Lesson 1.10: The Present Continuous tense, the Preterite Tense, and Auxiliary Verbs

Back in Lesson 1.3, you learned how to conjugate verbs in the present tense. There are a lot more tenses, though, and in this lesson you’ll learn two very useful ones: the present continuous tense and the preterite tense.

The present continuous tense

The present continuous tense is used for actions that are currently in the process of happening. It’s different from the present tense, which is typically used for repeated actions or generally true statements that aren’t attached to a specific point in time. The English present continuous is formed by conjugating “to be” and adding -ing to a verb, as in “I am learning.”

The Spanish present continuous is actually formed in a very similar way: by conjugating the irregular verb estar (to be) and adding a special verb form after it, called the present participle. Every Spanish verb has just one present participle, which is formed by making the following ending replacements:

• -ar becomes -ando
• -er and -ir become -iendo

Put estar together with the present participle to get the present continuous!

Like with the present tense, some verbs have irregular present participles. Every tense has some verbs with irregular forms, so we’ll let that go without saying from now on. Almost all verbs are regular in the present continuous, though.

The preterite tense

Now that you know both of the present tenses, let’s finally learn one common way to talk about the past: the preterite tense. The preterite can be used to describe any specific action with a definite beginning and end in the past.

But it can’t be used to discuss ongoing actions, repeated actions, or general statements: that requires the imperfect tense, which we’ll learn in Unit 2.

The preterite is formed very similarly to the present tense: just remove the -ar, -er, or -ir and add a different set of endings for each person and number.

The preterite endings for -ar verbs are:

(Yes, the nosotros/as form is the same in the present and preterite tenses. That’s true for -ar and -ir verbs, but it’s usually clear from the context which tense is intended.)

-Er and -ir verbs actually take the same endings as each other:

Now you can talk about the past in Spanish!

Auxiliary verbs

Auxiliary verbs are verbs that clarify the meaning of another verb rather than expressing an action themselves, such as “can” in “I can try it” or “have” in “Have you been there?”. They’re an important part of both English and Spanish, and you actually just learned a Spanish one: estar serves as an auxiliary verb in the present continuous tense.

Now that you understand what auxiliary verbs are, there are several simple but useful new sentence constructions that you can use. Here are some of them:

• “Can” statements: conjugate poder (to be able), then add an infinitive. Example: Yo puedo tocar la guitarra. (I can play the guitar.)
• “Want to” statements: conjugate querer (to want), then add an infinitive. Example: ¿Quieres ver la nueva película? (Do you want to see the new movie?)
• “Have to” statements: conjugate tener (to have), then add que + an infinitive. Example: Tenemos que ir al supermercado. (We have to go to the grocery store.)
• “Know how to” statements: conjugate saber (to know), optionally add cómo (how), then add an infinitive. Example: Yo sé resolver este problema. or Yo sé cómo resolver este problema. (I know how to solve this problem.)
• The near past tense: This is an alternative to the preterite tense that can be used for any action that just happened. Form it by conjugating acabar (to end), then adding de + an infinitive. Example: Acabo de ir a la escuela. (I just went to school.) Example: Acaba de empezar a llover. (It just started raining.)
• The near future tense: This isn’t the main future tense, but it is a very common way to describe events that will happen relatively soon. Form it by conjugating ir (to go), then adding a + an infinitive. Example: Yo voy a hacer mi tarea. (I’m going to do my homework.) Example: Van a preguntar muchas preguntas. (They’re going to ask a lot of questions.)

Now that you have a few different tenses and verb constructions under your belt, you can look out for different ways to combine them for more sophisticated sentences.

Congratulations on learning your second, third, fourth, and fifth verb tenses! Since the present continuous and preterite tenses require new verb forms, we offer practice for them on the Conjugation page. To enable those tenses, go to the Words page, select Type: Conjugation, click Add Tense, and add “present participle” and/or “preterite.” Those forms will then be available alongside the present tense on the Conjugation page.

Thank you very much!

And with that, you’ve finished all of Tongue of Fire’s Spanish course that’s been released so far! Congratulations on making it to the end. We eventually plan to add more course content after creating courses for other languages and improving some other features. In the meantime, please use all of our practice features as much as you’d like. Also, feel free to read other online guides to grammar concepts like numbers, additional verb tenses, demonstrative pronouns like este, advanced articles like del, reflexive verbs, direct object-pronoun rules, and the subjunctive and imperative moods.

We have full confidence that you have what it takes to become fluent in Spanish. Just remember to practice consistently, immerse yourself when you’re ready, and most importantly, never give up.

¡Gracias por su tiempo y buena suerte!