Sorry for being a party pooper here, but if you’ve grown used to Pretérito Perfecto Compuesto (PPC), you can leave it at home or inside your bag in your visit to Argentina.

It’s a thing in Spain, but in contrast to Peninsular Spanish, most Latin American varieties show a preference for the PRETÉRITO INDEFINIDO (PI). In Argentina you really don’t need PPC at all, so forget about those time markers you’ve been struggling to memorize. It all funnels to PI.

I know that for many students, referring to tenses by their name makes them shiver, but I insist that knowing the tenses by their name is like knowing the name of your friends.

Let’s make clear who is who:

Presente Perfecto Compuesto

PPC – the auxiliary verb HABER plus a past participle (which can be a regular -ado/-ido participle, or an irregular one)

[haber] + participle
he aprendido, has visto, hemos comprado, han hecho, etc.

Pretérito Indefinido

PI – the verb is either regular or irregular. There isn’t really much too say in general terms about PI, as there are many different types of verb conjugations.
aprendí, viste, compramos, me compré, hicieron, etc.

Let’s break it down a little further, okay?

According to Spanish grammar, the typical uses of PPC have to do with:

Experience. The PPC refers to a past experience without stating when they took place.
Continuation. The PPC links some present state to a prior situation. This often has to do with the time phrase that wraps the event or story. Some of such phrases are:

• últimamente
• este último tiempo
• siempre
• nunca
• alguna vez
• hoy
• esta mañana
• este año

PI, on the other hand, should be used to refer to situations that belong to the past and are disconnected from the present time:

• el año pasado
• ayer
• hace 2 horas
• la última vez
• anoche

However, we ignore this guideline and insist with PI, regardless of the time phrase at stake.

Look at this chart. This is a helpful contrast that shows the phrase in English and how we would phrase it in RPS (Rioplatense Spanish). Notice that it’s sometimes the verb and not the tense what defines the outcome:

in English	Turns to	AR Spanish
I’ve lived I’ve worked	Presente indicativo	Vivo Trabajo
I’ve been waiting I’ve been working	Perífrasis [estar] + gerundio	Estoy esperando Estoy trabajando
I’ve been thinking I’ve been trying	Perífrasis [estar] + gerundio	Estuve pensando Estuve intentando

I said we never use it, but you know that in language learning never is a relative word. PPCmay still occasionally be used, and may be found in writing and in formal speeches (presidents, for example, like to make use of it). But the important think to remember here is that compared to Peninsular Spanish, things here are quite differet.

All in all, these have not been such bad news, have they?

See you next time!

Happy Spanish learning

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