Theoretically Spanish has around 17 verb tenses, however over half of them are just Haber verb in different tense forms + ado/ido
But what about gerundio? The various verb forms of estar + ando/iendo.
What makes haber so special, that it appears on Spanish verb conjugation charts, while estar doesn’t?
Wouldn’t that make theoretical 26 verb tenses? I know a good chunk of them are archaic and obsolete, but I feel like some much space is wasted with compound haber forms in these charts.
there is no answer for such question, as long you do not say what are you talking about? what course, who created it?
mvg, H.
If you are observing that many Spanish verb tenses only require conjugating haber, yes, that is true.
If you are asking why haber verb forms such as “habría comido” (I would have eaten) are counted as verb tenses and are included in conjugation charts, while "“estoy comiendo” (I am eating) is not, that is because the gerund is considered as functioning as an adverb in the Spanish.
estar (conjugated) + gerund = conjugated verb plus a modifying adverb.
haber (conjugated) + participle = conjugated compound verb.
The distinction probably doesn’t matter for how you learn and use the tenses.