The present tense in Spanish

The present tense is used is the English equivalent of the present simple and the present progressive, so we use the present tense is used to report an action that is happening.

She jogs
Ella trota
She is jogging
Ella está trotando

The basics of verbs in Spanish

  • Infinitive: refers to the pure form of the verb, it is the English equivalent of “to see”, “to read”, “to love”.
  • Infinitive ending: in Spanish all infinitive verbs have three possible endings “-ar”, “-er” or “-ir”.
  • Base of the verb: when we see a verb in its infinitive form and remove the ending (“-ar”, “-er” or “-ir”.) we have the base of the verb or it is also known as the root. That base is what allows us to conjugate any of them.
  • Conjugated verb: this consists of taking the root of the verb and adding the ending that corresponds to the subject in the sentence.
  • Regular verbs: these are verbs that are conjugated in a predictable and constant way, they do not present alterations of any kind in their base.
  • Irregular verbs: verbs whose conjugation differs from that which we can apply to regular verbs, making them a little more complicated to memorize.
  • The subject: the person or thing that performs the action in the sentence, and based on that individual we will conjugate the verb.
See also  From Menu to Dessert: Speak Spanish Confidently in Any Restaurant

Questions in Spanish

To ask questions, the place of the verb and the subject are exchanged, although it is also possible to ask a question without changing the place of the verb and the subject, but the intonation of the sentence changes and it is possible to understand that it is a question. For both ways of asking questions, it is necessary to use the question marks

You sing a Metallica song
cantas una canción de Metallica
Do you sing a Metallica song?
¿Cantas una canción de Metallica?
You sing a Metallica song?
¿ cantas una canción de Metallica?

Expressing future with the present tense

We can express a future action with the present tense by adding an adverbial expression that indicates that the action will take place later. The sentence will be exactly the same, but the adverb will be added.

I will study with my sister tomorrow
Yo estudio con mi hermana mañana

Negative sentences

To create a negative sentence in Spanish in the present tense, all we need to do is to add the word “no” before the verb.

I don’t want coffee
Yo no quiero cafe
Share
Scroll to Top
Esta web utiliza cookies propias y de terceros para su correcto funcionamiento y para fines analíticos y para fines de afiliación y para mostrarte publicidad relacionada con sus preferencias en base a un perfil elaborado a partir de tus hábitos de navegación. Contiene enlaces a sitios web de terceros con políticas de privacidad ajenas que podrás aceptar o no cuando accedas a ellos. Al hacer clic en el botón Aceptar, acepta el uso de estas tecnologías y el procesamiento de tus datos para estos propósitos. Configurar y más información
Privacidad