A comment on this subject after spending an hour researching it

Question

The instructions in the link say:The choice of tense depends on whether the speaker is "still inside" the "unit of time" that's being used or implied:Use the present perfect ("he ido") form when talking about the past:- today, this week, this month, or this yearUse the indefinido ("fui") form when talking about the past:- yesterday, last week, last month, or last year (or further back)But then an example on the lesson page has this:Ellos han visto el amanecer.They saw the sunrise.In this sentence, as with many of the quizzes, there is no way to know the context and so we have to follow the instructions as to which tense to use. Part of the fun of the quizzes is not reading the directions.I think this is the root of the frustration here. Perhaps if more context were provided we could have a chance of answering without the addition direction needed.

Answer

Hola GrahamThe truth is in Spanish we don't always use a time phrase on each sentence. That time phrase could be in a previous sentence linked to the next one, or somehow understood by the speakers. When I say for example something like this: "Mi hermano ha tenido muchas aventuras." You can see there is no time phrase here. This is a past tense that we sometimes use to express something that someone has done with no reference to a specific time, it could be referring to general experiences in life, or could simply be referring to something that has just happened (without any time phrase)The lesson you mentioned is a lesson expressing the contrast between the two tenses "indefinido" and "perfecto", and it is necessary to say there when to use one or the other with different time markers. In terms of following the hints, I am afraid it is always necessary, especially with questions that test conjugation because the English doesn't always coincide literally with the Spanish and the student needs to know what that question is testing for: "Conjugate ...verb in [tense ..]". It would be ideal to add a bit more context but unfortunately there is a limit in space for questions...However we will take that into consideration in the future.Gracias y un saludo.Inma