Spanish Tense Names

A table of all common Spanish Tense names and English equivalents

There are so many names in use for many Spanish tenses it gets very confusing - even for us! To be consistent, we have adopted one for each tense, but this table shows some of the most common names in use, what they are called in English with an example:

Spanish Tense names used by Kwiziq	Equivalent name in English	Alternative Spanish Tense name used in Europe	Alternative Spanish Tense name used in America	Example	Short definition
El Presente	Present Tense		Presente	yo juego, tú comes soy	Expresses what happens or is happening
El Presente Progresivo	Present Progressive/Continuous	Presente Continuo		yo estoy jugando, tú estas comiendo estoy siendo	Describes a present action that is in progress.
El Pretérito Perfecto	Present Perfect	Pretérito Perfecto Compuesto	Antepresente	yo he jugado, tú has comido he sido	Expresses an action completed but with a connection to the present
El Pretérito Imperfecto	Imperfect Past	Imperfecto	Copretérito	yo jugaba, tú comías, era,	Expresses what was happening in the past or what used to happen
El Pretérito Pluscuamperfecto	Pluperfect	Pluscuamperfecto	Antecopretérito	yo había jugado, tú habías comido había sido	Expresses what had happened before something else happened
El Pretérito Indefinido	Preterite/Simple Past	Pretérito Perfecto Simple	Pretérito	yo jugué, tú comiste fui	Expresses an action completed in the past
Los Pasados Progresivos	Past Progressive/Continuous	Pasado Continuo		yo estaba jugando, tú estabas comiendo estaba siendo	Past action in progress (in the past)
El Pretérito Anterior	Past Perfect		Antepretérito	yo hube jugado, tú hubiste comido hube sido	Expresses a past fact that happened immediately before another past fact.
El Futuro Próximo	Near Future			voy a jugar, vas a comer voy a ser	Expresses what is going to happen
El Futuro Simple	Future/Simple Future	Futuro Imperfecto	Futuro	yo jugaré, tú comerás seré	Expresses what will happen
El Futuro Perfecto	Future Perfect		Antefuturo	yo habré jugado, tú habrás comido, habré sido	Expresses what will have happened at some point in the future
El Imperativo	Imperative			¡come! ¡bailad! ¡id! ¡hablemos!	Expresses a command, request or advice
El Presente de Subjuntivo	Present Subjunctive			yo juegue, tú comas yo sea	Expresses subjectivity in a subordinate clause
El Pretérito Perfecto del Subjuntivo	Present Perfect Subjunctive	Pretérito Perfecto Compuesto de Subjuntivo	Antepresente	yo haya jugado, tú hayas comido haya sido	Expresses what has happened or what will have happened
El Imperfecto Subjuntivo	Imperfect Subjunctive	Imperfecto de Subjuntivo		yo jugara, tú comieras fuera	Expresses an imperfect action or state in the subjunctive mood
El Pretérito Pluscuamperfecto de Subjuntivo	Pluperfect Subjunctive	Pluscuamperfecto de Subjuntivo	Antepretérito	yo hubiera jugado, tú hubieras comido hubiera sido	Expresses an action completed before another action in the past (literary)
El Condicional Simple	Conditional	Condicional Imperfecto	Pospretérito	yo jugaría, tú comerías sería	Expresses a hypothetical action that would or might happen in the future
El Condicional Perfecto	Conditional Perfect	Condicional Compuesto	Antepospretérito	yo habría jugado, tú habrías comido habría sido	Expresses an action that would have or might have happened in the past

See all Spanish grammar lessons by tense

Note: the word "tense" technically only means past, present or future. The above tenses are really the combinations of tense and mood (indicative/subjunctive etc) and often aspect (perfective/progressive). Some Spanish grammarians consider "conditional" to be a tense, but can also be considered a "mood" depending on your preferred linguistic taxonomy.