have done/he hecho... in the past/en el pasado

Question

Hola a todos!

As a Spanish and English learner, I was quite suprised to see the exemplary sentences with the word of the day (el afán):

"1.En el pasado, tres mujeres han ganado el premio Nobel de la Paz por su afán de defender los derechos de las mujeres.

In the past, three women have won the Nobel Peace Prize for their effort in defending the rights of women."

I have always thought that, both in Spanish and English, the phrase "in the past" and "en el pasado" is related with the past simple tense and its equivalent (perdon pero nunca voy a aprender los nombres de los tiempos espa?oles ) in Spanish.

So, could anyone explain to me the reasons why this and not the other tense are used in the above sentences?

I would be very much obliged. Thank you in advance.

Answer 1

Hola Bombera,

I don't think that prefacing a verb in a past tense restricts the verb tense in the way you are thinking.

You could say any of the following:

En el pasado, tres mujeres han ganado el premio...

En el pasado, tres mujeres ganaron el premio...

En el pasado, tres mujeres ganaban el premio...

I'll admit that the last might be unlikely, but is still technically possible. Saying "in the past" simply marks the phrase that follows as being anterior to the present. The actual verb tense used depends on the intended meaning.

Well, I thought about this in English, and it is true... Saying, "In the past, 3 women have won the prize" is the most likely. Were you to say, "Last year 3 women won the prize" that would also be perfectly correct. But "In the past" is not equivalent to "last year", it is referring to time past generally, not a specific period in time. In English you can say "In the past, 3 women won the prize." That would be a complete and perfect sentence. But I also agree it is not the most likely choice. And as to the imperfect, you could say, "In the past, three women were winning the prize while their husbands were sleeping." I know the sentence itself is silly but grammatically it's OK.

It seems as though it is not quite like this in Spanish. Thank you Cogumela.

But the present perfect tense already implies that something has actually already happened, no? - bomberapolaca, Nov 10, 2011

Answer 2

To me, bombera, you are right.

I believe the perfect tense fits much, much better:

En el pasado, tres mujeres ganaron...

Tres mujeres han ganado...

En el pasado tres mujeres han ganado is not a terrible mistake, but I think it's not the logical choice.

All I was saying, Cogumela, was that they are all possible, at least in English. Whether one choice is logical or not depends on context. You can make a case for all three tenses, depending on context, at least in English. Thanks for your comments! :) - Jeremias, Nov 10, 2011

Si.. gracias Cogu por tu respuesta. A ver que dicen los estadounidenses acerca de la oración en ingles... - bomberapolaca, Nov 11, 2011

Answer 3

You don't need to say "in the past" Han ganado tells you that it is in the past it is a concrete fact it has happened and relates to the here and now and therefore it is in past perfecto, el año pasado una mujer ganó el premio nobel de paz, in that sentence you need the preterito because it was an event that happened and completed last year. Past perfecto can refer to this week, this year, this morning, this century and even events that happened thousands of years ago like " The Egyptians built the pyramids" He navegado a las islas Baleares cuatro veces, I sailed to the Balearic islands four times and that was in the past over four seperate years but En 2002 navegué a las Baleares. In 2002 I sailed to the Balearic islands.

Exactly, this is my line of thought. Thus far, we have 2:1 ;) - bomberapolaca, Nov 10, 2011

Answer 4

Hi Bomber

"In the past, three women have won the Nobel Peace Prize for their effort in defending the rights of women."

You are correct about the English - the above sentence needs a conclusion and / or a different start.

In the past, three women have won the Nobel Peace Prize for their effort in defending the rights of women.- but today we have a 4th."

Up to now, three women have won the Nobel Peace Prize for their effort in defending the rights of women."

I will leave the Spanish to a native speaker.

Yes, this is what I thought but, as you can see, Jeremias, who is also an English native, is of different opinion..hm.. - bomberapolaca, Nov 10, 2011

Answer 5

Alright. I have consulted my English Grammar Bible ('Practical English Usage' by Michael Swan) and there are two points which could somehow explain the use of the present perfect tense in the English sentence above.

The first rule goes:

(...) *However, we usually prefer a simple past tense when we identify the person, thing or circumstances responsible for a present situation (becase we are focusing on the past cuase, not the present result). Compare: -Some fool has let the cat in. Who let the cat in? -Look what John has given me! Whogave you that watch?

However, the above sentence in English is not actually identifying persons responsible for a certain situation. It is rather a simple statement.

The second rule goes as follows:

Grammars usually say that the present perfect tenses cannot be used together with expressions of finished time - we can say I have seen him OR I saw him yesterday. In fact, such structures are unusual but not impossible (thouth learners should avoid them). Here are some real examples taken from news broadcasts, articles etc: (...)

A soldier has been killed in a road accident while on patrol last night

The horse's trainer has had a winner here yesterday

For all those who are learning English - Michael Swan has written several bibles. - ian-hill, Nov 11, 2011

You can find a lot of his stuff on BBC.CO.UK (language) - ian-hill, Nov 11, 2011