Present vs simple past tense of -ar with n | Spanish Q & A

Brian D.A2Kwiziq community member

present vs simple past tense of -ar with nosotros

The first person plural of present tense "to work" is nosotros trabajamos. The simple past is also nosotros trabajamos. Is the difference in translation based on context? I may be overthinking this, but say it's noon and my mom asks me "how are you guys doing?" "Como estan?" and I reply "nosotros trabajamos." Am I saying "we work (later) today" or "we worked (this morning)"? I guess I'm supposed to follow this up with "esta manana" or "despues" to avoid confusion?

This question relates to:Spanish lesson "Conjugate regular -ar verbs in the preterite tense in Spanish (El Pretérito Indefinido)"

Asked 4 years ago

Like0Answer1

InmaKwiziq Head of Spanish, Native Spanish Teacher

Hola Brian

Yes, exactly - something else, some more context is needed to know whether it is referring to the present/future or to the simple past.

Inma

Like14 years ago

Brian D. asked:

present vs simple past tense of -ar with nosotros

The first person plural of present tense "to work" is nosotros trabajamos. The simple past is also nosotros trabajamos. Is the difference in translation based on context? I may be overthinking this, but say it's noon and my mom asks me "how are you guys doing?" "Como estan?" and I reply "nosotros trabajamos." Am I saying "we work (later) today" or "we worked (this morning)"? I guess I'm supposed to follow this up with "esta manana" or "despues" to avoid confusion?

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