Spanish is a grammatically inflected language, which means that many words are modified ("marked") in small ways, usually at the end, according to their changing functions. Verbs are marked for tense, aspect, mood, person, and number (resulting in up to fifty conjugated forms per verb). Nouns follow a two-gender system and are marked for number. Personal pronouns are inflected for person, number, gender (including a residual neuter), and a very reduced case system; the Spanish pronominal system represents a simplification of the ancestral Latin system.
Spanish was the first of the European vernaculars to have a grammar treatise, , published in 1492 by the Andalusian philologist Antonio de Nebrija and presented to Queen Isabella of Castile at Salamanca.
The (RAE, Royal Spanish Academy) traditionally dictates the normative rules of the Spanish language, as well as its orthography.
Differences between formal varieties of Peninsular and American Spanish are remarkably few, and someone who has learned the language in one area will generally have no difficulties of communication in the other; however, pronunciation does vary, as well as grammar and vocabulary.
Recently published comprehensive Spanish reference grammars in English include , , and .
Verbs
Every Spanish verb belongs to one of three form classes, characterized by the infinitive ending: -ar, -er, or -ir—sometimes called the first, second, and third conjugations, respectively.
A Spanish verb has nine indicative tenses with more-or-less direct English equivalents: the present tense ('I walk'), the preterite ('I walked'), the imperfect ('I was walking' or 'I used to walk'), the present perfect ('I have walked'), the past perfect —also called the pluperfect— ('I had walked'), the future ('I will walk'), the future perfect ('I will have walked'), the conditional simple ('I would walk') and the conditional perfect ('I would have walked').
In most dialects, each tense has six potential forms, varying for first, second, or third person and for singular or plural number. In the second person, Spanish maintains the so-called "T–V distinction" between familiar and formal modes of address. The formal second-person pronouns (, ) take third-person verb forms.
The second-person familiar plural is expressed in most of Spain with the pronoun and its characteristic verb forms (e.g., 'you eat'), while in Latin American Spanish it merges with the formal second-person plural (e.g., ). Thus, is used as both the formal and familiar second-person pronoun in Latin America.
In many areas of Latin America (especially Central America and southern South America), the second-person familiar singular pronoun is replaced by , which frequently requires its own characteristic verb forms, especially in the present indicative, where the endings are , , and for , , verbs, respectively. (See "".)
In the tables of paradigms below, the (optional) subject pronouns appear in parentheses.
Present indicative The present indicative is used to express actions or states of being in a present time frame. For example: (I am tall.) (Subject pronoun not required and not routinely used.) (She sings in the club.) (We all live in a yellow submarine.) ([It] is half past ten.)
+Present indicative forms of the regular verb ('to speak')SingularPluralFirst personSecond person familiarSecond person formalThird person
+Present indicative forms of the regular verb ('to eat')SingularPluralFirst personSecond person familiarSecond person formalThird person
+Present indicative forms of the regular verb ('to live')SingularPluralFirst personSecond person familiarSecond person formalThird person
Past tenses Spanish has a number of verb tenses used to express actions or states of being in a past time frame. The two that are "simple" in form (formed with a single word, rather than being compound verbs) are the preterite and the imperfect.
Preterite The preterite is used to express actions or events that took place in the past, and which were instantaneous or are viewed as completed. For example: (She died yesterday.) (Pablo turned the lights off.) (I ate the rice.) (You had your hair cut. Lit. "You cut yourself the hair.")
+Preterite forms of the regular verb ('to speak')SingularPluralFirst personSecond person familiarSecond person formalThird person
+Preterite forms of the regular verb ('to eat')SingularPluralFirst personSecond person familiarSecond person formalThird person
+Preterite forms of the regular verb ('to live')SingularPluralFirst personSecond person familiarSecond person formalThird person
Note that (1) for and verbs (but not ), the first-person plural form is the same as that of the present indicative; and (2) and verbs share the same set of endings.
Imperfect or "copretérito" The imperfect expresses actions or states that are viewed as ongoing in the past. For example: (I was/used to be funny in the past.) (You ate a lot. Literally, this sentence is saying "You used to eat a lot", saying that in the past, the person being referred to had a characteristic of "eating a lot.") (They were listening to the radio.) All three of the sentences above describe "non-instantaneous" actions that are viewed as continuing in the past. The characteristic in the first sentence and the action in the second were continuous, not instantaneous occurrences. In the third sentence, the speaker focuses on the action in progress, not on its beginning or end.
+Imperfect forms of the regular verb ('to speak')SingularPluralFirst personSecond person familiarSecond person formalThird person
+Imperfect forms of the regular verb ('to eat')SingularPluralFirst personSecond person familiarSecond person formalThird person
+Imperfect forms of the regular verb ('to live')SingularPluralFirst personSecond person familiarSecond person formalThird person
Note that (1) for all verbs in the imperfect, the first- and third-person singular share the same form; and (2) and verbs share the same set of endings.
Using preterite and imperfect together The preterite and the imperfect can be combined in the same sentence to express the occurrence of an event in one clause during an action or state expressed in another clause. For example: (They were listening to the radio when they heard a noise outside.) (I was in my room when you came in.) (It was a very peaceful day when that happened.) In all three cases, an event or completed action interrupts an ongoing state or action. For example, in the second sentence, the speaker states that he was in his room (expressed through the imperfect to reflect the ongoing or unfinished state of being there) when the other person "interrupted" that state by entering (expressed through the preterite to suggest a completed action).
Present progressive and imperfect progressive The present and imperfect progressive both are used to express ongoing, progressive action in the present and past, respectively. For example: (I am doing my homework.) (We are studying.) (I was listening to the radio.) (He was cleaning his room.) The present progressive is formed by first conjugating the verb or , depending on context, to agree with the subject, and then attaching a gerund of the verb that follows. The past (imperfect) progressive simply requires the or to be conjugated, depending on context, in imperfect, with respect to the subject.
Forming gerunds To form the gerund of an verb, replace the of the infinitive with ; e.g. , , → , , . For or verbs, replace the or ending with ; e.g. , , → , , (note that undergoes the stem vowel change that is typical of verbs). In verbs (and some -ir verbs, like disminuir) whose stem ends with a vowel, the of the ending is replaced by : e.g. , , → , , . In verbs whose stem ends with —such as and —the stem vowel is raised to (as is typical of verbs), and this merges with the of the ending; e.g. , → , .
Subjunctive
The subjunctive of a verb is used to express certain connotations in sentences such as a wish or desire, a demand, an emotion, uncertainty, or doubt.
Present subjunctive Normally, a verb would be conjugated in the present indicative to indicate an event in the present frame of time. (I am very ambitious.) (Marta brings the food.) If the sentence expresses a desire, demand, or emotion, or something similar, in the present tense, the subjunctive is used. (I want you to be very ambitious. Literally, I want that you be very ambitious.) (I am happy that Marta brings the food.) (It is a shame that you arrive late.)
The subjunctive is also used to convey doubt, denial, or uncertainty. (I search for a friend who will be likable./I search for a likable friend.) (There are no authors who write that.) (It is possible that she knows a lot.) (It does not seem that they have much money.) In the first two examples, the ideally likable friend has not yet been found and remains an uncertainty, and authors "who write that" are not known to exist. In the third, possibility is not certainty, but rather a conjecture, and the last expresses clear doubt. Thus, subjunctive is used. Some of the phrases and verbs that require sentences to have subjunctive formation include:
Some phrases that require the indicative instead, because they express certainty, include:
To form the first-person singular subjunctive, first take the present indicative first-person singular () form of a verb. For example, the verbs and (To talk, to eat, to live) → Then, replace the ending with the "opposite ending". This is done in the following way: if the verb is an or verb such as or replace the ending with an : i.e., If the verb is an verb such as or replace the ending with an : i.e., This forms the first-person conjugation. The other conjugations work similarly, as follows:
Since the forms are derived from , the following would be expected (and used in Central America):
However, the Royal Spanish Academy, following Argentinian usage, recommends using the forms: ;, hablar ;, comer , escribir
Imperfect subjunctive Today, the two forms of the imperfect subjunctive – for example, "" and "", from "" – are largely interchangeable.* The form derives (as in most Romance languages) from the Latin pluperfect subjunctive, while the form derives from the Latin pluperfect indicative. The use of one or the other is largely a matter of personal taste and dialect. Many only use the forms in speech, but vary between the two in writing. Many may spontaneously use either, or even prefer the rarer forms. The imperfect subjunctive is formed for basically the same reasons as the present subjunctive, but is used for other tenses and time frames.
Nouns
In Spanish, as in other Romance languages, all nouns belong to one of two genders, "masculine" or "feminine", and many adjectives change their form to agree in gender with the noun they modify. For most nouns that refer to persons, grammatical gender matches biological gender.
Adjectives
Spanish generally utilises adjectives in a similar way to English and most other Indo-European languages. However, three key differences are found between English and Spanish adjectives:
In Spanish, adjectives usually go after the noun they modify. The exception is when the writer/speaker is being slightly emphatic, or even poetic, about a particular quality of an object (rather than the mundane use of using the quality to specify which particular object they are referring to). could either mean that there are many red houses in the world but I wish to talk about the one that I happen to own, or that I have many houses but am referring to the red one. = My house, which is red. means that I am stressing how red my particular house is (probably the only house I have). = My house, which is obviously red. Another way of thinking of it is that this makes the house red at declaration, whereas Spanish typically defines a house and makes it red later.