Spanish: An Essential Grammar

Psychological verbs

With psychological verbs the preterite indicates an act(such as recognition,

learning, understanding) while the imperfect indicates a state of mind.

With some verbs, notably saber andconocer, the English translation of the

preterite and imperfect may be different:

Después de hablar con él supehacerlo.

After speaking to him I understood how to do it.

Sabíacómo hacerlo antes de hablar con él.

I knew how to do it before talking to him.

Conocía Susana en la fiesta.

I met Susana at the party.

Ya conocíaa Ana antes de ir a la fiesta.

I knew Ana before going to the party.

The future tense

For the future tense in conditional sentences, see 13.2.

With reference to future time

The future tense is used to make predictions or statements about what is

expected to happen. It can also be used in promises or undertakings:

Llegarán a las diez. They will arrive at ten o’clock.

Lo haré mañana. I’ll do it tomorrow.

Note: The future tense is often replaced both in Spain and Latin America by the pre-

sent tense of ir +a + infinitive: Van a llegar a las diez‘They’re going to arrive at ten

o’clock’. In Latin America haber +de + infinitive is sometimes used in this way.

To conjecture

The Spanish future tense is additionally used to suggest possibility or to

make guesses and suppositions. In questions this use can express surprise:

Ahora mismo estará Alicia en Málaga.

Right now Alicia must be in Malaga.

¿Será Paco el que ha hecho esto?

Could it be Paco who did this?

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11

Uses of
tenses

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