Spanish verbs are difficult to learn, or rather learning the conjugation of Spanish verbs is. Difficult or not, the learning of Spanish verbs is unavoidable as they are an integral part of the Spanish language as are verbs to any language. But which verb should we deem the most important in the Spanish language?

Spanish verbs are probably the most difficult and the most complex areas of the Spanish Language. Spanish verbs are split into 3 main groups, those verbs that end in -ar, -er and -ir, each of the verbs in these verb groups has multiple endings to indicate who or what is performing an action. There are also numerous irregular verbs that follow their own specific verb pattern that must also be learnt and many of these are used frequently in everyday conversation such as; to be and; to have.

The complexities do not stop there because there are 16 different tenses that are each conjugated differently, these 16 tenses are split into 8 simple tenses and 8 perfect (compound) tenses and it is these perfect tenses that should give you a clue as to the verb many, including myself, deem to be the most important verb in Spanish. There are four distinct types of Spanish verb and they are; regular, irregular, reflexive and auxiliary and there is one specific auxiliary verb that is used with the past participle of every single verb in Spanish in each of the 8 perfect tenses. That verb of which I am writing about is haber meaning to have.

Understanding, and knowing, the various conjugations of haber will make it possible to use verbs more extensively. The perfect tenses are those tenses that describe a completed task, for example: I have been; I had been; I was; I will have been and, I would have been, are all perfect tenses that will use haber as an auxiliary verb.

In both English and Spanish, the perfect tenses are formed by using haber, followed by the past participle (el participio in Spanish). In English, the participle typically is formed by adding -ed to the end of verbs; the Spanish participle, which has origins related to the English participle, typically is formed by adding -ado for -ar verbs and -ido for -er and -ir verbs.

The verb tense in the perfect tenses is decided by which simple tense of haber is being used: for example if we said: I have eaten and I will have eaten the only way to distinguish between the two would be the tense of the auxiliary verb being used; I have eaten = he comido and I will have eaten = habré comido.

It isn’t feasible to show the complete conjugation of haber for each tense in Spanish as there are so many but the example below highlights how haber is used, using the past participle of the verb andar, meaning to walk, in the first person singular for each of the perfect tenses:

Indicative Tenses

Present Perfect – he andado – I have walked

Pluperfect – había andado – I had walked

Past Perfect – hube andado – I walked

Future Perfect – habré andado – I will have walked

Conditional Perfect – habría andado – I would have walked

Subjunctive

Present Perfect – haya andado – I have walked

Pluperfect – hubiera or hubiese andado – I had walked

Future Perfect – hubiera andado – I will have walked

So there you have it, haber, is the most used verb in Spanish and as such rightfully earns the honor of being the most important Spanish verb. Obviously, the use of a full conjugation sheet for the verb haber would make the use of this auxiliary verb a great deal easier to understand and you can download or print off such a sheet here.

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