The Spanish Indicative Mood

8 min read

Have you heard of the Spanish indicative? Chances are, you’ve used it, even if you don’t know it! Most of the tenses we learn are in the indicative mood. Click to learn more!

In this article, we’ll be looking at the Spanish indicative mood. You may not have heard of it before, but we can almost guarantee that you’ve used it!

Indicative: it’s a mood not a tense

Just for a change, this article isn’t about a tense! The indicative is actually what we call a ‘mood.’ There’s a difference between moods and tenses.

Tenses tell you when something happens, e.g. past, present, future.

Mood is less about time and more about the speaker’s attitude toward what they’re saying.

Spanish has three moods:

• Indicative (statements, beliefs, descriptions, and predictions)
• Subjunctive (wishes, doubts, reactions, and other constructions)
• Imperative (commands)

The indicative is the “default” mood, and the one that we use the most, so we’ll be focusing on it today!

When the indicative is used

We use the indicative to make statements, describe events, and express beliefs or predictions. The mood presents information in a particular way; it does not guarantee that the information is true. Common uses include:

• Past events described as having happened.
• Scheduled events and predictions about the future.
• Descriptions and opinions presented as assertions, such as Creo que es interesante (I think it is interesting).
• Facts in general.
• Things that are true from the speaker’s point of view.

Remember, a mood reflects how a statement is presented. The indicative can express a belief, an opinion, a prediction, or a guess; it does not require complete certainty.

For example, if I truly believed that humans had four legs each, I’d use the indicative (‘Estoy segura de que cada ser humano tiene cuatro piernas’).

It’s inaccurate, of course, but in my (slightly messed up) mind, it’s a true and concrete fact, so the indicative is needed.

These questions can help you start choosing a mood, but they are a guide rather than a complete decision rule:

1. 1. Is it a command? Spanish uses imperative constructions for commands; negative commands use subjunctive verb forms.
2. 2. Does the construction express a wish, doubt, reaction, purpose, or another meaning that calls for the subjunctive? Check the whole phrase and its context.
3. 3. Is it a statement, description, belief, or prediction? The indicative is often appropriate, but some subordinate clauses still require the subjunctive.

Trigger Words and Phrases

The expressions below commonly introduce the indicative when they report or assert information. Context matters: Digo que viene (I say that he is coming) reports something, while Le digo que venga (I tell him to come) expresses a directive and uses the subjunctive. Negation can also change the mood.

Verbs denoting speech, such as:

• decir (to say)
• describir (to describe)
• mencionar (to mention)
• asegurar (to assure)

Verbs of perception, such as:

• observar (to observe)
• oír (to hear)
• ver (to see)
• notar (to note)

Verbs used to talk about occurrences, such as:

• pasar (to happen)
• ocurrir (to occur)
• suceder (to happen)

Verbs of knowing, such as:

• saber (to know)
• enterarse de (to find out)
• aprender (to learn)

Phrases of certainty

• estar seguro/a de que… (to be sure that…)
• es cierto que… (it’s certain that…)
• es obvio que… (it’s obvious that…)
• es claro que… (it’s clear that…)

The tenses of the indicative

There are lots of ways to use the indicative mood. The following list covers common indicative tenses. Compound forms such as the future perfect and conditional perfect are also indicative, so this is not an exhaustive list.

• Present

The present tense in the indicative is used for descriptions, facts, and things that happen or are happening right now.

• Jorge es una persona increíble.Jorge is an incredible person.
• España está en Europa.Spain is in Europe.
• Yo bebo mucho zumo de naranja.I drink a lot of orange juice.
• Los clientes están en caminoThe clients are on their way.

• Imperfect

The imperfect indicative describes past habits, background, and situations in progress, without presenting their beginning or end: Veíamos la tele cuando sonó el teléfono (We were watching TV when the phone rang).

• Preterite

The preterite is another type of past tense in the indicative, and is used to talk about events that happened in the past and are over now.

• Perfect

The perfect is yet another indicative past tense! We use it to talk about what has happened in the recent (or sometimes more distant) past.

• Pluperfect

The pluperfect refers to something that had happened before another past event or reference point. It expresses a relationship between past events, rather than simply a more distant past.

• Future

The future indicative can make predictions or refer to future events. It can also express a guess about the present: Serán las ocho can mean “It is probably about eight o’clock.” The indicative does not imply 100% certainty.

• Conditional

The conditional is an indicative tense that talks about something that hypothetically would happen.

*This is the imperfect subjunctive! It describes the condition that would have to be fulfilled in order for the traveling to occur.

Room for confusion?

When we talk about the indicative, it’s often because we’re contrasting it with the subjunctive. There are a couple of tenses which have similar names in the indicative and the subjunctive:

• The present indicative tense (we often drop the word ‘indicative’ and just call it the ‘present tense’) is different from the present subjunctive.
• The imperfect indicative tense (we often drop the word ‘indicative’ and just call it the ‘imperfect tense’) is different from the imperfect subjunctive.

For clarification, we’ve given you conjugation tables for regular verbs in these four tenses, so you can easily see the differences. Refer back to this if you ever get confused!

-ar verbs, e.g. hablar (to talk)

• Present Indicative
• hablohablamos
• hablashabláis
• hablahablan

• Present Subjunctive
• hablehablemos
• hableshabléis
• hablehablen

• Imperfect Indicative
• hablabahablábamos
• hablabashablabais
• hablabahablaban

• Imperfect Subjunctive
• hablara/hablasehabláramos/hablásemos
• hablaras/hablaseshablarais/hablaseis
• hablara/hablasehablaran/hablasen

-er verbs, e.g. vender (to sell)

• Present Indicative
• vendovendemos
• vendesvendéis
• vendevenden

• Present Subjunctive
• vendavendamos
• vendasvendáis
• vendavendan

• Imperfect Indicative
• vendíavendíamos
• vendíasvendíais
• vendíavendían

• Imperfect Subjunctive
• vendiera/vendiesevendiéramos/vendiésemos
• vendieras/vendiesesvendierais/vendieseis
• vendiera/vendiesevendieran/vendiesen

-ir verbs, e.g. vivir (to live)

• Present Indicative
• vivovivimos
• vivesvivís
• viveviven

• Present Subjunctive
• vivavivamos
• vivasviváis
• vivavivan

• Imperfect Indicative
• vivíavivíamos
• vivíasvivíais
• vivíavivían

• Imperfect Subjunctive
• viviera/vivieseviviéramos/viviésemos
• vivieras/viviesesvivierais/vivieseis
• viviera/viviesevivieran/viviesen

As you can see, although they have similar names, they’re honestly quite different, so don’t let the names confuse you! For this lesson, stick to indicatives!

Quiz

For each of the following, decide which mood is needed.

1. Es obvio que mi casa _ más grande que la tuya. (It’s obvious that my house is bigger than yours.)

a. Indicative (es)

b. Subjunctive (sea)

c. Imperative (sé)

2. ¡_ tu ropa en la lavadora! (Put your clothes in the washing machine!)

a. Indicative (Pones)

b. Subjunctive (Pongas)

c. Imperative (Pon)

3. Sé que _ enamorado. Es obvio. (I know that you’re in love. It’s obvious.)

a. Indicative (estás)

b. Subjunctive (estés)

c. Imperative (está)

4. Dudo que ella _ a venir. (I doubt that she’ll come.)

a. Indicative (va)

b. Subjunctive (vaya)

c. Imperative (ve)

5. Sin duda, lo _ mañana. (Without a doubt, I’ll do it tomorrow.)

a. Indicative (haré)

b. Subjunctive (haga)

c. Imperative (haz)

¡Fantástico!

This lesson has looked at what the indicative mood is, and some of the words and phrases that trigger it. Remember to check out our articles on the other moods (subjunctive and imperative), too!