Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The progressive aspects (also called "continuous tenses") are formed by using the appropriate tense of estar + present participle (gerundio), and the perfect constructions are formed by using the appropriate tense of haber + past participle (participio). When the past participle is used in this way, it invariably ends with -o.
The choice between present subjunctive and imperfect subjunctive is determined by the tense of the main verb of the sentence. The future subjunctive is rarely used in modern Spanish and mostly appears in old texts, legal documents, and certain fixed expressions, such as venga lo que viniere ("come what may").
Before o (in the first person singular of the indicative present tense) and a (that is, in all persons of the present subjunctive), the so-called G-verbs (sometimes "Go-Yo verbs" or "Yo-Go" verbs or "Go" verbs) add a medial -g-after l and n (also after s in asir), add -ig-when the root ends in a vowel, or substitute -c-for -g-.
Haber is an irregular verb. When used as an impersonal verb in the present tense, it has a special conjugation for the third person singular (hay). Clauses with the verb haber do not have an explicit subject; its only argument is a direct object noun phrase that does not agree with the verb. Haber has its 'natural meaning' of tener 'to have'. [10]
Normally, a verb would be conjugated in the present indicative to indicate an event in the present frame of time. Yo soy muy ambicioso. (I am very ambitious) Marta trae la comida. (Marta brings the food) If the sentence expresses a desire, demand, or emotion, or something similar, in the present tense, the subjunctive is used. Quiero que seas ...
The verb later transformed to *haveĊ in many Romance languages (but etymologically Spanish haber), resulting in irregular indicative present forms *ai, *as, and *at (all first-, second- and third-person singular), but ho, hai, ha in Italian and -pp-(appo) in Logudorese Sardinian in present tenses.
In the Spanish language there are some verbs with irregular past participles.There are also verbs with both regular and irregular participles, in which the irregular form is most used as an adjective, while the regular form tends to appear after haber to form compound perfect tenses.
Butt and Benjamin provide a number of common combinations of tenses: if the main clause is in the present tense, one has to use the present subjunctive for the dependent clause, but the present perfect subjunctive if the comment made is about a past event – the imperfect subjunctive may be used as well, replacing the latter; if the main ...