# Spanish in Spain: Preterite, Imperfect and Present Perfect



## dancebert (Jun 4, 2015)

On my first trip to Spain last May, the basic Spanish I relearned before the trip was useful. I intend to make it much more useful this year. Part of my study plan is to focus on the essential verb tenses. During my travels in Latin America, I've used Preterite and Imperfect, rarely encountered someone using the Present Progressive. ¿Con qué frecuencia se usa en España?


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## Chopera (Apr 22, 2013)

dancebert said:


> On my first trip to Spain last May, the basic Spanish I relearned before the trip was useful. I intend to make it much more useful this year. Part of my study plan is to focus on the essential verb tenses. During my travels in Latin America, I've used Preterite and Imperfect, rarely encountered someone using the *Present Progressive*. ¿Con qué frecuencia se usa en España?


Present Progressive or Past Progressive?


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## xabiaxica (Jun 23, 2009)

dancebert said:


> On my first trip to Spain last May, the basic Spanish I relearned before the trip was useful. I intend to make it much more useful this year. Part of my study plan is to focus on the essential verb tenses. During my travels in Latin America, I've used Preterite and Imperfect, rarely encountered someone using the Present Progressive. ¿Con qué frecuencia se usa en España?





Chopera said:


> Present Progressive or Past Progressive?


or the Present Perfect as in the heading?


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## davexf (Jan 26, 2009)

Hola 
Some while ago I came across this - if it helps anyone - you are very welcome - I copied it from I know not where 


I hope this will be display so that it is understandable. It's a way of seeing how most of the tenses we use are translated into the Spanish using Hablar as a regular AR verb to show what I mean.

HABLAR.

INDICATIVE TENSES. 

Present I speak Hablo, hablas, habla, hablamos, hableis, hablan
Imperfect I used to speak Hablaba, hablabas, hablaba, hablabamos, hablabeis, hablaban 
Preterit I spoke Hablé, hablaste, habló, hablamos, hablasteis, hablaron

Future I will speak Hablaré
Conditional I would speak Hablaría

Infinitive Perfect To have spoken Haber hablado
Participle Perfect Having spoken Habiendo hablado

Perfect I have spoken Hé hablado
Pluperfect I had spoken Había hablado
Future Perfect I will have spoken Habré hablado
Conditional Perfect I would have spoken Habría hablado


Imperative Speak! Habla, hable, hablemos, hablad, hablen
Don’t speak! No Hables, hable, hablemos, hableis, hablen


Present Subjunctive If I speak/would speak Hable
Imperfect Subjunctive If I spoke/were I to speak Hablara (Hablase)

Perfect Subjunctive that/if I have spoken Haya hablado
Pluperfect Subjunctive Had I spoken Hubiera hablado 
(Hubiese hablado)

PROGRESSIVE TENSES.

Present I am speaking Estoy hablando
Imperfect I was speaking Estaba hablando
Preterite I spoke (for a long time) Estuve hablando
Future I will be speaking Estaré hablando 
Conditional I would be speaking Estaría hablando

Perfect I have been speaking Hé estado hablando
Pluperfect I had been speaking Había estado hablando
Future Perfect I will have been speaking Habré estado hablando
Conditional Perfect I would have been speaking Habría estado hablando

Present Subjunctive If I am speaking Esté hablando
Imperfect Subjunctive Were I speaking Estuviera hablando
Perfect Subjunctive that/if I have been speaking Haya estado hablando
Pluperfect Subjunctive Had I been speaking Hubiera estado hablando
(Hubiese estado hablando) 

IMMEDIATE TENSES.

Immediate Future I am going to speak Voy a hablar
Immediate Imperfect I was going to speak Iba a hablar

Present Subjunctive If I am going to speak Esté yendo a hablar 
Imperfect Subjunctive Were I going to speak Estuviera yendo a hablar 
Pluperfect Subjunctive Had I been going to speak Hubiera estado yendo a hablar 

Modals + :

Have to speak Tener que hablar To begin to speak Empezar a hablar
Ought to speak Deber hablar To finish speaking Terminar de hablar
Be supposed to speak Haber de hablar To quit speaking Dejar hablar
It is necessary to speak Hay que hablar To have just spoken Acabar de hablar
Need to speak Hacer falta hablar To speak again Volver a hablar
Usually speak Soler hablar To do s.one the favour
Be able to speak Poder hablar of speaking Servirse hablar
Know how to speak Saber hablar
To want to speak Querer hablar 
Could speak Podria hablar
(=would be able to speak)

To keep right on talking Ir hablando
Seguir hablando
e.g.

He keeps right on talking Va hablando
He kept right on talking Iba hablando

He keeps right on talking Sigue hablando
He kept right on talking Seguía hablando


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## dancebert (Jun 4, 2015)

xabiachica said:


> or the Present Perfect as in the heading?


D'oh! Present Perfect. Sorry for the confusion.


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## xabiaxica (Jun 23, 2009)

dancebert said:


> D'oh! Present Perfect. Sorry for the confusion.


Well in that case yes, all the 'perfect' tenses are used


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## dancebert (Jun 4, 2015)

xabiachica said:


> Well in that case yes, all the 'perfect' tenses are used


Just to be clear, I'm interested in knowing how common is the usage of Present Perfect. Routine, rare or where in between.


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## xabiaxica (Jun 23, 2009)

dancebert said:


> Just to be clear, I'm interested in knowing how common is the usage of Present Perfect. Routine, rare or where in between.


Routine, where appropriate

I both hear it & use it all the time. I will add though, that many foreigners (even very confident Spanish speakers) use it a lot when they should really be using the preterite or imperfect.


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## Chopera (Apr 22, 2013)

dancebert said:


> Just to be clear, I'm interested in knowing how common is the usage of Present Perfect. Routine, rare or where in between.


Routine


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## dancebert (Jun 4, 2015)

xabiachica said:


> Routine, where appropriate
> 
> I both hear it & use it all the time. I will add though, that many foreigners (even very confident Spanish speakers) use it a lot when they should really be using the preterite or imperfect.


Thanks! I been trying to learn preterite for the most common verbs. It's coming along slowly, so I can understand the appeal of using 'he sido' to start any sentence about my past.


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## Chopera (Apr 22, 2013)

dancebert said:


> Thanks! I been trying to learn preterite for the most common verbs. It's coming along slowly, so I can understand the appeal of using 'he sido' to start any sentence about my past.


When I wrote "routinely" I didn't mean that you should use it every time you want to use the past tense. It is routinely used because it is often the appropriate tense to use when describing the past. But you shouldn't use it in situations when another past tense is more appropriate unless you're really stuck.


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## xolo (May 25, 2014)

I assume you mean peninsular Spanish spoken with _diferenciación_. Without trying to actually look-up the answer, in Spain the progressive tenses are quite common, and depending on where you were in Latin America the progressive tenses can be less commonly used than in Spain.


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## dancebert (Jun 4, 2015)

Chopera said:


> When I wrote "routinely" I didn't mean that you should use it every time you want to use the past tense. It is routinely used because it is often the appropriate tense to use when describing the past. But you shouldn't use it in situations when another past tense is more appropriate unless you're really stuck.


I understood your use of 'routinely'

Between saying in the OP that I used Preterite and Imperfect and adding a smiley after my statement about the appeal of relying on the Present Perfect, I hoped I'd prevented this sort of response.


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## Chopera (Apr 22, 2013)

dancebert said:


> I understood your use of 'routinely'
> 
> Between saying in the OP that I used Preterite and Imperfect and adding a smiley after my statement about the appeal of relying on the Present Perfect, I hoped I'd prevented this sort of response.


What do you mean by "this sort of response"?

By patiently taking the time to clarify something I'd hoped for a different type of response from you.


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## Alcalaina (Aug 6, 2010)

dancebert said:


> Just to be clear, I'm interested in knowing how common is the usage of Present Perfect. Routine, rare or where in between.


It's widely used across most of Spain but not in some of the northern regions (Asturias, Galicia) or the Canaries. This article gives a good explanation.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_dialects_and_varieties#Verb_tenses_for_past_events


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## dancebert (Jun 4, 2015)

Alcalaina said:


> It's widely used across most of Spain but not in some of the northern regions (Asturias, Galicia) or the Canaries. This article gives a good explanation.
> 
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_dialects_and_varieties#Verb_tenses_for_past_events


Thanks. That article may shake some of the foundation of my Spanish, but that's good for me.


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## jimenato (Nov 21, 2009)

I used it lots because it was easy but didn't know it was the present perfect. I thought it was some sort of past. 

Never mind - it seemed to work.


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## baldilocks (Mar 7, 2010)

jimenato said:


> I used it lots because it was easy but didn't know it was the present perfect. I thought it was some sort of past.
> 
> Never mind - it seemed to work.


Since my day and, maybe, yours they have had a bit of fun renaming tenses just to confuse we older ones. When I started learning languages there was past, imperfect, perfect, historic, future, conditional, present and present continuous.


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## xabiaxica (Jun 23, 2009)

baldilocks said:


> Since my day and, maybe, yours they have had a bit of fun renaming tenses just to confuse we older ones. When I started learning languages there was past, imperfect, perfect, historic, future, conditional, present and present continuous.


Which is why I will tell students what a tense is called when I introduce them to it - & then maybe not ever say it again! 

Some of the tenses have such long names anyway, that they'd forget them - 9 times out of 10 they have only a rudimentary understanding of grammar terms in English anyway that the'd run for the hills.

It's more important to just learn how to _use_ the language - unless you're planning to take an exam, which not many of my adult students are.


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## jimenato (Nov 21, 2009)

While you are there xabia, I concentrated on the present tense and the compound tenses (with haber, ir and estar) as a quick-start. I think it worked for me.

Do you think that's a valid strategy or a false start?


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## xolo (May 25, 2014)

Just to add to the confusion, the names of verb tense in Spanish is not standardized around the world nor over recent decades, which of course is as confusing as hell, especially for me the first time I discussed grammar with someone from Uruguay. _Preterite _is actually not a tense, it's a shortened term that is easier to say. The RAE gives these _two _names for each tense:

pret. perfecto compuesto / antepresente pret.
example: he amado

pluscuamperfecto / antecopretérito 
example: había amado

- See more at: 
Modelos de conjugación verbal | Real Academia Española


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## dancebert (Jun 4, 2015)

With tongue in cheek...

Maybe one needs only two tenses for absolute beginner level Spanish. The level above single words combined with mime or charades. Some call it Tarzan level communication. I live in a resort town. I've spoken with enough people who spoke Tarzan level English to have long since realized one doesn't have to follow rules to be understood at a basic level.

Why two tenses? Either physicists or philosophers have proved the present doesn't exist. Even if it does, it's too brief a time period to bother with.

Use Present Perfect for past actions: 
- i have been swimming. 
- i have been swimming since 30 minutes.
- i have been swimming between 10 and 11am today.
- i have been swimming when I was young.

Use Present Perfect for current actions:
- i have been swimming now.

The future doesn't exist. For all we know, the universe will blink out of existence in the next moment. But it may be there so it would be useful to communicate about the hypothetical future. But why waste any effort? No need to learn the proper future tense. Some call this the 'informal future': To Go conjugated in present tense + infinitive + some combination of number, time units, order, sequence, etc.
- i go to swim next week

Voila! Past, present and future with the conjugation of 2 verbs and a smattering of past participles. 

An astute student will have realized that one could simplify further. Why learn infinitives and past participles when the infinitives will suffice? Instead of 'I have been swimming', use 'I have been to swim'.

Now removing tongue from cheek. Seems that if don't know how a verb is irregular in the Preterite, trying Present Perfect would be faster and easier than using Google Translate. It would also give me a new verb to add to my Anki deck.


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