Using preterite

Question

It's a one time thing so it's done. We ate delicious food, rode horses, and rested.

Comimos comida deliciosa, montamos en los caballos y descansamos

You have been here for 2 years don't you think that it is time that you filled out your profile , we need to know your language ability. - ray76, Sep 26, 2015

Answer 1

Hi, Sassy!

Everything is correct except to go horseback riding is "montar a caballo.

In your sentence it should be "comimos comida deliciosa y montamos a caballo." The "descansamos" part is OK as well.

The present perfect tense would be: hemos comido---y montado a caballo, but preterite is better here.

The Past Perfect would be "habíamos comido"---etc.

Please fill out your profile so we know something about you and what are your proficiency levels in English and Spanish. It's always nice to welcome new members. Click on my name if you want an example of how it's done. (You DON'T have to do your bio in Spanish. )

Dani, remember that more context is needed, in order to asses if it is correct in "this" case. It is imperative that students understand that. - chileno, Sep 26, 2015

Answer 2

Looks good to me.

My understanding is that usage varies across the various Spanish-speaking countries, and particularly as between Latin America, on one hand, and, on the other, Europe. In Mainland Spain there is a greater tendency to use the past perfect for recently completed activities, thus I guess you could equally say 'Hemos comido algo delicioso y montado a caballos, luego nos hemos descansado'.

I think 'descansar' might need to be reflexive, so you might need to insert 'nos' before the conjugated verb in your example.

I don't think you need 'los' with 'caballos', & I've used 'a' instead of 'en'.

However, I'm not native.

I understand Canary Island Spanish follows the Latin American treatment of the preterite/perfect distinction, although Canary Islanders speak so fast that, to my ear, they could really be speaking in Swahili for all I know...

The conjugation that routinely foils me is the first person plural for '-er' verbs, like 'comer', whereby I would tend (wrongly) to say 'comemos' for 'we ate'. '-er' verbs are the only verbs that don't follow the standard pattern of keeping the same form for the first person plural in both present and preterite (a minor deficiency in Spanish, in my humble opinion)...