Tense (tense+mood+aspect)

 

Mood (“el modo verbal” in Spanish) is something that reflects in tenses and conjugated verbs as well as temporality. The speaker will have a different intention or attitude when they speak, and this is where we need to talk about the mood. Spanish grammar considers three moods:

 

  1. Indicative mood (el modo indicativo): The indicative mood is used to express real information. 

  2. Subjunctive mood (el modo subjuntivo): The subjunctive mood is used to talk about something not yet experienced,  something uncertain, subjectivity, and other functionalities.

  3. Imperative mood (el modo imperativo) The imperative mood is used to indicate an order or a suggestion.

 

Thus, when we conjugate in the different tenses we will have for example El Presente de indicativo or El Presente de Subjuntivo; El Imperfecto de indicativo or El Imperfecto de Subjuntivo, and so on. To get more familiar with the tenses names, visit our Spanish tense names table.

 

Other concepts to bear in mind when talking about tenses is whether they are:

Simple tenses and Compound tenses

Conjugation 

Aspect

Voice.

 

Let me take a look at that...