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Thread: Past simple vs Present perfect in Spanish

 
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    Senior Member exxcéntrica's Avatar
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    Default Past simple vs Present perfect in Spanish

    You seem to know your tenses in Spanish. ...you can explain the difference in meaning between "He hablado con ..." (present perfect?) vs. "Hable con ..." (simple past?).
    I was talking with California on another thread about the equivalence of these two tenses in English and Spanish. Most of the time, there is no equivalence. in my opinion this is regional.

    Here in Spain, hopefully members from other countries will chime in, the north of Spain would mainly use Simple past.

    One situation where almost all tenses are different.

    He hablado con tu madre hace un rato, me ha dicho que llega tarde para comer.
    I spoke to your mum a little while ago, she told me she would be late/was going to be late for lunch.

    In many American countries, the past simple is the preferred tense, in Madrid, it is the present perfect.

    I created this exercise for my students. In some cases we even use present in the Spanish sentence (special structure) , however it is always either past simple or present perfect in English.

    No hemos comido nada hoy.

    Acabo de hablar con mi padre.

    ¿Has visto a tu hermano ya?

    ¿Alguna vez has ido a Egipto?

    No lo he hecho nunca.

    Me ha preguntado la calle.

    ¿Me lo has dado?

    Acaba de cerrarlo.

    Siempre ha sido lento.

    ¿Cuándo te lo ha dicho?

    ¿Dónde has puesto el reloj?

    ¿A quién has tirado la pelota?

    No me lo ha contado nunca.

    ¿Cuánto ha costado el vestido?

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    Default Re: Past simple vs Present perfect in Spanish

    Buenas observaciones exxcéntrica, pareciera que lo usamos por igual el Pretérito Indefinido (amé) y el Pretérito Perfecto (he amado), no sé si decir que uno tiene más "fuerza" que el otro, pero su significado es exactamente igual, creo.

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    Default Re: Past simple vs Present perfect in Spanish

    No creo que el esignificado sea igual.

    Yo lo entiendo asi:

    ame = significa que ya no amo en el presente.

    he amado = significa que en el pasado ame pero *es posible* que ahora ya no.

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    Default Re: Past simple vs Present perfect in Spanish

    mmm... buen punto California, aunque técnicamente "amé" no implica que ya no amo, creo que es más cercano a esa situación que "he amado", porque "amé" suena como más fuerte, más tajante por decirlo de alguna manera.

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    Default Re: Past simple vs Present perfect in Spanish

    Tal vez si usamos otro verbo la diferencia no es tal..


    tome coca-cola
    (acento en la e final)

    vs

    he tomado coca-cola

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