| Verb | Tense | yo | tú | él/ella | nosotros | ellos/ellas |
|---|
| Domain | Spanish | English | Gender | Number |
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| Category | Spanish | English | Example |
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Spanish commands come in affirmative and negative pairs — and the forms are different. Learning the pattern once lets you give commands with any verb.
Each subject has a different source form. Learn where each one comes from and you can build commands for almost any verb.
These 8 verbs do not follow the "drop the -s" rule. Their tú affirmative form is a special one-syllable word. The mnemonic di haz ve pon sal sé ten ven covers all of them.
All negative commands — for tú, usted, and nosotros — use the present subjunctive. Put no before the verb. The forms are the same ones used for usted and nosotros affirmative.
Pronouns (reflexive, direct object, indirect object) go in different places depending on whether the command is affirmative or negative — and attaching them to the end of an affirmative command often requires a written accent mark.
| Verb | Set | tú ✓ | tú ✗ | usted ✓ | usted ✗ | nosotros ✓ | nosotros ✗ | Notes |
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These three English ideas each map to a specific Spanish construction — sometimes more than one, depending on nuance.
Spanish negation works differently from English — double negatives are required, not wrong.
All question words carry a written accent in Spanish. The trickiest pair is qué vs. cuál.
Reflexive verbs use a pronoun (me, te, se, nos) to show the subject acts on itself. Many common verbs change meaning when made reflexive.
Afectivo verbs flip the usual sentence around. The thing causing the feeling is the grammatical subject, and the person affected is an indirect object pronoun (me, te, le, nos, les). The verb agrees with the thing, not the person.
Instead of a feeling verb, these expressions use dar (to give) plus a fixed noun. The noun is the cause, dar agrees with it, and the IOP marks who feels it — exactly like gustar.
Demonstratives point to things — this, that, those. In Spanish they agree in gender and number with the noun they modify. Location adverbs (aquí, allí, allá) tell you where something is relative to the speaker.
These neuter pronouns stand alone — no noun follows, and they never change form. Use them to refer to an idea, a situation, or something unidentified.
Spanish uses three different verbs for weather — the choice depends on whether you're describing a sensation, a phenomenon, or an observable condition. All are impersonal (no subject).
Both mean "to be" — but they are not interchangeable. The question isn't about time; it's about how you see the quality: is it a defining fact about something, or a condition it happens to be in right now?
Use ser when describing something that defines the subject — facts about identity, origin, or inherent nature that don't depend on mood or circumstance.
Use estar when describing a condition the subject is currently in — something that could change. Location, health, emotions, and progressive actions all fall here.
Several common adjectives mean something completely different depending on which verb they follow. This isn't about permanent vs. temporary — it's a vocabulary shift.
Ser vs. estar isn't just a present-tense question. You have to make the same choice in every tense — past, future, conditional, subjunctive. The underlying logic never changes.
Both are past tenses, but they do very different jobs. The choice isn't about when something happened — it's about how you're framing it: a snapshot or a running movie.
When two past actions appear in the same sentence, the imperfect sets the scene (was already happening) and the preterite is the interruption. Classic pattern: imperfect … cuando … preterite.
When you describe what something was like in the past — appearance, characteristics, or background conditions — use the imperfect. Descriptions don't have an end point; they were simply true.
Feelings, beliefs, desires, and knowledge are states — they exist over time. Use imperfect for mental and emotional states. But watch out: several key verbs change meaning when you switch tenses.
Talking about what you used to do, who you were as a child, or what life was like at a certain age? These are all imperfect — they were ongoing truths, not one-time events.
Stories, fairy tales, and narrative writing use both tenses constantly. The imperfect paints the world (what it was like, who the characters were). The preterite moves the plot forward (what happened next, the events, the changes).
Both can translate as "for" in English, which is why they're so confusing. The key is understanding what each one signals.
English uses "have" in several ways that Spanish keeps completely separate. The choice between haber and tener changes the meaning fundamentally.
Both translate as "have to" in English, but they communicate different types of obligation. This distinction matters in everyday situations: instructions at the bank, residency requirements, workplace rules, travel directions, and household responsibilities.
Haber que never takes a personal subject and never conjugates for a person. These are the two most common errors.
English speakers often assume that any future action should use the Spanish future tense. Natural Spanish uses all three structures — and the correct choice depends on context, not just time.
| Signal | Structure |
|---|---|
| a las tres / a las siete y media | Present — specific clock time = timetable |
| ahora mismo / ahora | Present — spontaneous or right-now action |
| ya / ya hice los planes / ya reservamos | Ir a — decision is already made |
| esta tarde / esta noche (plan set) | Ir a — near future with intent decided |
| mira esas nubes / se ve que… | Ir a — prediction from current visible evidence |
| algún día / en 2050 / en el futuro | Future — distant or undefined projection |
| probablemente / quizás / si… | Future — uncertainty or hypothesis |
| no te preocupes / te lo prometo | Future — promise or reassurance |
| ya vendrá / ya lo haré / ya veremos | Future + ya — eventual, indefinite (futuro impreciso) |
| luego / más tarde / después | Future or ir a — depends on whether intent is decided |