Conditional Tense - Spanishdict.com

From Spanishdict.com

The conditional (el condicional ) tense in Spanish is used to express what would happen in the future. It is more of a possibility, or hypothetical situation, than the future tense. The formation is very similar to that of the simple future tense in that one set of endings is added to the infinitive to create a new tense and the irregular stems are the same as those in the future tense.

Compraría esa camisa. I would buy that shirt.

Sacaría la basura por ti. He would take out the trash for you.

Si fuera rico, me gustaría viajar por todo el mundo. If I were rich, I would travel all over the world.

Regular Conditional Forms

To form the conditional tense, simply add the correct ending to the infinitive of the verb. All verb conjugations (-AR, -ER, and -ER) have the same endings for the conditional tense:

Conditional Endings: -ía, -ías, -ía, -íamos, -íais, -ían

Subject	viajar	conocer	escribir
yo	viajaría	conocería	escribiría
tú	viajarías	conocerías	escribirías
usted, él, ella	viajaría	conocería	escribiría
nosotros	viajaríamos	conoceríamos	escribiríamos
vosotros	viajaríais	conoceríais	escribiríais
ustedes, ellos, ellas	viajarían	conocerían	escribirían

The endings for the conditional tense are the same as those for the -er and -ir forms of the imperfect tense.

Remember that the conditional adds the endings to the infinitive while the imperfect adds them to the stem.

• Conditional: Escribiría unas cartas. (I would write some letters.)

• Imperfect: Escribía unas cartas. (I wrote some letters.)

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Future in Spanish - Spanishdict.com

From Spanishdict.com

In Spanish, there are two ways to express the future. One is the simple future tense, and the other, more basic form, is the informal future. The informal future is used mostly in spoken Spanish to express future actions.

Simple Future	Future
Estudiaré mucho mañana.	Voy a estudiar mucho mañana.
I will study a lot tomorrow.	I am going to study a lot tomorrow.

Future Forms

The informal future is formed by the verb ir conjugated in the present indicative, the preposition a, and the infinitive of the action to be performed. The loose translation would be that someone is going to ___.

ir + a + infinitive

Yo voy a viajar por España. I am going to travel through Spain.

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Preterite vs. Imperfect in Spanish

Overview - From Spanishdict.com - QUIZ

Many students have trouble knowing when to use the preterite tense or the imperfect tense since they both refer to actions in the past. There are several general rules to follow, as well as phrases to look out for. Many phrases use only one tense or the other, so memorizing them is very helpful in figuring out whether the use a verb in preterite or imperfect!

General Preterite Uses

Generally, the preterite is used for completed actions (actions that have definite beginning and end points.) These can be actions that can be viewed as single events, actions that were part of a chain of events, actions that were repeated a very specific number of times, or actions that specifically state the beginning and end of an action.

General Imperfect Uses

The imperfect tense is generally used for actions in the past that do not have a definite end. These can be actions that are not yet completed or refer to a time in general in the past. It can also be used to talk about:

• actions that were repeated habitually
• actions that set the stage for another past tense event
• time and dates in the past
• for telling a person’s age in the past
• to describe people (characteristics) in the past
• to communicate mental or physical states in the past

Subjunctive: Part I

The Forms of the Present Subjunctive / Las formas del presente del subjuntivo

	present indicative	PRESENT SUBJUNCTIVE
ayudar poner seguir	yo ayud-ø   yo pong-ø   yo sig-ø	ayude ayudes ayude ayudemos ayudéis ayuden ponga pongas ponga pongamos pongáis pongan siga sigas siga sigamos sigáis sigan

In order to form the present subjunctive, use the first person singular of the present indicative –the yo form–, remove the -o, and add endings in -e for -ar verbs, and endings in -a for -er and -ir verbs. This change of vowel may involve some spelling changes:
pag-ø  pague busc-ø  busque empiez-ø  empiece

• Stem-changing verbs in -ar and -er change their stems in the same way and in the same cases as in the present indicative:

piense vuelva

pienses vuelvas

piense vuelva

pensemos volvamos

penséis volváis

piensen vuelvan

• Stem-changing verbs in -ir, whatever the change that occurs in the present indicative, change the stem of thenosotros and vosotros forms of the present subjunctive from e to i and from o to u. (see complete rules.)

muera sienta pida

mueras sientas pidas

muera sienta pida

muramos sintamos pidamos

muráis sintáis pidáis

mueran sientan pidan

Only six verbs do not follow the rules above to form the present subjunctive:

ir  →  vaya, vayas, vaya, vayamos, vayáis vayan ser  →  sea seas sea seamos seáis sean estar  →  esté estés esté estemos estéis estén saber  →  sepa sepas sepa sepamos sepáis sepan haber  →  haya hayas haya hayamos hayáis hayan (subjunctive for hay) dar  →  dé des dé demos deis den

Subjunctive?

All the verbs we have studied so far have been in the Indicative Mood because they indicate states or actions that are presented as factual. The Subjunctive Mood is used, mostly in dependent clauses, after verbs that suggest non-factual events, such as indirect commands, doubts, subjective perception, etc. Compare the following two groups of sentences:

Presented as factual (indicative):	Desired, doubted (subjunctive):
I insist that he is here. Insisto en que está aquí.	I insist that he be here. Insisto en que esté aquí.
I believe he did it. Creo que lo hizo.	I demand that he do it. Exijo que lo haga.
I know he is here. Sé que está aquí.	I doubt he'll be here. Dudo que esté aquí.

Source and Original website + exercises here.

Ser y estar

If you follow the link, you´ll find a very useful comic strip explaining the different uses of SER and ESTAR in Spanish.

La tílde

Written accents (tildes) 

Overview - text from SpanishDict - do some online practice here

What are all those little "accents" for? Tildes (written accent marks) let the reader know where to place the intonation when a rule is broken. Without the tilde, we would just have to guess like we do in English:
I love that record vs. He loves to record music.

When to Use an Accent

There are lots of heteronyms like record in English and the rules for pronunciation are a little vague. But not in Spanish! Knowing the four categories of words makes positioning the tilde super easy. There are only 2 rules if you already know your word stress rules.

1. Esdrújulas and sobresdrújulas always have a tilde on the syllable with the most stress.
2. Agudas and graves have a tilde when they violate the intonation rules (see below)

Basic Intonation Rules

1. If the stress is on the last syllable (aguda) and the word ends in vowel, n, or s, it must have a tilde.

• Panamá
• ratón
• cortés

2. If the stress is on the penultimate syllable (grave) and the word ends in a consonant other than n or s, it must have a tilde

• árbol
• azúcar
• ángel

Expanded Intonation Rules

If you do not know what agudas, graves, etc. are, the rules for using tildes, you can read our article on word stress, or continue reading below.

1. Words that end in a vowel, an -n, or an -s will be stressed on the second to last (penultimate) syllable and will not have a tilde.

• ga’-to
• ca’-sa
• za-pa’-tos
• o-ri’-gen

2. Words that end in a consonant other than -n or -s will be stressed on the last syllable and will not have a tilde.

• doc-tor’
• ciu-dad’
• a-zul’
• ha-blar’

If a word violates either of these two rules, it will need a tilde to show the reader where to pronounce the word.

• fácil - This word ends in a consonant (so it would be stressed on the last syllable, but it is stressed on the penultimate syllable, so it needs a tilde.)
• está - This word ends in a vowel (so it would be stressed on the penultimate syllable, but it is stressed on the last vowel, so it needs a tilde.)

Also, if a word is stressed on any syllable other than the last or 2nd to last, it will always require a tilde.

• América - This word ends in a vowel (so it would be stressed on the penultimate syllable, but it is stressed on the 3rd to last (ante-penultimate) syllable, so it needs a tilde.)
• Mándamelo - This word ends in a vowel (so it would be stressed on the penultimate syllable, but it is stressed on the 4th to last (ante-penultimate) syllable, so it needs a tilde.

Exceptions

Now, if you´ve ever taken a language course before, you know there are always (dreaded word) exceptions to the rules. Spanish has fewer exceptions than a lot of languages. These are all here because the tilde differentiates two words that are spelled and pronounced the same way, but mean different things. It´s all obvious in context, but when writing things out, it's nice to have the extra little signal up there.

Possessive adjectives	Personal pronouns
mi (my)	mí (me)
tu (your)	tú (you)

Examples:

• Mi amor me dio la rosa a mí. (My love gave me a rose.)
• Tienes un gato. Es tu gato. (You have a cat. It is your cat.)

Interrogatives/Question Words

All interrogative (question) words have a written accent to signal that someone is asking a question and not just making a statement.

¿Cómo?	How/What?
¿Cuál(es)?	Which (ones)?
¿Cuándo?	When?
¿Cuánto(s)/a(s)?	How much/many?
¿Dónde?	Where?
¿Qué?	What?
¿Quién?	Who/whom?
¿Por qué?	Why?

There are also several other words that "just have" accents to differentiate them other similar words. The tilde makes a big difference when written, but in speech, although they share the same sounds, the one with the tilde is pronounced with more stress.

él (he)	el (the)	Él le gusta el queso. (He likes the cheese.)
té (tea)	te (you - direct object)	Te recomiendo que bebas el té. (I recommend that you drink the tea.)
sí (yes)	si (if)	Sí, quiero ir al cafe si tienen la pizza. (Yes, I want to go to the cafe if they have pizza.)
más (more)	mas (but)	Quiero más chocolate, mas es mala idea. (I want more chocolate, but it´s a bad idea.)
aún (still, yet)	aun (even)	Aun después de una cita buena, aún él no me ha llamado. (Even after a good date, he still has not called me.)
cómo (how/what)	como (like, as)	¿Cómo se llama él? ¿Es alto como Pablo? (What is his name? Is he tall like Pablo?)
sólo (only)	solo (alone)	Iré sólo si tú vas también; no quiero ir solo. (I will go only if you go; I don't want to go alone.)