What is the difference between el presente y el presente perfecto?
Thank you!
8 Answers
Present - an incomplete action. Present perfect - a completed action.
The present perfect is really a way of referring to the pasts relevance to the present. It is not a "tense" as much as it is an "aspect" as you wold call it in applied linguistics. It is not usually compared with the present as much as the preterite . It usually explainedd in textbooks as describing something completed in the past that continues to have relevance in the current moment of speech.
ex: He comprado un billete para nuestro viaje. (I have bought a ticket for our trip)
So its is not focused on the end or beginning like the simple past(preterite) to which its usually compared .
There is a difference in the way its used however in Spain and Latin America. In Spain it is used as a more general past tense regardless of relevance to present moment, especially for things that happened earlier in the day whereas in Latin America the textbook definition is more common. ex: Spain: He tomado dos cafes hoy (I drank two coffees today) LatAm: Tomé dos cafes hoy.
To me, this tense is confusing because it's used differently in English and Spanish. In English, "Juan has been here for two hours." means that he's still here: not a completed action (i.e., not what's sometimes called "terminate aspect"). I believe that the Spanish equivalent uses the idiomatic present: "Hace dos horas que Juan está aquí."
"Juan ha estado aquí durante dos horas" is a finished action, so Juan could easily be gone by now. It is simply a complete event that has relevance right now.
The present perfect is really a way of referring to the pasts relevance to the present. It is not a "tense" as much as it is an "aspect" as you wold call it in applied linguistics. It is not usually compared with the present as much as the preterite . It usually explainedd in textbooks as describing something completed in the past that continues to have relevance in the current moment of speech.
I totally agree: I see the present (and most Spanish "tenses") as aspectual rather than tense-related.
There is a difference in the way its used however in Spain and Latin America.
There are many, and specially within Latin America, according to my books, because there are places where people would only say "Tomé un café", and others where they'd use "He tomado". Latin American Spanish is not uniform, no matter what people believe.
present (hablar/comer/vivir) : costumbre, habito, general, ahora, actualmente, consejos
present perfect (he hablado/he comido/ he vivido) : acción pasada pero relacionada con el presente (este ano, esta semana, hasta ahora, siempre, nunca)
To me, this tense is confusing because it's used differently in English and Spanish. In English, "Juan has been here for two hours." means that he's still here: not a completed action (i.e., not what's sometimes called "terminate aspect"). I believe that the Spanish equivalent uses the idiomatic present: "Hace dos horas que Juan está aquí."
What we call the "present perfect" in English (por ejemplo, "ha dicho" en español) is called "perfecto" or "perfecto pasado" in Spanish and is used to refer to a past action, I believe one that has ended recently.
In English, the past perfect is often used to refer to an action that occurred or began before another past action that uses the preterite. The Spanish equivalent uses the imperfect instead of the past perfect.
I don't know how in Spanish to use what in English we call the "past perfect", e.g., "había dicho" or "hubo dicho". I believe that the former is called "pluperfecto" (translated as "pluperfect") and the latter as "plucuamperfecto" (translated as "past anterior"). There are some terminological disagreements in the texts that I've looked at.
Can I rant about a pet peeve of mine: the labels that we use for Spanish tenses.
I don't think that the presente perfecto is a proper Spanish name for this verb tense.
Spanish used the term simple for those tenses that don't have the auxillary verb haber and compuesto for those that do. This term is more properly termed the pretérito perfecto compuesto. In fact, if you ask some natives what the past perfect is in Spanish they will tell you that it is this tense that we call the Present Perfect.
Here is a link to a (RAE) site that uses proper Spanish verb tense titles. It is a shame that grammar books no longer stress learning the titles antepresente, pospretérito, etc. labels, because they more fully explain the time associated with the tenses.
My blood pressure is returning to normal. Thanks.
If it is perfect it has finished, completed, finished, nothing more can be added.
I have completed that. Have is in the present and completed is finished.(perfect) Present perfect.
I had completed that. Had in the past and completed is finished.(perfect) Past perfect.
I will have completed that by tuesday. Will have is in the future and completed is finished (perfect) Future perfect
If it isn´t finished is on-going or continuous it is Imperfect.
The present is something that is happening now.
El presente perfecto se utiliza para hablar sobre dos tiempos a la vez: el presente y el pasado. De hecho se puede decir que muy a menudo se utiliza una sola frase en presente perfecto en lugar de una en presente simple y otra en pasado simple.
