for such a great difference.It helps me alot.
I see that you don't mention the conditional tense (simple or compound) so do you consider it it a mood and not a tense?
If you wish to see a list of the tenses and other verb constructions in English then see our reference section.
verbs: moods, tenses, and other constructions
If you placed Haber into our conjugator you would see these Spanish tense titles.
haber in SpanishDict conjugator
I would be cautious in accepting those names, however, for the compound (perfected) tenses as I believe they have been anglicized. I believe that the actual names of the compound tenses have the word compuesto in them, but I can't find a site that has a simple table.
Spanish is a Romance language ( based from vulgar latin) and english is a germanic language (from old german or as used to be said by roman areas Barbaric) Two completely different origins.
Not completely different. They are all Indoeuropean.
How about this: there are no equivalent tenses in English and Spanish.
English is English and Spanish is Spanish and any supposed similarities are in fact just tricks of the mind.
If you are trying to learn Spanish then I personally think that trying to relate everything back to English will not work.
Classic example:
How do you do?
¿Cómo hace tú haces?
Yeah, looking for literal translations will be very difficult, if you literally translate things, it will probably make no sense at all to a native spanish speaker. As if they literally translated things to english we would be confused on what they were trying to say too.
Spanish is a Romance language ( based from vulgar latin) and english is a germanic language (from old german or as used to be said by roman areas Barbaric) Two completely different origins.
I know some names but very confused.
Simple present tense = Simple presente
Simple past tense = Preterite
Simple future tense = Simple futuro
Present continuous tense = Gerunido
Past continuous tense =?
Future continuous tense =?
Present perfect tense = Presente preterito
Past perfect tense =?
Future perfect tense =?
Present perfect continuous tense =?
Past perfect continuous tense =?
Future perfect continuous tense =?
These r the tenses we that we use in English. Along with these pls tell me names of other tenses used in Spanish.
