I) Present Progressive

A) Used when an action is currently happening

1) basically, you're doING something
2) Examples
a) Regular Tense: Yo camino a la escuela - I walk to the school
b) Present Progressive: Yo estoy caminando a la escuela - I am walking to the school
B) How to do it
1) Make a Subject (unless it's already given to you in the question) (subjects include Yo, Tu,
El, Ella, Usted, Nosotros, Vosotros, Ellos, Ellas, Ustedes)
2) Put 'estar' after the subject and conjugate it
a) Estar = to be
estoy estamos
estás estáis
está están
3) put ‘ando’ or ‘iendo’ after the verb
a) if it’s an -AR verb, drop the -ar and add ‘ando’
b) if it’s an -ER or -IR verb, drop the -er or -ir and add ‘iendo’
4) Example
a) I am walking = Yo estoy caminando
i) notice how I found my subject, which in this case, is ‘yo’
ii) I conjugated ‘estar’ in the ‘yo’ form, because ‘yo’ is the subject
iii) and finally, I dropped the -AR of ‘caminar’ and put ‘ando’ at the end instead
II) Preterite
A) an action that happened in the past
B) How to do it
1) Make a Subject (unless it's already given to you in the question) (subjects include Yo, Tu,
El, Ella, Usted, Nosotros, Vosotros, Ellos, Ellas, Ustedes)
2) Drop the -ar ending and replace it with the correct ending based on the subject
OR drop the -er or -ir ending and replace it with the correct ending based on the subject

a) Endings for -AR verbs

 SINGULAR PLURAL

Yo é nosotros amos

Tu aste vosotros asteis

El/Ella/Usted ó ellos/ellas/ustedes aron

b) Endings for -ER and -IR verbs

SINGULAR PLURAL

Yo í Nosotros imos

Tu iste Vosotros isteis

El/Ella/Usted ió ellos/ellas/ustedes ieron

III) The -IR Boot Verbs In The Preterite

A) The -IR ‘boot’ verbs have a slight change to them
1) In the El/Ella/Usted form, or the Ellos/Ellas/Ustedes form, the ‘e’ changes to ‘i’ or the ‘o’
changes to ‘u’, BUT ONLY IN -IR BOOT VERBS
2) examples

PEDIR = to ask for DORMIR = to sleep

Yo pedí Nosotros pedimos Yo dormí Nosotros dormimos

Tu pediste Vosotros pedisteis Tu dormiste Vosotros dormisteis
El pidió Ellos pidieron El durmió Ellos durmieron

3) You do need to know which -IR verbs are boot verbs and which aren’t. One good way to
know if an -IR verb is a BOOT verb is to see whether it has an ‘e’ or a ‘u’ in it

IV) Irregular Preterite Verbs

A) they have no accent, and they are crazy (they do NOT follow any rules, you will need to
memorize them)
B) ‘U’ verbs
1) saber, poner, poder
sup pus pud
 ‘U’ VERBS

poder = to be able to poner = to put saber = to know

pud pus sup

Yo pude Yo puse Yo supe

Tu pudiste Tu pusiste Tu supiste

Ella pudo Ella puso Ella supo

Nosotros pudimos Nosotros pusimos Nosotros supimos

Vosotros pudisteis Vosotros pusisteis Vosotros supisteis

Ellos pudieron Ellos pusieron Ellos supieron

C) ‘I’ verbs
1) querer, venir, hacer
quis vin hic
‘I’ VERBS

hacer = to do querer = to want venir = to come

hic quis vin

yo hice yo quise yo vine

tu hiciste tu quisiste tu viniste

ella hizo ella quiso ella vino

nosotros hicimos nosotros quisimos nosotros vinimos

vosotros hicisteis vosotros quisisteis vosotros vinisteis

ellos hicieron ellos quisieron ellos vinieron

 D) ‘UV’ verbs
1) estar, andar, tener
estuv anduv tuv

‘UV’ VERBS

estar = to be andar = to walk tener = to have

estuv anduv tuv

Yo estuve yo anduve yo tuve

Tu estuviste tu anduviste tu tuviste

Ella estuvo ella anduvo ella tuvo

Nosotros estuvimos nosotros anduvimos nosotros tuvimos

Vosotros estuvisteis vosotros anduvisteis vosotros tuvisteis

Ellos estuvieron ellos anduvieron ellos tuvieron

E) Verbs with ‘J’ in Preterite
1) When you see a verb which ends in ‘cir’, replace ‘cir’ with j
2) in the ellos form, remove the ‘i’ from ‘ieron’
3) Examples: conducir
conduj
Yo conduje
tu condujiste
ella condujo
nosotros condujimos
vosotros condujisteis
ellos condujeron *notice how I dropped the ‘i’ from ‘ieron’
4) traer - to bring, THIS IS THE ONLY VERB WHICH DOES NOT END IN ‘CIR’ BUT STILL
NEEDS THE ‘J’
a) yo traje
tu trajiste
ella trajo
nosotros trajimos
 vosotros trajisteis
ellos trajeron
F) Other Irregular Verbs in the Preterite
DAR - to give VER-to see IR - to go / SER - to be
di dimos vi vimos fui fuimos
diste disteis viste visteis fuiste fusteis
dio dieron vio vieron fue fueron

V) -Car, gar, zar

A) when using the preterite tense, if you have a verb that ends in ‘-car’ and you’re conjugating
it in the -yo form, the ending will be conjugated to ‘-qué’,

Example: tocar
Toqué
Tocaste
Tocó
Tocamos
Tocasteis
Tocaron

if you have a verb that ends in -gar, and you’re conjugating it in the yo form, the ending will be ‘-
gué’,

Example: llegar
Llegué
Llegaste
Llegó
Llegamos
Llegasteis
Llegaron

if you have a verb that ends in ‘-zar’, the ending in the yo form will become ‘-cé’

Example: empezar
Empecé
Empezaste
Empezó
Empezamos
Empezasteis
Empezaron

VI) ‘y’ in él/ella/ud. and ellos/ellas/uds. pronouns in the preterite

A) in the verbs, leer, creer, huir, construir, destruir, oír, caer, the él/ella/ud. and ellos/ellas/uds
forms have a different ending, instead of ‘ió’ in the ella form, the ending will be ‘yo', and in the
ellas form, instead of the ending ‘ieron’, the ending will be ‘yeron’

VII) Regular Imperfect Tense

A) When it’s used
1) When describing something that always used to happen, something you always did,
what your age was, what time it was, what was the temperature, what were you/somebody’s
emotions, and describing what somebody was like

B) -Ar Verbs Endings

yo aba

tú abas

Él, ella, Ud. aba

Nosotros ábamos

Vosotros abais

Ellos, ellas, Uds. aban

C) -Er/-Ir Verb Endings

yo ía

tú ías

Él, ella, Ud. ía

Nosotros íamos

Vosotros íais

Ellos, ellas, Uds. ían

D) Example: I used to walk to school = Yo caminaba al la escuela

She was three years old = Ella tenía tres años
VIII) Irregular Imperfect Tense
 A) There are only 3 words in the imperfect tense which are irregular, ‘ser’, ‘ir’, and ‘ver’.

SER - to be

yo era

tú eras

Él, ella, Ud. era

Nosotros éramos

Vosotros erais

Ellos, ellas, Uds. eran

IR - to go

yo iba

tú ibas

Él, ella, Ud. iba

Nosotros íbamos

Vosotros ibais

Ellos, ellas, Uds. iban

VER - to see

yo veía

tú veías

Él, ella, Ud. veía

Nosotros veíamos

Vosotros veíais

Ellos, ellas, Uds. veían

B) Example: I used to go to the market - Yo iba al mercado

IX) Future Tense

A) When you use it: when you want to say that you will do something
 B) How to use it: Attach the ending to the ending of the infinitive, the same ending is used for
‘ar’, ‘er’, and ‘ir’ verbs

future tense endings

yo é

tú ás

Él, ella, Ud. á

Nosotros emos

Vosotros éis

Ellos, ellas, Uds. án

C) Example - We will dance - Nosotros bailaremos *notice how the ‘ar’ wasn’t dropped*
I will eat - Yo comeré
They will sleep - Ellos dormirán
X) Irregular Future Tense
A) There are irregular verbs in the future tense, they have the same endings, they just have
different beginnings
caber - cabr_
decir - dir_
hacer - har_
poder - podr_
poner - pondr_
querer - querr_
saber - sabr_
salir - saldr_
tener - tendr_
valer - valdr_
venir - vendr_

X) Conditional Tense

You use the conditional tense to say “would”

Ex: Yo camino = I walk
Yo caminaría = I would walk

To form the conditional tense, leave the verb in the infinitive and add:

yo ía

tú ías
 Él, ella, Ud. ía

Nosotros íamos

Vosotros íais

Ellos, ellas, Uds. ían

Ex: She would eat = Ella comería

We would go = Nosotros iríamos

Note: The irregular stems for the conditional are the same as that of the future tense.

Ex: I would come = Yo vendría