Simple Past
Ok. I've been in Valencia [Spain] about three weeks now so I'm at the point of having local native speakers correct almost everything I say. No problem, that's why I came here. One correction really stood out for me regarding the past tense.
I think this may apply more to Spain than other Spanish speaking countries, and possibly more for recent happenings from what I could understand. I don't know how much of this will be strictly accurate as this is entirely recalled from a single conversation:
Anyway. Instead of using the various preterite endings to speak in the past [as you would in 'by-the-book','correct' Spanish] I was told that Spaniards use a simpler, more relaxed version in everyday talking, using the following conjugations of hacer to say 'I have...'
Yo he
Tú has
Él/Ella ha
Nosotros hemos
Vosotros habeís
Ellos, etc. han
Followed by a verb with the endings ado[ar], edo[er], and ido[ir].
For example: Yo he comido los cereales esta mañana
I've never come across this before, so I just wonder what people think/know about this.
1 Answer
Heidita (Madrid) has discussed the regional Spanish penchant for using the present perfect tense where other regions of Spain use the preterit past tense. You could probably search for previous threads or wait until someone from Spain comments.
The ado, ido (no edo) is the past participle of the verb. (comido)[er verb]
The he, has, han, etc. It the auxiliary verb haber in the present tense of the indicative mood.
Example clipped from discussion:
Example: Supposing I have fallen asleep (recently).In Argentina (and I bet in most part of Latin America as well) I’d say: “Me quedé dormido” In Spain : “Me he quedado dormido”
