COMPOUND VERB TENSES

It may seem like an age since we first started looking at verbs here on Spectrum Monkey and yet we’re still introducing more tenses!

Rest assured though, having dealt with all the simple form tenses, that we really are over the worst.

As we have indeed covered all the simple form tenses that exist in Spanish, including one that is no-longer used, today we will turn our attentions to some of the compound tenses that exist within the language.

Spanish compound verb tenses are constructions that require two conjugated verbs to create their form. For instance “He comido” (I have eaten) combines haber and comer.

Whereas simple form verb tenses are just a single conjugated verb: “Comí” (I ate).

The good news is: as English speakers we should be fairly comfortable with the concept of compound tenses, even if we don’t necessarily realise it.

Whilst English does not have as many verb tenses as Spanish, it does have several compound tenses and the way we build English compound tenses mirrors how Spanish compound tenses are built.

We’re going to group the compound tenses found in Spanish into two main categories: perfect tenses and progressive tenses.

The Perfect Tenses
Previously on Spectrum Monkey we have learnt how to create the present perfect tense by combining the auxiliary verb haber (to have) in the present indicative tense with a past participle.

Let’s quickly recap the verb haber in the present indicative tense:

haber (to have) | present tense

	Singular	Plural
1st Person	he	hemos
2nd Person	has	habéis
3rd Person	ha	han

Now let’s remind ourselves how we combine haber in this tense with the past participle from another verb (in this case hablar), to create the present perfect tense:

hablar (to speak) | present perfect tense

	Singular	Plural
1st Person	he hablado	hemos hablado
2nd Person	has hablado	habéis hablado
3rd Person	ha hablado	han hablado

Learning the present perfect tense only requires us to remember haber in the present indicative tense and then the past participle from the given verb we wish to learn. This is far easier than having to learn new simple form tenses for each verb, as we will soon grow accustomed to the various forms of haber.

Using exactly the same principle of combining the auxiliary verb haber with a past participle, we are able to create several new compound verb tenses, simply by conjugating haber into different periods in time or moods.

Let’s see a couple more examples of verbs in some other perfect tenses, so we can see this combination of haber in different forms with past participles:

comer (to eat) | pluperfect tense

	Singular	Plural
1st Person	había comido	habíamos comido
2nd Person	habías comido	habíais comido
3rd Person	había comido	habían comido

vivir (to live) | perfect conditional tense

	Singular	Plural
1st Person	habría vivido	habríamos vivido
2nd Person	habrías vivido	habríais vivido
3rd Person	habría vivido	habrían vivido

So, what’s really happening here?

All the various perfect tenses are expressing actions that have been completed or “perfected” (hence the name). But these complete actions are not limited by time or mood. Therefore, we can conjugate haber, our auxiliary verb, into many different simple form tenses and combine it with any past participle to create a new compound verb tense.

This way we can make subtle yet important distinctions between things like: “he comido” (I have eaten), “había comido” (I had eaten), “habría comido” (I would have eaten) and so on.

This is exactly the same way we combine other auxiliary verbs in English to create perfect compound tenses.

As you might expect, because we can conjugate haber into so many different simple form tenses, there are in fact several more compound perfect tenses. For instance: “habré comido” (I will have eaten) is an example of the future perfect tense.

Remember that perfect tenses describe actions that have been or will be completed, even if that is in the future.

We won’t list all the perfect tenses found in Spanish now, as their constructions follow the same rules as we’ve described here. But other forms can be found in the Spectrum Monkey conjugation tool.

The Progressive Tenses
If the perfect tenses describe actions that have been completed, then the progressive tenses describe actions that are on-going.

Progressive tenses use estar as the auxiliary verb and are combined with a gerund (present participle). Let’s see an example:

hablar (to speak) | present progressive tense

	Singular	Plural
1st Person	estoy hablando	estamos hablando
2nd Person	estás hablando	estáis hablando
3rd Person	está hablando	están hablando

The present progressive tense is used for describing on-going actions that are happening right now. This is subtly different to the simple form present indicative tense which can often seem to translate into meaning on-going actions too, but not necessarily right now.

We will almost certainly devote an entire blog entry to looking at when and why we use various tenses, as there are few grammatical rules for why we might favour a compound tense over a simple form tense, despite at times seemingly meaning the same thing.

As you might expect then, rather like the various perfect tenses, the progressive tenses can also reflect different periods in time and moods. Therefore, we can conjugate estar into other simple form tenses, thus creating more compound progressive tenses:

“estoy comiendo” (I’m eating), “estaba comiendo” (I was eating), “estaría comiendo” (I would be eating), “estaré comiendo” (I will be eating) and so on...

Conclusion | En conclusión
We’ve effectively covered several different unique grammatical tenses today. However, as the principle of combining an auxiliary verb with a participle (past or present) is largely the same for all these types of compound verb tense, we don’t need to spend too much time explaining each individually.

This said, we will certainly return to compound verb tenses another time and explain when and why it is appropriate to favour these constructions over other simple form constructions.

Now that we have a decent grasp of the simple form tenses, we are able to modify the auxiliary verbs just as we do in English, and help create really very nuanced descriptions of actions both complete and on-going.

Prioritising learning the simple form conjugations of both haber and estar is certainly advisable as these auxiliary verbs crop up in Spanish with the kind of frequency that you would expect.

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