I'm trying to organize all of this in my head. In relation to the verb "hablar," how would the statements below translate into English? Obviously hablo is "I speak." But I think having an example to base the other verbs on would be a big help, because as I said in another thread, I speak english properly but I don't know grammmar. I was just brought up to speak properly without knowing why. So all the while that I am learning Spanish, in a way, I am learning grammar as well.

Grammar experts, please help if you can.

Present: yo hablo
Perfect: yo he hablado
Imperfect: yo hablaba
Pluperfect: yo habia hablado (con acento)
Preterit: yo hable (con acento)
Preterit Anterior: hube hablado
Futuro: hablare (con acento)
Futuro Anterior: habre hablado (con acento)

Maybe this would be more appropriately placed in the "Studying in Spain, Education, & Language" category?? This "Teacher Talk" category is mainly for discussion among teachers (but for anyone) about all facets of teaching, not necessarily related to Spain or Spanish.

Saludos, MadridMan

Personally I think that hablar is more close to talk than to speak (or perhaps both). I will translate by "talk"

Presente del indicativo (present): yo hablo -> I talk
Pretérito perfecto compuesto del indicativo (present perfect): yo he hablado -> I have talked
Pretérito imperfecto del indicativo (past): yo hablaba -> I talked (and continued talking)
Pretérito pluscuamperfecto (past perfect?): yo había hablado -> I had talked
Pretérito perfecto simple del indicativo (past): yo hablé -> I talked (and didn't continue talking)
Pretérito anterior del indicativo: hube hablado -> I had talked (very difficult to translate, this tense is not very used)
Futuro simple del indicativo (futuro): hablaré -> I will talk
Futuro compuesto del indicativo: habré hablado -> I will talk (difficult to translate the difference)

Other tenses:

Imperativo (Imperative): habla -> talk (when ordering someone to talk)
Condicional simple (Conditional): yo hablaría -> I would talk
Condicional compuesto (Conditional perfect): yo habría hablado -> I would have talked

And yet other "tenses" (which are not tenses but peripharis):

Estaba hablando -> I was talking
Habría estado hablando -> I would have been talking
...

Hope someone can help you a little more!

Fernando

Grammar experts, please help if you can.

Present: yo hablo
Perfect: yo he hablado
Imperfect: yo hablaba
Pluperfect: yo habia hablado (con acento)
Preterit: yo hable (con acento)
Preterit Anterior: hube hablado (very rarely used...mostly, however, in narrative literature from the XIX century)
Futuro: hablare (con acento)
Futuro Anterior: habre hablado (con acento)


Here goes:

Hablo con mi marido hoy y mañana.
Esta mañana he hablado con mi marido.
Hablaba, normalmente, de este tema con mi marido.
Ayer hablé con mi marido.
Mi marido me dijo que ya le había hablado de este tema antes.
Hablaré con mis parientes cuando les vea.
El mes que viene habré hablado con mis parientes.
Si no me hubieses querido hablar, porque no me lo habrías dicho.

The last one I through in since you didn't mention the conditional perfect.

To be honest...although the sentences are boring (G-d knows they are boring)...I wanted to keep them as simple as possible. Hope this helps.

Sheryl

FYI: Topic moved here to this category.

And look at that above! A near-simultaneous posting by two very very helpful and kind members.

wow! Thank you all for the quick replies. As a side project while I am taking Intermediate Spanish this summer, I am trying to conquer as many verbs as I can. I practice by (very boring I know) doing the whole "I talk, you talk, you have talked, etc etc" thing.

Thank you again.

Here’s a verb scheme you may (or not!) find useful.

Start with the simple tenses. “Simple” means there is just the main verb itself (which shows the tense in the inflection). In the indicative mood there are five simple tenses

1. Present: yo hablo (I speak)
2. Imperfect: yo hablaba (spoke, used to speak)
3. Preterit: yo hablé (spoke)
4. Future: yo hablaré (will speak)
5. Conditional: yo hablariá (would speak)

I’ll abbreviate the above tenses as P, I, Pt, F and C respectively.

Compound Forms:
1. Haber + -ado

Each of the 5 tenses has a corresponding compound form with the auxiliary verb haber + the past participle, i.e., hablado in this case. “Haber” now carries the tense, and the main verb (hablar) is always the same:

1 (P) he hablado (have spoken)
2 (I) había hablado (had spoken)
3 (Pt) hube hablado (had spoken)
4 (F) habré hablado (will have spoken)
5 (c) habría hablado (would have spoken)

2. Estar + -ando

Each of the 5 tenses has a corresponding compound form with the auxiliary verb estar + the present participle, i.e., hablando in this case. As above, the auxiliary verb carries the tense and the main verb (hablar) is always the same:

1 (P) estoy hablando (am speaking)
2 (I) estaba hablando (was speaking)
3 (Pt) estuve hablando (was speaking)
4 (F) estaré hablando (will be speaking)
5 (c) estaría hablando (would be speaking)

3. Just as in English the two compound forms can be combined as follows
Haber+tense estado verb+ando

Thus,
1 (P) he estado hablando (have been speaking),
2 (I) había estado hablando (had been speaking)
and likewise for Pt, F and C (though Pt may not be used).

Subjunctive Mood.

The modern subjunctive has only two simple tenses, call them the Present (P) and Imperfect (I). In the above scheme, the subjunctive P does the job of both indicative P and F, while subjunctive I does the job of indicative I, Pt and C. So the subjunctive simple tense table is just.

1 (P) que yo hable (that I (will) speak)
2 (I) que yo hablara (that I spoke/used to speak/would speak)

The subjunctive versions of all the compound tenses above are formed by simply putting the auxiliary verb in the appropriate subjunctive tense (so there are only 2 of each)
e.g.,

1 (P) que haya hablado, (that I (will) have spoken)
2 (I) que hubiera hablado (that I had spoken, etc)

I don’t think you can put it much simpler than that!

Hi there,

If you're just needing to practise the forms of the verbs, try this:

http://cavesvr.caverock.com/~colin/spanish/spanish.html

You can click on the "verb drills" page, and set yourself drills with different classes of verbs in different tenses. I just wrote it to help myself in my own study, so it's a bit rough around the edges at times. It's useful for memorising the irregular forms, in particular. I'd like to do some more work on it, but I'm just too busy studying, mi povrecita cabeza está llena!

Hope it helps....

Cheers,
Colin

this web site will help you.

http://www.verbix.com/languages/spanish.shtml

write your verb and u will see all his tenses

Just wanted you all to know that I used all of your examples and I still do.

I just finished Intermediate Spanish a few days ago, and This fall I am taking Spanish Composition and Conversation. Considering I took German in High School and didnt start taking Spanish until 2 years ago, I think that is pretty cool. Each week I feel it click a little more and more.

Again, thank you all for all of your help. You have made studying much easier.

Gooooood!

Fernando