Spanish language Q&A Forum

Me encontré con Pablo y no lo reconocí.Estaba muy cambiado o Estuvo muy cambiado.

This lesson says «present tense is used to talk about the past event», which is fine, in English too it happens.

However, there is another lesson in C1, «simple future or conditional tenses are also used» to talk about the past event.

Can someone please explain when to use the present tense, and when to use simple future/conditional to talk about the past event? Or, in the same situation, present tense and future/conditional tense is inter-changeable??

This lesson is a little confusing because under "Examples and Resources", el Preterito Perfecto is shown, after being told above that el Preterito Indefinido is preferred in Latam.  

Que son otras comidas y bebidas tipicas de paragauy?

Can you help me understand this, please.  In my answer, I used 'ayudaban' on the basis that the help given happened more than once. It was corrected to 'ayudaron'.  Don't we have to assume though that the help/assistance was ongoing?

Many thanks

Trefor

Hola. How do express the difference between "The students must not use a calculator" (in the examples), and "The students DON"T HAVE TO use a calculator." which has a very different meaning. Thank you!