Tense nomenclature

Question

Is this lesson demonstrating the use of the PRESENT perfect subjunctive after "esperar" or the PAST perfect subjunctive? If the former, why is it referred to as "Pretérito Perfecto Subjuntivo", if we ordinarily translate the word "pretérito" as "past"?

OR

To phrase this question differently, when I use "haya", "hayas", "haya", etc. plus the past participle of a verb, am I using the Present perfect subjunctive, or the Past perfect subjunctive, or, in fact, is there another name, English and/or Spanish for this conjugation?

Accepted Answer

Hola Gerald
This is something lots of students ask about. In Spanish, the name of this tense is "Pretérito Perfecto" - for us this is a "past" tense. However, in English, the name is "Present Perfect" - having the word "present" on the name is confusing because it doesn't seem like we are talking about the same tense, but we are. 
Here is a table with the different names of tenses in Spanish and the most common name in English. I hope it helps.
Saludos
Inma

Answer

To Inma:Su respuesta fue de gran ayuda. Muchas gracias, especialmente por la tabla.