Each verbal mode serves for the speaker to convey a type of message. There are four modes in Spanish: indicative, subjunctive, conditional, and imperative. Each of them presents different verb tenses to express when the action of the verb is performed. In our language, verbs can be conjugated at different times.
The present
In the present tense the verb form is coinciding with the moment in which it is spoken. If I say "she is eating", I communicate that the action of eating is carried out at that very moment. However, sometimes the present is used to refer to actions that are carried out in a habitual way (for example, "you work too much") or to refer to the past ("the Aztecs offer sacrifices to the gods").
Last
The past or past tense is divided into four tenses: past imperfect, past indefinite, past perfect and past perfect. The former is commonly used to describe habitual actions in the past (for example, "when I was a child I did not drink tea").
The past indefinite refers to an action already concluded at the time it is spoken ("she studied yesterday at home").
The past perfect is used to describe a past action, but that has a relationship with the present moment ("I have eaten too much today"). The past pluperfect expresses an action that is prior to another in the past ("I had not set the table when I arrived").
The future
The future simple or imperfect is a verb tense that we use to communicate ideas about the future related to possibilities, orders or prohibitions. When using the future it is common to use expressions of time, such as tomorrow, later or soon. The following sentences are examples of this verb tense: "we will talk next week", "you will eat everything I tell you" or "she will not study because she does not have exams".
Verb tense can be understood in two ways: absolute tenses or relative tenses.
The absolute times are measured from the present moment and communicate before or after. Relative times start from a secondary time reference point. The absolute tenses are the present, the imperfect, the indefinite, the simple perfect, the compound past perfect and the simple future.
The relative tenses are the past perfect, the imperfect in some cases (for example, "they told me you were in Paris"), the simple conditional, the future perfect, and the compound conditional.
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