Spanish 1.5. Present Indicative Tense I

In this lesson, we cover the present indicative tense, also called the present simple tense, in Spanish.

However, we need to first learn about the infinitive. Verbs in their infinitive form in Spanish have one of three endings: –ar, –er, –ir.

When a verb is conjugated in the present simple tense in Spanish, these endings are replaced with different endings based on the subject.

In English, verb conjugation in the present tense is quite simple. For example, the verb “to break” is conjugated as follows: I/you/we/they break, he/she/it breaks. Thus, there are only two conjugation forms of the verb “to break” in the present tense, which are “break” and “breaks.”

In Spanish, it is a little more complicated. Regular verbs in the present indicative tense follow the conjugation rules shown below, with an example from each verb group: –ar, –er, –ir.

	-ar ending e.g., hablar (to speak)	-er ending e.g., comer (to eat)	-ir ending e.g., vivir (to live)
yo	hablo	como	vivo
tú	hablas	comes	vives
él/ella/usted	habla	come	vive
nosotros/-as	hablamos	comemos	vivimos
vosotros/-as	habláis	coméis	vivís
ellos/ellas/ustedes	hablan	comen	viven

Dropping the Subject Pronoun

In Spanish, unlike in English, we can drop the subject pronoun because the conjugation is usually sufficient to indicate the subject.

For instance, we could say “Yo vivo en España” or “Vivo en España” (I live in Spain). Both are perfect speech and grammatically correct.

It even sounds more native to drop the subject pronoun in informal speech. Opting to use the subject pronoun can sound less natural in some contexts, as it can indicate an emphasis on the subject rather than the verb.

Use of “Vosotros” in Spain vs. Latin America

We include the “vosotros” conjugation in the table above for reference only. You can ignore it if you want to use your Spanish only in a Latin American country.

Present Indicative vs. Present Subjunctive

It is important to note that the present tense we have discussed so far is also called the present indicative tense. This is to distinguish it from the present subjunctive tense. The indicative and the subjunctive are two different moods. You do not have to worry about the difference for now. We cover the subjunctive mood starting in Level IV, Lesson 7.

As we progress with more advanced tenses in the levels to come, refer to the verb conjugation chart. This cheat sheet will help you gain perspective on the different moods and tenses in Spanish.

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