Tense
Tenses are different forms of the verb which, amongst other things, refer to different
times (the present, imperfect, future, etc., are traditionally known as the tenses of the
verb):
Elenavive en la Argentina.
Elena lives in Argentina. (verb in the present)Elenavivió antes en París.
Previously Elena lived in Paris. (verb in the past)Transitive
A transitive verb is one which has a direct object, e.g. ver (el campo) ‘to see (the
countryside)’, escribir (una carta) ‘to write (a letter)’.Verbs
Verbs often denote actions or states, but they can also convey other ideas, for example
transformations:
Trabajé en Madrid. I worked in Madrid.
Están muy contentos. They are very happy.
Se puso a llover. It started to rain.Voice
The active and passive voices of the verb are usually distinguished in both English and
Spanish. Only transitive verbs can be passivized. In the active voice the subject of
the verb is also its agent, whereas in the passive voice the subject of the verb is the
transitive verb’sobject, and the agent is introduced by a preposition (normally por
in Spanish and ‘by’ in English).There are some important differences between English and Spanish in this area,
which are described in 24.Glossaryxxv