How Well Do You Know Spanish Verb Tenses?

When talking about actions that occur repeatedly in the past, present, and future, you can use the present tense just as you do in English. The verb here, dormir, is conjugated irregularly.

When the clause of a sentence is used to provide the background for something that happened in the past, as "Cuando estaba en París" does, its verb typically is in the imperfect tense. The preterite form of ver is used here because it refers to a single action that began and ended at a definite time.

The English "would" is sometimes used as a rough equivalent of the Spanish conditional tense. But here, it indicates a past action that occurred over an indefinite period of time, meaning basically the same as "used to," so the imperfect tense is needed in translation.

English forms the preterite tense in questions by using the auxiliary verb "did." In Spanish, however, the preterite takes the same form in both questions and statements.

Both the simple present (anda) or present progressive (estaba andando) can be used for "she is walking." Although in English the simple present (in this case, "she walks") normally isn't used to talk about something that is occuring right now, such a use of the simple presesnt is common in Spanish. So the first two answers above are correct.

The future tense is usually used to talk about the future and could be used here. But it is more common to use the present tense to talk about a scheduled or planned event occurring in the near future. (In English, the present tense also could have been used here.) Thus the second and third answers above are correct.

Compraremos is the simple future form of comprar and could be used in this sentence. It is also very common to form the periphrastic future by using the present tense of ir a followed by the infinitive with little to no difference meaning. Thus the second and third answers above are correct. The periphrastic future of English is very simlar — we could say "We are going to buy the car" without much change of meaning.

The present perfect tense is roughly the equivalent of present perfect in English, being formed the the present of haber followed by the past participle. (In English it's the present of "to have" followed by the past participle). It is used to refer to events in the past that have relevance to the present. Be aware that specifics of this tense's usage can vary significantly with region.

The past perfect tense is roughly the equivalent of the past perfect in English, being formed by the imperfect of haber followed by the past participle. (In English it's the past of "to have" followed by the past participle.) It is used to refer to past events that aren't particularly relevant to the present. The past perfect is also known as the pluperfect.

The future perfect is used to tell of events that will be completed. it uses the simple future form of haber with the past participle.

The present subjunctive is used here because the event in the second half of the sentence is currently taking place.

The event in the second half ot the sentence took place in the past, so the imperfect subjunctive is used. Both the second and third answers are correct because Spanish has two forms of the imperfect subjunctive. They're usually interchangeable.

When the idiom "hacer + time period" is used to indicate how long ago an action began, the present tense is used for the action if it is continuing until the present.