The two Spanish moods and the nine Spanish tenses.

In Spanish there are two moods. There is the Indicative Mood and the Subjunctive Mood. The Indicative Mood indicates or portrays things that are real; things that are happening, have happened, or we are certain will happen.

The Subjunctive mood portrays things that have not happened and we are not sure if they will happen. These are things that might happen. For example, “The gas might arrive today.” or “If I knew, I would go.” The facts are, neither one of these sentences indicates a reality. They portray the subjective or subjunctive world.

In Spanish there are seven indicative tenses and two subjunctive tenses; a total of nine major usage tenses.

Here are examples of the Spanish indicative tenses, their meaning and percentage of usage. These are taught in Warren Hardy Level 3.

1. Present 12% I speak. Hablo.

2. Preterit 40% I spoke. Hablé.

3. Imperfect 15% I used to speak. Hablaba.

4. Future 3% I will speak. Hablaré

5. Conditional 3% I would speak. Hablaría.

6. Present Progressive 3% I am speaking. Estoy hablando.

7. Present Perfect 3% I have spoken. He hablado.

It must be noted here that there are several Spanish progressive tenses and several perfect tenses but their uses are so limited that they do not enter into the percentage of usage categories.

There are the two tenses in the Subjunctive mood, the Present and the Past Subjunctive. These are taught in Warren Hardy Level 4.

8. Present Subjunctive 15% I want you to speak. Quiero que hables.

9. Past Subjunctive 6% I wanted you to speak. Quería que hablaras.

Again, there are a total of nine Spanish tenses. You learn seven of them in the Warren Hardy Level 3 class and the last two in the Warren Hardy Level 4 class.

The good news is that once these tenses are learned you have completed the Spanish Foundation course and are equipped to develop your skills to higher levels by practicing with native Spanish speakers. Speak Spanish! My specialty as a teacher is the foundation work. My course of study will build this foundation for you and prepare you to go to the high conversational or fluid levels as you practice Spanish with native speakers.