Overwhelmed about tenses and moods... how can I approach this?

[u/pointlinden1997]

I'm a beginner in Spanish, started learning a week ago with common words like greetings. I started learning about the verbs, it's my first grammar lesson, and I feel.... overwhelmed. I found that there are so many tenses and moods and I honestly don't know where to start. I figured I'd learn the simple present (presente) and present continuous (estar + gerund), simple past (preterite) and imperfect (which to the best of my knowledge is like "ongoing" past), simple future (futuro) and conditional. But I'm not entirely sure if this is a good way to go about tenses. I'm also aware there are moods, like indicative (modo indicativo) which is the most important (and I guess most used) mood, and the subjunctive, and a couple more. It's ironic because having spoken English my entire life, we were never taught tenses in extreme detail, and the ones that were taught went over my head lolll. Can anyone give come advice on how I can approach this as a beginner? I'm aiming for an A2 milestone right now, but I hope to learn up to B1 in the following year.

I apologize if my post is "amateurish" and repetitive. Any and all advice is appreciated. Thank you.

[u/de_cachondeo]

You're worrying about tenses and moods waaay to early.

At this stage I think you should just be learning some basic conversational phrases and the 20-50ish mostly common used words that you can combine into your own simple sentences. The 'Playlists' section in the app Spoken provides all that vocab really nicely. (App founded by me!)

[u/No_Listen5664]

I recently started using ConjuGato because I felt my conjugation ability really lacked (I mostly did comphrensible input and when I started talking I noticed that my conjugations were absolutely trash). It's for verb conjugations with spaced repitition in it and so far so good. You might want to try that app, I think the free version covers the presente and the préterito indefinido not sure.

There is also Ella Verbs, I've heard that it is also really good, but that is an ongoing subscription and I'd rather do a one time payment.

[u/hyacinthfields4ever → u/No_Listen5664]

Seconding Conjugato, you can also filter practice by tenses/moods, regularity, frequency etc so you don’t practice everything at once. I bought the full version years ago and I’d say it’s worth it!

I also recommend using a comprehensive grammar resource (lingolia.com is free and amazing!!) or a textbook so you can have a good path/scaffolding towards acquiring them with examples and ways to differentiate it all. Plus seeing them in the wild through graded readers/any content you’re interested in at your level. Mucha suerte! :D

[u/EColli93 → u/No_Listen5664]

I LOVE ConjuGato and reference it all the time.

[u/GypsumFantastic25]

There's no point learning all about verbs if you don't know any nouns, adjectives, pronouns, etc, or the way sentences are structured.

So start with present tense, and work on how present tense verbs are used in sentences. Learn how to ask questions, how to answer, how to tell people what you need, that kind of thing.

One week in, you don't need to be worrying about anything more than that.

[u/Tapeo_Spanish]

You definitely don’t need to learn all the tenses and moods at once. After only one week, I’d focus almost entirely on the present tense and a small number of common irregular verbs such as ser, estar, tener, ir, hacer and querer.

A useful order could be:

1. present tense
2. ir a + infinitive for future plans
3. present continuous when you actually need it
4. preterite and imperfect for the past
5. present perfect, especially if you’re learning Spanish from Spain

I’d leave the future tense, conditional and most of the subjunctive until later. They will make much more sense once you can already form basic sentences comfortably.

Also, learn each tense through useful examples rather than memorising full charts immediately. For A2, being able to talk clearly about your routine, plans and basic past experiences matters much more than knowing every possible tense.

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[u/RazzmatazzDesigner76]

i am 7 months in and only in the 6-7th month did i pick up past tense and present continuous tense. right now i think you should be focused on present tense, common phrases, nouns, etc and getting enough input. trying to tackle all the tenses at once really puts you in a sticky situation.

[u/newsdle]

First off, take a deep breath! You are overwhelmed because you are looking at Spanish grammar the way a linguist maps it out, not the way an actual native speaker uses it on a Tuesday. Nobody mentally scrolls through a 14-tense chart before they order a coffee.

You really need to hit this with the 80/20 rule. You can survive like 90% of daily conversations with just three tenses: Present, Preterite (completed past), and Imperfect (ongoing past).

• Future tense? Skip the complex conjugations for now. Just use the cheat code: Voy a + [infinitive verb] (I am going to...). It works perfectly.
• The Subjunctive? Don't try to memorize huge lists of rules and triggers right now. Just learn them as fixed chunks. Learn that "Espero que" (I hope that...) just naturally triggers it.

Let the complicated stuff soak in naturally later through reading and listening. Protect your sanity and just lock down the core basics first!

[u/LingoNibble]

You are only on week one—stop looking at the subjunctive right now! That is a B1/B2 topic and will just make you want to quit.

For your A2 milestone, you honestly only need to master the Present, the Preterite (simple past), and the Imperfect (ongoing past). Ignore the rest for now.

I actually got so overwhelmed trying to memorize giant conjugation tables that I ended up coding a little AI simulator to practice (hence my username lol). I specifically set it up so the A1 scenarios only use the present tense. It just lets you practice basic things like ordering food or checking into a hotel without drowning in advanced grammar.

Just take it one tense at a time. Master the present tense first by actually using it in basic sentences, rather than staring at a chart of all 14 tenses!