Leaving aside the subjunctive mood, which is considered in Chapter 12,
the tenses in Spanish can be divided into three categories as follows:
Simple tenses Present, preterite, imperfect,
future, conditionalCompound tenses Perfect, pluperfect, future
perfect, conditional perfect, past
anteriorProgressive/continuous Present progressive, imperfect
tenses progressive, preterite
progressive, future progressive,
progressives of compound tenses
The main uses of each of these tenses are discussed below.Simple tenses
Present tenseThe Spanish tense corresponds to English ‘I run’ etc., but does not exclu-
sively denote present time.In habitual sentencesThe present tense is used to express an action that happens habitually or
is generally considered to be true:
Andrés vende coches. Andrés sells cars.El sol se pone por el oeste. The sun sets in the west.11.1.1.111.1.111.1