Spanish past/present tense question?

Question

Hello, I am teaching myself the spanish language and how to say things in past/present tense always confuses me a little bit. Can someone explain to me the differences in how I would say simple statements in the past and present tense? For example, things like:

How is your weekend going?/ How was your weekend?

How is the party going?/How was the party?

How did you like college?/How are you liking college?

etc.etc...

Thank you!

Answer 1

For openers. you would never ask how something is "going" unless it was MOVING.

Que es means "how is" and week-end is Fin de Semana... so Que es (usted) fin de semana? would be How is your week-end?

If you plan to speak Spanish then be aware that may phrases AmeriKans use, don't have an equivalent in Spanish and some would make no sense at all... Even the parts of speech aren't used the same way as in AmeriKan.. so trying to do literal translations don't work because  that is why AmeriKans who try to look like they can speak or write in Spanish make so many mistakes that it's obvious they don't.

Answer 2

First of all, be careful with the 'translations' from your first answer - "que es" does NOT mean "how is". And it's true that you can't expect something to translate word for word.

I would say past/present can be pretty easy, but the examples you've chosen are harder cases b/c they're not a simple sentence structure of subject + verb. So here are a couple simpler cases:

1. weekend is = fin de semana es OR fin de semana está

2. weekend was = fin de semana fue OR fin de semana estuvo

3. the party is = la fiesta está

4. the party was = la fiesta estuvo

5. you like college = te gusta la universidad*

6. you liked college = te gustó la universidad*

w/the verb "gustar" the THING you like is the subject, not the person doing the liking. So "college" is the subject of #5-6.

If you're looking for present progressive tense (-ing in English) please be more specific. (Eg. I am walking, she is eating, etc)