Learning Spanish

Most common verb conjugations

1. Present Tense (Indicative Mood)
   • Talking about current actions, habits, and general truths.
2. Preterite Tense (Simple Past)
   • Completed actions in the past.
3. Imperative Mood (Commands)
   • Commands, requests, suggestions, advice, instructions. Asking someone to move, hand you an object, come over, do something, etc. “¡Ven!”, “Pasa, por favor”, “Dame eso”, “Mira esto,” “Come más,” “Habla más despacio, por favor”
   • Uses roots from Subjunctive Present

Common phrases and words

1. Transition Phrases
2. Exclamative Constructions
3. Por v. Para

Direct and indirect object pronouns

Reflexive verbs

Second priority verb conjugations

1. Imperfect Tense (Past Habitual)
   • Past actions with no clear beginning or end, or repeated habits in the past.
2. Future Tense
   • Future actions or events, though many Spanish speakers use “ir a + infinitive”
3. Conditional Tense
   • Hypothetical situations, polite requests, or conditions “¿Podrías ayudarme?”
4. Progressive Tenses
   • Emphasize actions on-going or in progress at a specific moment (not technically a tense) “estar” + gerundio

Last priority verb conjugations

1. Subjunctive Present Mood
   • Expresses uncertainty, emotion, desire, doubt, recommendations.
2. Subjunctive Past Mood
3. Compound Tenses (haber + past participle)
   • Pretérito perfecto (He hablado):
     • refers to the present condition (I have done something up until now).
   • Pretérito pluscuamperfecto (había hablado):
     • describes an action further in the past than another past action
   • Futuro perfecto (Habré hablado)
     • Expresses an action that will have happened by a certain point in the future, or to make a conjecture about the past.
   • Condicional perfecto (Habría hablado)
     • Talks about hypothetical or unrealized past events, regrets, or conditional statements.
   • Perfect Subjunctive Tenses (Haya hablado)
     • Used in more complex sentences involving emotion, doubt, or subjectivity about completed actions.