Spanish Tenses Chart: All 14 Tenses with Examples (Cheat Sheet)

There are 17 Spanish tenses (tiempos verbales) according to the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) and its Nueva gramática: 10 in the indicative, 6 in the subjunctive and the imperative. Three of them are archaic and you won't hear them in everyday speech: the pretérito anterior (hube hablado), the future subjunctive (hablare) and the future perfect subjunctive (hubiere hablado). So the practical answer to "how many tenses are there in Spanish?" is 14: 9 in the indicative, 4 in the subjunctive and the imperative. On top of that come two non-finite forms, the gerund (gerundio) and the past participle (participio), which you need for estar + gerund and for every compound tense.

This page is a Spanish tenses chart and cheat sheet in one place, like the grammar spread at the back of a textbook: a map of the tenses by mood, a list of all Spanish tenses with when to use each one, the full conjugation of hablar, the regular endings, a guide to choosing the right past tense and the order to learn the tenses from A1 to B2. Every tense in the chart links to a detailed guide with the rules and the irregular verbs.

On this page:

• Spanish tenses by mood: indicative, subjunctive and imperative;
• the Spanish tenses chart: when to use each tense, signal words and examples;
• hablar conjugated in every tense;
• regular -ar, -er and -ir endings and the forms of haber;
• which past tense to use;
• when to use the subjunctive;
• the order to learn Spanish tenses by level, A1-B2;
• common mistakes.

Spanish tenses by mood: indicative, subjunctive and imperative

Spanish verbs have three moods (modos). The indicative (indicativo) states facts and things you see as real: hablo, hablé, hablaré (I speak, I spoke, I will speak). The subjunctive (subjuntivo) covers wishes, doubts, emotions, value judgments and hypotheses: quiero que hables (I want you to speak). The imperative (imperativo) gives commands and makes requests: habla (speak), no hables (don't speak).

Within each mood there are simple tenses, which are one word (hablo, I speak), and compound tenses (tiempos compuestos), which are always haber + past participle: he hablado (I have spoken), había hablado (I had spoken). Once you know the forms of haber, you can build every compound tense.

The RAE treats the conditional as a tense of the indicative, but many textbooks list it separately, which is why it has its own row here. The present subjunctive covers both the present and the future: Espero que me llames mañana (I hope you call me tomorrow).

Spanish tenses chart: when to use each tense

Here are all Spanish tenses explained in one line each, grouped by mood. Each row gives the English name with the Spanish one in parentheses, when you use the tense, the signal words that usually go with it and an example with hablar (to speak). Click a tense to open its full guide.

Indicative (indicativo)

Subjunctive (subjuntivo)

Imperative (imperativo)

Non-finite forms (formas no personales)

All the examples use the same verb, hablar, on purpose: that way you can see how one verb changes from tense to tense. Two regional notes. In Latin America, vosotros isn't used: ustedes with the third-person plural form covers every "you all" (ustedes hablan, you all speak), so if you're learning Latin American Spanish you can skip the vosotros forms at first. And the choice between the present perfect and the preterite depends on the region: in Spain, hoy goes with the present perfect (Hoy he hablado con él), while in Latin America and the Canary Islands the preterite is usually used even with hoy (Hoy hablé con él). Both mean "I talked to him today."

Hablar conjugation in every Spanish tense

Hablar (to speak) is a regular -ar verb, so these tables double as a model: any regular -ar verb, such as trabajar, estudiar or llamar, follows the same pattern. Swap the stem and keep the endings.

Indicative: simple tenses

Indicative: compound tenses

Subjunctive

The two imperfect subjunctive endings, -ra and -se, mean the same thing. The -ra forms are more common, especially in Latin America, so learn those first.

Imperative and non-finite forms

Infinitive (infinitivo): hablar · Gerund (gerundio): hablando · Past participle (participio): hablado

Regular verb endings by tense: -ar, -er and -ir

Simple tenses are built from the stem plus an ending: habl- + -o = hablo. The future and the conditional are the exception: they add the ending to the whole infinitive (hablar + -é = hablaré), and their endings are the same for all three groups. The imperfect subjunctive comes from the ellos form of the preterite minus -ron: hablaron → habla- → hablara, and this trick works for irregular verbs too: tuvieron → tuviera. Compound tenses are haber + past participle, and the participle ends in -ado for -ar verbs and in -ido for -er and -ir verbs: hablado, comido, vivido.

Endings of the simple tenses

Haber in the compound tenses

Irregular verbs break these patterns, but not equally in every tense. Most irregular forms are in the present (tengo, hago) and the preterite (tuve, hice, fui). The imperfect has only three irregular verbs: ser (era), ir (iba) and ver (veía). In the future and the conditional, twelve verbs change only their stem and keep the regular endings: tendr-, podr-, har-, dir- and so on (tendré, podría). And a handful of very common verbs have irregular past participles: hecho, dicho, visto, puesto, escrito, vuelto, abierto, muerto, roto. The full breakdown by tense is on the Spanish irregular verbs page.

Which past tense to use: present perfect, preterite, imperfect or past perfect

Choosing the right past tense is where most English speakers struggle, because the English "I ate" can be he comido, comí or comía depending on the meaning. Spanish has four everyday past tenses, and each one answers a different question. Here is the same situation, eating paella, in all four:

• Preterite = what happened. If the sentence moves the story forward, use the preterite: Llegué, comí y salí. (I arrived, ate and left.)
• Imperfect = what it was like. Use it for background, descriptions, habits and actions in progress when something else happened: Comía cuando llegaste. (I was eating when you arrived.)
• Present perfect vs preterite depends on the region. In Spain, the present perfect goes with hoy, esta semana, este año and ya. In Latin America the preterite is more common even with these words: Hoy comí paella. (I had paella today.)
• Past perfect = even earlier. Use it when you're already telling a story in the past and need to go one step further back.

For a detailed comparison with more examples and a quiz, see Preterite vs Imperfect in Spanish.

When to use the subjunctive: a quick summary

The subjunctive is a mood, not a single tense. It usually appears in the second part of a sentence, after que, when the first part expresses something other than a plain fact. Compare Creo que tiene razón (I think he's right: you state a belief, so the indicative) with No creo que tenga razón (I don't think he's right: you deny it, so the subjunctive). The most common triggers:

• Wishes and requests (quiero que, pido que): Te pido que me llames mañana. (I'm asking you to call me tomorrow.)
• Emotions (me alegra que, me molesta que): Me alegra que estés aquí. (I'm glad you're here.)
• Doubt and denial (no creo que, dudo que): Dudo que pueda venir. (I doubt he can come.)
• Value judgments (es importante que, es mejor que): Es importante que comamos bien. (It's important for us to eat well.)
• Purpose (para que): Te lo explico otra vez para que lo entiendas. (I'll explain it again so you understand.)
• Hopes with ojalá: Ojalá haga buen tiempo el sábado. (Hopefully the weather will be nice on Saturday.)

Which subjunctive tense you need depends on time: the present for now or later (quiero que hables), the present perfect for something already done (espero que hayas hablado), the imperfect after a past-tense main verb and in si clauses (quería que hablaras, si hablaras) and the past perfect for an unreal past (si hubieras hablado). Start with the present subjunctive guide: it is the most common of the four, and the triggers are the same for all of them.

Every trigger with examples (WEIRDO, expressions, conjunctions) plus an interactive quiz: Spanish subjunctive: when to use it.

The order to learn Spanish tenses: levels A1-B2

Most textbooks teach the tenses in roughly the same order, based on the Instituto Cervantes curriculum (Plan Curricular del Instituto Cervantes) and courses like Aula and Nuevo Prisma. Each level adds the tenses you need for a new set of real-life situations, so this is a safe Spanish tenses order to learn on your own too:

1. One tense at a time. Learn the regular verbs and the signal words first, then the irregular verbs in groups: all the -go verbs together, all the e → ie verbs together.
2. Memorize three forms of each verb: present yo, preterite yo and the past participle: tengo, tuve, tenido; hago, hice, hecho. Most other forms follow from these three.
3. Practice a little every day. Ten minutes of conjugating in the trainer works better than an hour once a week, because the forms have to come out automatically.

Start with the 100 most common Spanish verbs: these are the verbs you will use in almost every sentence.

Common mistakes with Spanish tenses

Most tense mistakes come from translating English word for word. These seven are the most frequent; an asterisk (*) marks the incorrect version.

1. *Cuando llegué a casa, mi madre cocinó la cena. → Cuando llegué a casa, mi madre cocinaba / estaba cocinando la cena. (When I got home, my mom was cooking dinner.) If she was in the middle of cooking when you walked in, that's background, so use the imperfect or estar + gerund. Cocinó would mean she started cooking after you arrived.
2. *Ayer he ido al médico. → Ayer fui al médico. (I went to the doctor yesterday.) Ayer is a finished time period, so standard Spanish uses the preterite. Learners in Spain often overuse the present perfect because they hear it all the time.
3. *Quiero que vienes. → Quiero que vengas. (I want you to come.) When a verb of wishing is followed by a different subject (yo quiero, tú vienes), the second verb goes in the subjunctive.
4. *Cuando tendré tiempo, te llamaré. → Cuando tenga tiempo, te llamaré. (When I have time, I'll call you.) After cuando referring to the future, Spanish uses the present subjunctive, never the future. English works the same way: "when I have," not "when I will have."
5. *Si tendré dinero, viajaré. → Si tengo dinero, viajaré. (If I have money, I'll travel.) In a real condition, si takes the present indicative, just like "if I have" in English.
6. *Si tendría dinero, viajaría. → Si tuviera dinero, viajaría. (If I had money, I'd travel.) The conditional goes in the result, never after si; an unlikely condition takes the imperfect subjunctive.
7. *He ya comido. → Ya he comido. (I've already eaten.) Nothing goes between haber and the participle: words like ya and todavía, and object pronouns, go before haber: Ya lo he visto. (I've already seen it.)

How to use this chart: when you're not sure which tense you need, start with the main table and look for a signal word in your sentence (ayer, mientras, quiero que). Then check the form in the hablar tables or the endings table, and open the guide for that tense for the full rules and the irregular verbs. Keep the page bookmarked as your Spanish tenses cheat sheet while you practice.

Related: Spanish irregular verbs by tense, the 100 most common Spanish verbs, Spanish reflexive verbs, Preterite vs Imperfect (with a quiz) and the full Spanish grammar index.