why do we use preterito perfecto compuesto for 'I saw' and 'I found', i thought 'i found' would be encontre and 'I saw', yo vi not he contrado and he visto. thanks!
Preterito perfector compuesto question
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Michelle L.Kwiziq community member
Preterito perfector compuesto question
This question relates to:Spanish writing exercise "Useful presents for babies"
Asked 1 year ago
InmaNative Spanish expert teacher in Kwiziq
Hola Michelle
Literally yes, you're right, "found = encontré", "have found = he encontrado" and " "saw = vi", "have seen = he visto". However, we try to use the most natural translations in English, and in these instances the preterite sounds more natural in English. When this happens, in order to clarify it for students, we add a hint saying which tense you must use. This is why we added the hints here indicating to use the present perfect / pretérito perfecto compuesto.
I hope it clarifies it.
Saludos
Inma
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