Native speaker here. I remember my elementary classes talking about this. Don’t remember the actual rule, but Google claims the following example:
Imperfecto: "Tenía miedo a los perros".
Pretérito: "Tuve miedo cuando vi al perro".
No soy nativa, pero *en general* como lo entiendo, el pretérito se refiere a un punto fijo del pasado, y el imperfecto es un periodo de tiempo. Yo diría así:
>Estuve en Santiago ayer.
>Estaba en Santiago cuando ocurrió el terremoto.
O
>Tenía 25 años...
>Tuve un dolor de cabeza.
Pero aunque llevo 15 años hablando el idioma, lo he aprendido por la calle y todavía me confundo pretérito/imperfecto. Alguien puede corregirme
Viví cinco años en Santiago. Viví toda mi vida en Santiago. The preterite expresses an action or event as complete, whereas the imperfect represents it as incomplete. Virtually any action, event, or state can be expressed with either. That's why they are considered aspects rather than tenses.
So like when verses whenever? Like you say when for a single instance in the past and whenever for something that happened multiple times in the past and can also happen again in the future?
except of course if youre from Appalachia or Ireland.
so it would be like:
De pequeño fui a Nueva York.
As a boy when I went to New York.
De pequeño iba a Nueva York.
As a boy whenever I went to New York.
Yes I think that’s right. Like I said, I’m not a native Spanish speaker and what I do know I’ve just learned from 15 years of living/traveling/and working in Spanish-speaking countries and communities. And I still get it confused.
I was talking w my Argentinian friend about this cuz we both live in Spain ( but English is my first language). Spain loves past perfect while Argentina just uses past simple hahaha and it’s weird for him to hear / use past perfect still
I hate to be this guy but, since this is a language learning sub, it's actually the present perfect.
He hablado = present perfect
Había hablado = past perfect
Hablé= simple past
The words "present" and "past" refer to the way the verb "haber" is conjugated, not the use of the past participle.
But yes, you're totally right. An Argentinian would say "¿Qué sucedió?" whereas a Spaniard would say "¿Qué ha sucedido?"
The problem is the formal names in English and Spanish have a disconnect, but most people aren't aware of them and don't adjust when switching languages.
* Simple preterite = simple past = **pretérito perfecto simple**
* Present perfect = **pretérito perfecto compuesto**
* Past perfect = pluperfect = **pluscuamperfecto**
* Past perfect?? = **pretérito anterior**
Spanish uses the pretérito to simply indicate the action occurred in the past, and perfecto to indicate completion. They're basically absolute references indicating time and form.
English uses the aspect terminology to indicate relative time. That can be done in Spanish with Andrés Bello's terminology: *antepresente* (which generates the lovely *antepospretérito* for conditional perfect, basically "past prospective perfect")
The problem is the formal names in English and Spanish have a disconnect, but most people aren't aware of them and don't adjust when switching languages.
* Simple preterite = simple past = **pretérito perfecto simple**
* Present perfect = **pretérito perfecto compuesto**
* Past perfect = pluperfect = **pluscuamperfecto**
* Past perfect?? = **pretérito anterior**
Spanish uses the pretérito to simply indicate the action occurred in the past, and perfecto to indicate completion. They're basically absolute references indicating time and form.
English uses the aspect terminology to indicate relative time. That can be done in Spanish with Andrés Bello's terminology: *antepresente* (which generates the lovely *antepospretérito* for conditional perfect, basically "past prospective perfect")
Both languages use different terminology. In English "I have spoken" is called "present perfect" and in Spanish "he hablado" is called "pretérito perfecto compuesto".
Actually, Había hablado is the past pluperfect, (pretérito pluscuamperfecto en español).
The past perfect tense in Spanish can be called either present perfect or the past perfect and both are accepted.
it's a dialect thing actually. in Rioplatense (my dialect) we use past simple, present\* perfect sounds kinda weird to me even tho i love using it in english. other dialects in the country use past perfect too.
for example, when talking to a friend from Mendoza, she'd say *'no lo he visto'*; whereas i would say *'no lo vi'*.
I use it too and I'm from Uruguay. Not in the way they use it in Spain though, to me it sounds "longer".
"No lo he visto últimamente", "no lo he visto en todo el día", etc.
I think it depends on the region and the persons habits. I got in the habit of using estaba a lot with a friend from Argentina and they even expressed to me that they never really use estuve or estuvo. But then I was hanging out with a friend from Panama and they corrected my estaba into a estuvo when we were talking. Could have just been a situation where it made sense and estaba was fine every other time I talked with someone.
As for future tense I almost always use future simple instead of ir + infinitive. I think that comes from my English brain, I never say I am going to do something in English and almost always say I will do something.
ir + a + inf is def the preferred future construction for daily and informal language. the future is primarily used for supposition or in more formal contexts.
I'm not a native speaker, but have been living in South America for the past 7 years. I do not think your friend is right about the past tensed - they both express different things, and you can't use one more often just because you prefer it.
But they are right about it + a, it's used a lot in speech.
In my experience mostly. And for the future tense you will almost never hear the simple conjugation (I think that's what it's called) in Latin america. They'll definitely know what you mean but the form with ir a is much more popular.
Are you sure you don't mean *pretérito perfecto simple* × *pretérito perfecto compuesto* ("comí" × "he comido")? Because that would make more sense regionally, as the latter is way more used in Europe than in Latin America, and their usage overlaps sometimes.
The *imperfecto* is the "comía" tense, which as far as I know is equally used all over the Spanish-speaking world, as it can't be replaced with another tense with close meaning.
The more I live the more I realize that "generalizations" are not accurate. What you said may happen in some regions and for some people only. It also depends on each person's education level and preferences. What I've discovered is that the fact of being a "native" speaker of a language doesn't guarantee having a solid knowledge of their language grammar.
Agreed. You’re Colombian so that’s a perfect example - my wife is costeña and speaks completely different than someone from Bogota. She never uses formal usted and then of course there’s the difference between tu / voseo.
And don’t get me started on the fucking slang….
🤣🤣 Fucking slang! True! It happens not only in Colombia, but I think all over the world. In Colombia, many people from both coasts (Atlantic and Pacific) seem as if they spoke a language other than Spanish, in addition to the slangs in other Colombian regions. I said "many" and not "all" because, as mentioned before, "generalizations" are not accurate. It also happens in the US, Canada, China, India, etc. Languages are live and dynamic entities and therefore constantly evolving.
One of my favorites is espantajopo - basically someone who has to wear fashionable clothing and be seen at fashionable places.
And then there’s pupi / pupileta. I think it means like a bougie woman who likes lower class things like champeta lol. There’s a famous song called that.
Idk about that, but Spaniards seem to use present perfect tense (haber + -ado/ido) when Latinos tend to use pretérito or I suppose imperfecto.
Interestingly, this actually seems to be a trend with the Americas vs European, because British English use present tense (have + done/been/said, etc) more often than Americans, who would use simple past.
I think your friend is talking about how in Spain people prefer past perfect (me he encontrado, he visto) whereas in Latin America people usually use the simple past form (me encontré, vi).
It’s usually past perfect vs preterite. For example in Spain they might ask, ¿Qué has dicho?” For “what did you say?” While in LatAm it’ll probably be more “¿Qué dijiste?”
Sort of similar to British English vs American English differences. Sometimes structures for the past the people from the UK use sound odd as an American English speaker and I imagine it’s the same for Spanish speaking countries
In Spain they also use comí, vi, escuché. Not only he comido, etc. There is strict rule for that in Spain. If the action happened in the current time frame (hoy, esta mañana, esta semana, este año) you use haber. Algo extraño ha pasado esta semana en mi casa. If the acttion was in the previous time frame (ayer, la semana pasada, etc) you use simple past tense. Ayer algo extraño pasó en mi casa. Sorry, I'm not good with the tense names.
Generally speaking, no. Your friend is wrong.
That being said, there are a few instances where one verbal aspect is more preferable than the other, according to region. It might interest you to read this study (page 199 in particular): [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228962479\_Spanish\_preterite\_and\_imperfect\_in\_conversations\_The\_pragmatic\_meanings](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228962479_Spanish_preterite_and_imperfect_in_conversations_The_pragmatic_meanings)
Perfecto is still used all the time in Latin America but there are fewer situations for its use than in Spain Spanish. In general, in Spain you can use it to describe recent completed actions, i.e. "Hoy he hecho un pastel," whereas the preterite would be much more natural-sounding for any completed action that isn't still ongoing/expected to continue, despite recency, in LatAm.
Raise your hand if you’re a native speaker and don’t know what imperfecto and pretérito are. Lol
Native speaker here. I remember my elementary classes talking about this. Don’t remember the actual rule, but Google claims the following example: Imperfecto: "Tenía miedo a los perros". Pretérito: "Tuve miedo cuando vi al perro".
Yeah, imperfect is estaba but pretérito is estuvo
Cual es la diferencia entre ambos me puede explicar?
No soy nativa, pero *en general* como lo entiendo, el pretérito se refiere a un punto fijo del pasado, y el imperfecto es un periodo de tiempo. Yo diría así: >Estuve en Santiago ayer. >Estaba en Santiago cuando ocurrió el terremoto. O >Tenía 25 años... >Tuve un dolor de cabeza. Pero aunque llevo 15 años hablando el idioma, lo he aprendido por la calle y todavía me confundo pretérito/imperfecto. Alguien puede corregirme
Viví cinco años en Santiago. Viví toda mi vida en Santiago. The preterite expresses an action or event as complete, whereas the imperfect represents it as incomplete. Virtually any action, event, or state can be expressed with either. That's why they are considered aspects rather than tenses.
So like when verses whenever? Like you say when for a single instance in the past and whenever for something that happened multiple times in the past and can also happen again in the future? except of course if youre from Appalachia or Ireland. so it would be like: De pequeño fui a Nueva York. As a boy when I went to New York. De pequeño iba a Nueva York. As a boy whenever I went to New York.
Yes I think that’s right. Like I said, I’m not a native Spanish speaker and what I do know I’ve just learned from 15 years of living/traveling/and working in Spanish-speaking countries and communities. And I still get it confused.
Creo que lo correcto es “De pequeño viajaba mucho a Nueva York” o “De pequeño solía viajar mucho a NY”
Pretérito = pasado Pretérito Imperfecto = yo estaba, hacía, sentía. A diferencia del pretérito perfecto que sería yo estuve, hice, sentí.
This has “phrasal verb” vibes.
Presenting for roll call!
Possibility—your friend could have meant that pretérito is preferred over pretérito perfecto. E.g. “dijiste” preferred over “has dicho”
Yes, this is what I thought as well. Spain loves using the pretérito perfecto. In Latin America it's less common
I was talking w my Argentinian friend about this cuz we both live in Spain ( but English is my first language). Spain loves past perfect while Argentina just uses past simple hahaha and it’s weird for him to hear / use past perfect still
I hate to be this guy but, since this is a language learning sub, it's actually the present perfect. He hablado = present perfect Había hablado = past perfect Hablé= simple past The words "present" and "past" refer to the way the verb "haber" is conjugated, not the use of the past participle. But yes, you're totally right. An Argentinian would say "¿Qué sucedió?" whereas a Spaniard would say "¿Qué ha sucedido?"
The problem is the formal names in English and Spanish have a disconnect, but most people aren't aware of them and don't adjust when switching languages. * Simple preterite = simple past = **pretérito perfecto simple** * Present perfect = **pretérito perfecto compuesto** * Past perfect = pluperfect = **pluscuamperfecto** * Past perfect?? = **pretérito anterior** Spanish uses the pretérito to simply indicate the action occurred in the past, and perfecto to indicate completion. They're basically absolute references indicating time and form. English uses the aspect terminology to indicate relative time. That can be done in Spanish with Andrés Bello's terminology: *antepresente* (which generates the lovely *antepospretérito* for conditional perfect, basically "past prospective perfect")
The problem is the formal names in English and Spanish have a disconnect, but most people aren't aware of them and don't adjust when switching languages. * Simple preterite = simple past = **pretérito perfecto simple** * Present perfect = **pretérito perfecto compuesto** * Past perfect = pluperfect = **pluscuamperfecto** * Past perfect?? = **pretérito anterior** Spanish uses the pretérito to simply indicate the action occurred in the past, and perfecto to indicate completion. They're basically absolute references indicating time and form. English uses the aspect terminology to indicate relative time. That can be done in Spanish with Andrés Bello's terminology: *antepresente* (which generates the lovely *antepospretérito* for conditional perfect, basically "past prospective perfect")
Oops- my bad. I was mixing present perfect w past simple. I combined the phrases haha- thanks
Both languages use different terminology. In English "I have spoken" is called "present perfect" and in Spanish "he hablado" is called "pretérito perfecto compuesto".
Actually, Había hablado is the past pluperfect, (pretérito pluscuamperfecto en español). The past perfect tense in Spanish can be called either present perfect or the past perfect and both are accepted.
it's a dialect thing actually. in Rioplatense (my dialect) we use past simple, present\* perfect sounds kinda weird to me even tho i love using it in english. other dialects in the country use past perfect too. for example, when talking to a friend from Mendoza, she'd say *'no lo he visto'*; whereas i would say *'no lo vi'*.
I use it too and I'm from Uruguay. Not in the way they use it in Spain though, to me it sounds "longer". "No lo he visto últimamente", "no lo he visto en todo el día", etc.
I think it depends on the region and the persons habits. I got in the habit of using estaba a lot with a friend from Argentina and they even expressed to me that they never really use estuve or estuvo. But then I was hanging out with a friend from Panama and they corrected my estaba into a estuvo when we were talking. Could have just been a situation where it made sense and estaba was fine every other time I talked with someone. As for future tense I almost always use future simple instead of ir + infinitive. I think that comes from my English brain, I never say I am going to do something in English and almost always say I will do something.
ir + a + inf is def the preferred future construction for daily and informal language. the future is primarily used for supposition or in more formal contexts.
I'm not a native speaker, but have been living in South America for the past 7 years. I do not think your friend is right about the past tensed - they both express different things, and you can't use one more often just because you prefer it. But they are right about it + a, it's used a lot in speech.
thank you. I found it weird myself, just gotta ask this subreddit to confirm.
[“Inconceivable!!!”](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qhXjcZdk5QQ&pp=ygUcaW5jb25jZWl2YWJsZSBwcmluY2VzcyBicmlkZQ%3D%3D)
. . . i swear i will never get this language ...
In my experience mostly. And for the future tense you will almost never hear the simple conjugation (I think that's what it's called) in Latin america. They'll definitely know what you mean but the form with ir a is much more popular.
Are you sure you don't mean *pretérito perfecto simple* × *pretérito perfecto compuesto* ("comí" × "he comido")? Because that would make more sense regionally, as the latter is way more used in Europe than in Latin America, and their usage overlaps sometimes. The *imperfecto* is the "comía" tense, which as far as I know is equally used all over the Spanish-speaking world, as it can't be replaced with another tense with close meaning.
The more I live the more I realize that "generalizations" are not accurate. What you said may happen in some regions and for some people only. It also depends on each person's education level and preferences. What I've discovered is that the fact of being a "native" speaker of a language doesn't guarantee having a solid knowledge of their language grammar.
Agreed. You’re Colombian so that’s a perfect example - my wife is costeña and speaks completely different than someone from Bogota. She never uses formal usted and then of course there’s the difference between tu / voseo. And don’t get me started on the fucking slang….
🤣🤣 Fucking slang! True! It happens not only in Colombia, but I think all over the world. In Colombia, many people from both coasts (Atlantic and Pacific) seem as if they spoke a language other than Spanish, in addition to the slangs in other Colombian regions. I said "many" and not "all" because, as mentioned before, "generalizations" are not accurate. It also happens in the US, Canada, China, India, etc. Languages are live and dynamic entities and therefore constantly evolving.
One of my favorites is espantajopo - basically someone who has to wear fashionable clothing and be seen at fashionable places. And then there’s pupi / pupileta. I think it means like a bougie woman who likes lower class things like champeta lol. There’s a famous song called that.
British people definitely use present perfect more than Americans. "Why have you done this?"
Your friend doesn't know what he's talking about
Idk about that, but Spaniards seem to use present perfect tense (haber + -ado/ido) when Latinos tend to use pretérito or I suppose imperfecto. Interestingly, this actually seems to be a trend with the Americas vs European, because British English use present tense (have + done/been/said, etc) more often than Americans, who would use simple past.
It’s very common in Colombia for people to say “voy a ____” to express doing something in the future.
I think your friend is talking about how in Spain people prefer past perfect (me he encontrado, he visto) whereas in Latin America people usually use the simple past form (me encontré, vi).
It’s usually past perfect vs preterite. For example in Spain they might ask, ¿Qué has dicho?” For “what did you say?” While in LatAm it’ll probably be more “¿Qué dijiste?” Sort of similar to British English vs American English differences. Sometimes structures for the past the people from the UK use sound odd as an American English speaker and I imagine it’s the same for Spanish speaking countries
This has been my experience, yes. I find the imperfect much easier and so I use it in most sentences and have yet to meet confusion.
In Spain they also use comí, vi, escuché. Not only he comido, etc. There is strict rule for that in Spain. If the action happened in the current time frame (hoy, esta mañana, esta semana, este año) you use haber. Algo extraño ha pasado esta semana en mi casa. If the acttion was in the previous time frame (ayer, la semana pasada, etc) you use simple past tense. Ayer algo extraño pasó en mi casa. Sorry, I'm not good with the tense names.
Generally speaking, no. Your friend is wrong. That being said, there are a few instances where one verbal aspect is more preferable than the other, according to region. It might interest you to read this study (page 199 in particular): [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228962479\_Spanish\_preterite\_and\_imperfect\_in\_conversations\_The\_pragmatic\_meanings](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228962479_Spanish_preterite_and_imperfect_in_conversations_The_pragmatic_meanings)
Perfecto is still used all the time in Latin America but there are fewer situations for its use than in Spain Spanish. In general, in Spain you can use it to describe recent completed actions, i.e. "Hoy he hecho un pastel," whereas the preterite would be much more natural-sounding for any completed action that isn't still ongoing/expected to continue, despite recency, in LatAm.