Take the fastest path to fluent Spanish
Unlike European Spanish speakers, Latin American Spanish speakers show a strong preference for using El Pretérito Indefinido for most past actions where peninsular speakers would choose to use El Pretérito Perfecto. This happens regardless of the action's chronological distance or time frame.
Here are some examples using El Pretérito Indefinido:
The use of El Pretérito Perfecto in Latin America depends on regional variations but in general we can say it's restricted to actions started in the past that continue in the present or are not finished, or recent past actions the speaker wants to emphasise.
El Pretérito Perfecto examples:
However, in general most Latin American Spanish speakers don't really observe this difference between El Pretérito Indefinido and El Pretérito Perfecto. Most of Latin America tends to just use El Pretérito Indefinido, while in the Andean region speakers tend to just use El Pretérito Perfecto.
In most places El Pretérito Indefinido will be used with "nunca" and "siempre" and even with time expressions which have a connection to the present, such as: hoy, este mes, este año, esta noche, esta mañana, esta semana...
Unlike the example in the previous section, here Pedro is not calling clients anymore.
El Pretérito Perfecto can also appear in more formal contexts, like newspapers or news reports. For example:
Want to make sure your Spanish sounds confident? We’ll map your knowledge and give you free lessons to focus on your gaps and mistakes. Start your Brainmap today »
