How To Use Spanish Compound Tenses

One of the biggest challenges many Spanish language learners face is learning how and when to use each of the different verb tenses. The generally accepted number of tenses in Spanish is 16, although linguists will often disagree on what exactly constitutes a tense, and whether different grammatical moods or aspects should be considered separate tenses. While the number of tenses, and the need to learn different verb conjugation rules, can be intimidating, being able to identify and use the correct tense is a big step to communicating in fluent Spanish.

Most learners will initially focus on the simple tenses, which are those made up of a single word or morphological element comprised of the conjugated verb. For example Vivo - I live or Hablaré - I will speak. Compound tenses however are made up of two elements, an auxiliary verb and an auxiliated verb, which in the case of Spanish is either the past participle or gerund of a verb. The auxiliary verb is used to help the auxiliated verb, providing information on the time, voice and mood of the latter without the need for it to be conjugated itself. Spanish uses two main auxiliary verbs for its compound tenses - Haber- to have and Estar - to be. Haber is used for the perfect tenses and estar is used for the progressive sub-tenses.

Perfect tenses

There is a compound tense counterpart to each of the simple tenses in Spanish. In each case the verb haber is conjugated as an auxiliary verb, as in the tables below, and the past participle of the main verb is used. For regular verbs this is created using the verb stem and adding the ending -ado for verbs ending in ar, and the ending -ido for verbs which end in er or ir. Irregular verbs will use one of three endings; -to, -so or -cho. 

Note - Both the Preterit Perfect Indicative and the Future Perfect Subjunctive forms are rarely used in modern day Spanish and have not been included here.

In general there is no real difference in meaning between the counterpart simple and compound tenses, however in practice they can be used in different ways. 

The most commonly used of the compound tenses, the present perfect indicative, is used primarily to express actions that have finished in the past, however unlike the simple version of the tense, it is only used when there is temporal proximity between the action and the present. To further complicate this, different Spanish speaking traditions have different rules dictating what constitutes temporal proximity. Spanish speakers from Spain use this form far more often than Latin American Spanish speakers, as they take a far more liberal approach when deciding whether an action is both recent and linked to the present. As an example, when asked whether they had already eaten breakfast (¿ya desayunaste?) a European Spanish speaker would likely answer;

Ya he desayunado - I have already breakfasted

Whereas a Latin American Spanish speaker would be much more likely to use the imperfect tense and respond;

Ya desayuné - I have already breakfasted

Both answers carry the same meaning, however using the first example in Mexico, while understood, might raise eyebrows. This is because Latin American Spanish takes a very literal approach to defining whether there is something linking the completed action to present, and as the breakfast in question is in the past, has happened, and is no longer happening, it does not require the use of the compound perfect tense. For European Spanish speakers however the recency of the event is enough to link the event to the present, and for some actions, quite long time periods might be considered ‘recent’.

If the same example question used above was to be answered in the negative, both European and Latin American Spanish can use the compound tense;

No he desayunado - I have not breakfasted

This is because the state of not having had breakfast began in the past and has continued up until now.

Both forms of Spanish will also use the present perfect indicative for actions or events that took place in the past, have finished and will consequently always remain completed. Examples include whether someone has visited a place, seen a movie or tried a food.

He visto la película Barbie - I have seen the film Barbie

Ha estado en Nuevo York - He has been to New York

¿Has probado mole poblano? - Have you tried mole poblano?

There are some important rules to remember when forming perfect compound tenses. Unlike in English these formations cannot be split, meaning that it is never correct to put another word between the auxiliary verb and the past participle. Additionally there can only ever be one auxiliary and one auxiliated verb.

It is also important that any object pronouns are always placed before the auxiliary verb (note that this is not the case with progressive compound constructions). For example;

Lo he dicho - I said it

¡La habías rompiendo! - You had broken it

Ya les habremos conocido - We will have already met them

It is also worth noting that it is possible that both the auxiliary and auxiliated verbs used are forms of haber. The past participle of haber is habido.  For example,

 He habido mala suerte - I have had bad luck

Progressive Compound Tenses

The Spanish progressive compound tense is used to describe verbs as being in action, whether in the past, present or future. The compound is formed by the conjugated auxiliary verb Estar and the gerund of the verb being auxiliated. The gerund is formed by taking the verb stem and then adding -ando for verbs ending in ar or -iendo for verbs ending in ir or er. The gerund in Spanish is roughly equivalent to the English gerund, which is words with the suffix -ing, however Spanish uses gerunds far less often than English, and you will generally only encounter them when used in the progressive tenses.

This form is generally used to indicate that an action or event was happening at the time frame indicated by conjugation of the auxiliary verb. It can also be used negatively with the application of the appropriate negative word before the auxiliary verb.

No estoy mintiendo - I am not lying

Nunca estábamos ayudando - We were never helping

Unlike in the case of the perfect tense, object pronouns can be used either before the verb formation or combined with gerund without altering the meaning of the sentence. For example,

Lo estoy comprando - I am buying it

Estoy comprandolo - I am buying it

The last tense given in the table above, the conditional progressive, must always be used as a subordinate clause, dependent on another statement. For example,

Estaría ganando si no estuvieras haciendo trampa - I would be winning if you were not cheating

Si no fuera prohibido, estaríamos cantando - We would be singing if it wasn’t prohibited

While there are a lot of compound tenses to learn, they all follow the basic rules as discussed in this article. They are an important feature of day to day Spanish and well worth taking the time to master. 

Is there another Spanish language topic that you are struggling with or would like to read an article about? Let us know at communications@naatikmexico.org. You can find our other Spanish language blogs here. 

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