Tag: Writing

Grammar and structures

How can I express the future in Spanish?

How can I express the future in Spanish?

*Intermediate*

There are several ways you can express future actions in Spanish, but Be careful! don’t say: “estoy yendo mañana”.

In Spanish you can express the future using several tenses:

  • Present tense by adding time word:

“Voy a la oficina mañana” I’m going to the office tomorrow.

“Hablo mañana con Juan” I’m talking with Juan tomorrow.

  • The structure: ir+a+infinitive verb:

“Voy a ir a la oficina (mañana)” (Tomorrow) I’m going to the office.

“Voy a hablar con Juan (mañana)” (Tomorrow) I’m talking with Juan.

  • The future tense:

Stem+ future endings:

-é

-emos

-ás

-éis

-á

-án

For example:

If you want to say I’ll go to the office, that would be:

“Iré a la oficina”

Or I’ll talk with Juan tomorrow would be:

“Hablaré mañana con Juan”

As you noticed, we don’t need -ing verbs like, going (yendo) talking (hablando), because most of the time we use these conjugations to decribe developing activities or temporary actions such as:

“¿Qué está haciendo Juan? -Está escribiendo un informe”

What is Juan doing? He’s writing a report

So, now that you know the various options to express the future in Spanish, try to practice them and listen to how people use them.

 

By Yenny Urrego – Espanovo Team

Grammar and structures

Preterite? Imperfect? What should I use?

*Beginner-Intermediate*

When describing the past in Spanish we can find mainly two tenses in Spanish to express the simple past in English. Let’s check some specific cases.

You might have seen these two tenses before. Probably, you were told that preterite is used for specific actions and imperfect for describing and telling repeted actions.

However, we need some perspective here. Many times when  you’re telling a story you might think preterite should be used because it’s a specific action, but after you discover that imperfect tense was the best choice you can be confused and wonder why if it was a specific event.

Well, as many grammar topics in Spanish, culture is a big factor to understand the structure. Something that for you could be specific, a Latin American would express it as a description.

So, for example, if you want to say to a friend “yesterday I was very tired, so I went to sleep early” you should say:

“Ayer estaba cansado(a) así que me acosté temprano” instead of: “Ayer estuve cansado (a) así que y me acosté temprano”.  

Yes, we know, we said “ayer” which shows a specific time, but there are two aspects to bear in mind:

  1. Preterite expresses a finished action, that is to say, we know the end of the action. When we talk about states, emotions and so on, we usually don’t know for sure the time it finished, so you would find imperfect more often.
  2. Describing is one of the most popular uses of speech acts we prefer in Spanish. Stating isolated facts is not that common for us. If you’re talking to a friend in Spanish, what you probably feel you’re doing is narrating, you need to include yourself in the story. So, you might require a lot the use of the imperfect tense because you usually need to describe. Most of times you would need the preterite if you are stating a fact (but not including yourself in the description).

In the example, you’re describing your state and then you mention the action you did, which would require the preterite (me acosté).

In fact, an extra tip for you to choose better could be: usually verbs that express movement require more often the preterite tense, because we can perceive the ending of the action.

So, next time think if your message requires including the person acting in the story (Imperfect) or just a specific fact in the past (Preterite).

 

By Yenny Urrego – Espanovo Team