How to Learn Spanish Verb Aspect

Table of contents

• How Aspect Affects Verb Conjugation
• Habitual Aspect in Spanish
• Imperfective Aspect in Spanish
• Perfective Aspect in Spanish
• Progressive Aspect in Spanish
• Practise Spanish Verb Aspect
• Time to Practicar!

Can you remember the first verb you learned in Spanish? No doubt, you know the past, present, and future versions of that verb.

But once you reach a more advanced level, you need to learn more nuances. These allow you to express not just when a verb happens, but when it happens relative to other events, or whether the action is in progress at the time of speaking, for example. This nuance is called: verb aspect.

In this article, we’ll cover four Spanish verb aspects:

1. Habitual
2. Imperfective
3. Perfective
4. Progressive

Read on to learn what they mean, how they work, and how to use them.

How Aspect Affects Verb Conjugation

Verb aspect in Spanish expresses not just when something happens, but whether the action was, is, or will be:

• Regularly occurring
• Incomplete
• Complete
• Ongoing

Each different aspect is shown by using different verb conjugations; see for example all the different progressive tenses conjugations used to convey the ongoing aspect.

Indicative:

Kwiziq Spanish tense name	English name	Alternative name used in Europe	Example
El Presente Progresivo	Present Progressive / Continuous	Presente Continuo	Yo estoy jugando Tú estás comiendo Ella está trabajando
El Pretérito Perfecto Progresivo	Present Perfect Progressive / Continuous	Perfecto Continuo / Pretérito Perfecto Compuesto Continuo	Yo he estado jugando Tú has estado comiendo Ella ha estado trabajando
El Imperfecto progresivo	Imperfect/ Past Progressive / Continuous	Imperfecto Continuo	Yo estaba jugando Tú estabas comiendo Ella estaba trabajando
El Indefinido Progresivo	Preterite /  Past Progressive / Continuous	Indefinido Continuo / Pretérito Perfecto Simple Continuo	Yo estuve jugando Tú estuviste comiendo Ella estuvo trabajando
El Pluscuamperfecto Progresivo	Pluperfect / Past Perfect Progressive / Continuous	Pluscuamperfecto Continuo	Yo había estado jugando Tú habías estado comiendo Ella había estado trabajando
El Futuro Progresivo	Future Progressive / Continuous	Futuro Continuo	Yo estaré jugando Tú estarás comiendo Ella estará trabajando
El Futuro Perfecto Progresivo	Future Perfect Progressive /Continuous	Futuro Perfecto Continuo	Yo habré estado jugando Tú habrás estado comiendo Ella habrá estado trabajando
El Condicional Simple Progresivo	Conditional Progressive / Continuous	Condicional Continuo	Yo estaría jugando Tú estarías comiendo Ella estaría trabajando
El Condicional Perfecto Progresivo	Conditional Perfect Progressive / Continuous	Condicional Perfecto Continuo	Yo habría estado jugando Tú habrías estado comiendo Ella habría estado trabajando

 

Subjunctive:

Kwiziq Spanish tense name	English name	Alternative name used in Europe	Example
El Presente Progresivo de Subjuntivo	Present Progressive / Continuous subjunctive	Presente Continuo de subjuntivo	Yo esté jugando Tú estés comiendo Ella esté trabajando
El Perfecto Progresivo de subjuntivo	Present Perfect Progressive / Continuous subjunctive	Perfecto Continuo / Pretérito Perfecto Compuesto Continuo de subjuntivo	Yo haya estado jugando Tú hayas estado comiendo Ella haya estado trabajando
El Imperfecto progresivo de subjuntivo	Imperfect/ Past Progressive / Continuous subjunctive	Imperfecto Continuo de subjuntivo	Yo estuviera jugando Tú estuvieras comiendo Ella estuviera trabajando
El Pluscuamperfecto progresivo de subjuntivo	Pluperfect / Past Perfect Progressive / Continuous subjunctive	Pluscuamperfecto Continuo de subjuntivo	Yo hubiera estado jugando Tú hubieras estado comiendo Ella hubiera estado trabajando

 

On the other hand, for a tense to indicate completion, we use the perfect tenses , i.e using “haber”.

Aspect, therefore, provides more information about how and when a verb’s action occurs. The following sections will explain the four verb aspects and how to use them.

Habitual Aspect in Spanish

The habitual aspect denotes whether something did happen, is happening, or will happen regularly:

As these examples show, the use of Spanish verb “soler” creates this nuance of habituality, generally used in the present and imperfect tense. Check out these lessons below to learn how to use the verb "soler" to create the habitual aspect:

• Soler in the present tense
• Soler in the imperfect tense

Imperfective Aspect in Spanish

The Imperfective aspect suggests that the action was, is, or will be incomplete:

All Spanish simple tenses except for el Pretérito Indefinido have the imperfective aspect.

Perfective Aspect in Spanish

The Perfective aspect describes complete actions. The verbs were, are, or will be completed, or finished:

All Spanish compound / perfect tenses, i.e using the auxiliary verb “haber”, and the simple tense Pretérito Indefinido have the perfective aspect.

Progressive Aspect in Spanish 

The Progressive aspect expresses that a verb was, is, or will be ongoing, such as:

Verb conjugation for the progressive aspect is very similar in Spanish and English. 

In English, we use a form of the verb “to be,” and add -ing (the present participle). In Spanish, we do the same, using a form of the verb “estar” and adding the present participle -ando or -iendo (or an irregular present participle form in some cases).

Practise Spanish Verb Aspect

Before you dive into our exercises, here are some concise lessons by our expert teachers you might want to check out if you still have any doubt on the topic of Spanish verb aspect:

• The Spanish imperfect progressive vs the Spanish preterite progressive
• Using the perfect tense in Spanish (not the preterite) to talk about experiences
• Using the preterite tense in Spanish for completed actions in the past
• Using the pluperfect tense to indicate that a past action happens before another past action
• Using the imperfect tense in Spanish to express habits or repeated actions in the past 

Now it's time to drill into Spanish verb aspect exercises!

• Fill-in-the-gap exercises:
  • En el parque
  • En la fiesta de Javier
  • Un viaje a Buenos Aires
• Bilingual readers (texts in Spanish with audio and translation):
  • Las tunas en el día de la Inmaculada
  • Confundida…

Time to Practicar!

Thankfully, the four aspects are just the same in Spanish as they are in English! So with a little bit of practice, you’ll definitely get these rules to stick.

Access the exercises listed here by making your account today. Kwizbot will create a custom study plan just for you based on your level, and you can use our free kwizzes too!

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