The Present Perfect Tense

This Spanish Grammar lesson covers the Present Perfect Tense. Similar to English, the Present Perfect in Spanish is a compound tense that is used frequently, and quite easy to learn. The Present Perfect is a compound tense because it requires an auxiliary verb, haber (to have) and the past participle of the verb. As in English, the verb haber always comes before the present participle.

The conjugation pattern is as follows:

To Have (Present tense) + Past Particip...

Preterite Verbs

The preterite tense is another topic that seems to confuse English speakers of Spanish. English speakers learning Spanish have a tendency to confuse the preterite with the imperfect and vice versa. Both tenses describe actions that took place in the past. But I think English speakers just learning Spanish have a tendency to confuse the two because in English in certain instances we sometimes use the same form of a verb to describe an action that took place in the past. But in Spanish, in the ...

Present Progressive Tense

The progressive tense is used to describe actions that are in progress at a specific moment in time (the present). In English, it is the auxiliary verb "to be" and the present participle. In layperson terms, the "present participle" means verbs with "ing" attached to the end of the verb.

The present tense is used much more frequently in English than it is used in Spanish. As in Spanish, we use it to talk about actions that are in progress "now" or "right now." But in English, we als...

Reflexive Verbs and Reflexive Pronouns

This Spanish Grammar online topic covers Reflexive Verbs and Reflexive Pronouns. In Spanish, a verb is considered reflexive if the subject (the performer of the action) and the object (the receiver of the action) are the same.

Here's an example of a reflexive verb being used in English:

I wash myself.

In the above sentence the verb "wash" is considered reflexive because the subject or the one performing the action ("I") and the object or the one receiving the...

Spanish Grammar Lesson with the Verb 'Gustar'

If there's one verb that gave me a lot of trouble when I first started learning Spanish grammar that verb was "gustar."

Many of the Spanish lessons and Spanish classes that I took in order to learn Spanish only confused me even more about the use of "gustar." "Gustar" means "to be pleasing to" or "to find pleasant." But in many instances, Spanish speakers use it the same way that we use the verb "to like."

For example, in Spanish you don't literally say:

"I ...