Perfect tense used instead of preterite tense

Question

Hola, I am reading a Spanish vocabulary book and in many of the examples, the author uses the perfect tense to mean the preterite tense. Here are a few examples:

• ¿Dónde has escondido las llaves? - Where did you hide the keys?
• Mi mujer se ha quedado en casa hoy. - My wife stayed home today.

Now to me, when I read these sentences, I would translate them into "My wife has stayed home" and "Where have you hidden my keys" and if you asked me to translate "My wife stayed home today" I would have said "Mi mujer se quedó ..." or "Dónde escondiste ...".

Can someone please explain to me what the difference is, in regards to, when to use the preterite and when to use the perfect tense to mean the preterite. Also any addition information or insight on this topic would be much appreciated!

En este caso puedes usar ambos. Yo usaría el perfecto porque, como Tombot dice, las llaves siguen escondidas, y el día de hoy todavía no ha acabado, pero también depende de la región. Hay zonas en España donde no usan casi nunca el perfecto :) - Cordobesa, Mar 8, 2012

Answer 1

Hey,

in this case the present perfect is used, because the action happened in the past and has an influence on the current situation. Or just an recently happened action.

• ¿Dónde has escondido las llaves? (The keys are still hidden and so the action effect the present)

• Mi mujer se ha quedado en casa hoy. (If you are talking about a timeframe in which an action happend you'll use the present perfect as well, so if you are talking about stuff you did this Day, Month, Year etc.)

So with recently completed actions or actions that have already been completed but still have a relevance in the present, the perfect should be used instead of the preterite? Is that the general rule, so to speak? - zbanks17, Mar 7, 2012

Precisely! You could call it the general rule. Pretty much comparable to the use of the present perfect in english (so the translation would rather be 'Where have you hidden the key?' and 'My wife has stayed at home today') - tombot, Mar 7, 2012

Answer 2

I'm kind of like you. I want my tenses to match. However, I think sometimes when translating to Spanish, it just sounds softer or better. Maybe it's a personal preference. I think the only time (that I know of) that the perfect tense is preferred is when using the subjunctive and the 1st clause is present tense and while the 2nd is in past tense.

Ex. Es una lastima que Miguel haya perdido el trabajo >> It's a shame Miguel (has) lost his job.

Other than that and preference, I don't know why the examples in your book or like that.

are* like that... - Goldie_Miel, Mar 7, 2012