ABSTRACT
Continuousverbforms(estoyhablando,estamostrabajando,etc.)arediscussedin Chapter15;thesubjunctiveisdiscussedinChapter16.Thepossibleformsofa typicalregularverbareshownat13.5.1.
14.INamesofthetenses ThereislittleagreementamongHispaniclinguistsaboutthenamesofthetenses. AnothersourceofconfusionforEnglish-speakersisthefactthatpreteritosimply means'past'(lasgloriaspreteritas='bygoneglories'),whereas'preterite'(US'preterit': theBritishspellingisusedinthisbook)referstoaspecificSpanishpasttense.The mainvariantsarelistedbelow:
20614Useofindicative(non-continuous)verbforms
(a)Thename'presenttense'forformslikehablo,voy,ismisleadingsincethisform canalsoexpressthefuture,thepast,andtimelessstatements.See14.3. (b)Thename'futuretense'forformslikelwblare,irci,ismisleadingsinceitcanalso beusedforsuppositions,andthereisalsomorethanonewayofexpressingthe future.See14.6.