Quick cheat sheet for the 18 Spanish tenses
Here is a quick cheat sheet for the 18 Spanish tenses, divided by mood and between simple and compound tenses, using the example verbs comprar (to buy), correr (to run), and vivir (to live).
Spanish verb forms are usually grouped by mood rather than by a single long list of “18 tenses.” The practical way to learn them is to separate indicative for facts and events, subjunctive for doubt, desire, or unreality, and imperative for commands. Within those moods, the tenses fall into simple forms with one verb and compound forms with haber + past participle.
Indicative Mood — Simple Tenses
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Present (Presente): Use for habits, routines, current states, and general truths.
- yo compro, corro, vivo (I buy, run, live)
- In real conversation, this is the most frequent form because it covers everyday statements like trabajo, estudio, and vivo en Madrid.
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Preterite (Pretérito): Use for completed actions in the past.
- yo compré, corrí, viví (I bought, ran, lived)
- This tense typically marks a finished event with a clear endpoint: ayer compré pan.
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Imperfect (Imperfecto): Use for ongoing past actions, repeated past habits, and background description.
- yo compraba, corría, vivía (I was buying, running, living)
- It often appears with time-setting details such as cuando era niño or mientras llovía.
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Future (Futuro): Use for actions that will happen.
- yo compraré, correré, viviré (I will buy, run, live)
- Spoken Spanish often replaces this with ir a + infinitive for near or planned future, but the synthetic future remains standard and common in writing and formal speech.
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Conditional (Condicional): Use for hypothetical actions.
- yo compraría, correría, viviría (I would buy, run, live)
- It is especially useful for polite requests and cautious statements: me gustaría, podría, querría.
Indicative Mood — Compound Tenses
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Present Perfect (Pretérito Perfecto): Actions completed recently or that affect the present.
- he comprado, he corrido, he vivido (I have bought, run, lived)
- In many regions, especially in Spain, this tense is common for a finished period that is still connected to the present: esta mañana he comido.
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Past Perfect (Pluscuamperfecto): Actions completed before another past action.
- había comprado, había corrido, había vivido (I had bought, run, lived)
- It often appears in narration to show sequence: cuando llegué, ya habían salido.
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Future Perfect (Futuro Perfecto): Actions that will have been completed in the future.
- habré comprado, habré corrido, habré vivido (I will have bought, run, lived)
- This tense can sound formal, predictive, or logical: a estas horas ya habré terminado.
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Conditional Perfect (Condicional Perfecto): Hypothetical actions in the past.
- habría comprado, habría corrido, habría vivido (I would have bought, run, lived)
- It is common in reported speculation and regret: habría llamado, pero no tenía su número.
Subjunctive Mood — Simple Tenses
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Present Subjunctive (Presente de Subjuntivo): Expresses wishes, doubts, recommendations, emotions, or non-factual future events.
- compre, corra, viva (that I buy, run, live)
- Typical triggers include quiero que, es importante que, and ojalá que.
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Imperfect Subjunctive (Imperfecto de Subjuntivo): Same core meaning as the present subjunctive, but for past or conditional contexts.
- comprara/comprase, corriera/corriese, viviera/viviese
- The two endings are both correct; the -ra forms are far more common in modern speech and writing.
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Future Subjunctive (Futuro de Subjuntivo) [rare]: Mostly literary or formal usage.
- comprare, corriere, viviere
- In modern Spanish, this survives mainly in legal language, proverbs, and very formal texts, not ordinary conversation.
Subjunctive Mood — Compound Tenses
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Present Perfect Subjunctive: Actions that may have happened recently.
- haya comprado, haya corrido, haya vivido
- This form often appears after expressions like es posible que or me alegra que, when the action is viewed as completed but still relevant.
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Past Perfect Subjunctive: Actions that may have happened before another past action.
- hubiera/hubiese comprado, corrido, vivido
- The -ra and -se variants are both standard, with hubiera being the one most speakers use.
Imperative Mood
- Commands (tú, usted, vosotros, ustedes forms) — no simple tense listing needed here as it’s just commands.
- Examples: compra, compre, comprad, compren
- Negative commands use the present subjunctive: no compres, no compre, no compréis, no compren.
The 18 forms at a glance
A compact way to see the full system is to count these forms by mood:
- Indicative: 5 simple + 4 compound = 9
- Subjunctive: 3 simple + 2 compound = 5
- Imperative: 4 person-based command forms = 4
That makes 18 total forms when imperative is counted with the four standard address forms. The exact breakdown is useful because Spanish learners often mix up tense names with mood labels: for example, compraría is conditional indicative, while comprara is imperfect subjunctive, even though both can translate loosely as “would buy” in English.
How to tell the forms apart quickly
- Indicative states facts: compré, compro, compraré.
- Subjunctive reacts to another clause or uncertainty: quiero que compres, era posible que comprara.
- Compound tenses use a form of haber plus a past participle: he comprado, había corrido, haya vivido.
- Imperative gives direct commands: compra, corre, vive.
A useful memory trick is that Spanish tense choice often depends less on absolute time than on how the speaker frames the action. The same event can be told with different tenses depending on whether it is treated as finished, repeated, backgrounded, hoped for, or hypothetical. That framing is one reason active speaking practice helps more than passive memorization: the right tense becomes automatic only when it is used in real sentences repeatedly.
Common mistakes
- Confusing preterite and imperfect: ayer compré is a completed event; cuando era joven, compraba describes a repeated past habit.
- Using the wrong subjunctive trigger: creo que usually takes indicative, while no creo que usually takes subjunctive.
- Mixing conditional and imperfect subjunctive: compraría is “would buy,” but comprara is the past subjunctive form often used after another clause.
- Overusing the present perfect in every region: he comido is natural in Spain for recent past, but many Latin American varieties prefer the preterite in the same context.
A fast learning order
For most learners, the most useful order is:
- Present
- Preterite
- Imperfect
- Near future with ir a + infinitive
- Present perfect
- Present subjunctive
- Conditional
- Imperative
That sequence covers the forms most likely to appear in everyday conversations, messages, travel situations, and short narratives. The rarer forms—especially future subjunctive and future perfect subjunctive usage—can wait until reading or formal writing requires them.
This covers the 18 total Spanish verb tenses including all three moods (indicative, subjunctive, and imperative) and the simple and compound forms within them. The examples given are for regular verbs of each ending (-ar, -er, -ir) for clarity and common usage.