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Talking about a story

Talking about a story

2
votes

In Spanish, do people use the literary present? What this means is when talking about books, one uses the present tense. For example, if in a book a man named Kunal met a man named Muhammad, an English speaker would say "In this book, Kunal meets Muhammad."

We just finished reading "A la Deriva" in Spanish and I've noticed my teacher switching between the present and past when describing the events in the book. When I asked her, she said she didn't know if Spanish speakers speak about events in books and movies as if they were in the present tense.

Do they?

4459 views
updated Mar 18, 2013
posted by HackerKing
Good question! I have wondered this myself, too. When I was writing a summary of a movie for Spanish class, I wasn't sure on what tense was to be used. - modrak, Mar 17, 2013

1 Answer

1
vote

Yes, we discuss in present tense and to indicate a past action, we use present perfect for both films and literature - just as in English.

updated Mar 18, 2013
posted by 005faa61