Question about past tense

Question

I never quite understood what the difference is between hube tenido and tenia. Aren't they both saying had. Please explain the difference. And what is the difference between Subjunctive and perfect subjunctive.

Answer 1

Two other answers from native speakers in support of Oshnaj- it is a very rare form not often seen and best left alone unless you are very advanced:

http://forum.wordreference.com/threads/hube-tenido-vs-habia-tenido.915890/

The first thing is that "había tenido" is much more common (and había ido, había comido, etc). Then, I will try to give you some typical examples when we'd use "hube tenido". For most of the rest of times you'd use "had had" in English you can think of "había tenido" in Spanish.

Tan pronto hube terminado el proyecto, salí de la oficina.

Cuando hube terminado se suscitó un debate.

Y en cuanto hube terminado de comer, me lancé a la escuela.

... Apenas hube terminado de soñarte...te soñé de nuevo.

I had to type "hube terminado" in google, because I was not able to find any natural example. And the problem is that we don't really normally use "hube", at least in Spain. In all those examples above I'd say "había terminado".

"Hube" sounds to me as oldfashioned, but it would normally be associated with that type of expression: "tan pronto hubimos llegado...", "en cuanto hubieron alcanzado la cima....", "cuando hubo aclarado la cuestión...", etc.

and

De acuerdo con todos.

Hube + pp no es nada común en el español cotidiano (de ningún lugar), pero cuando se usa indica inmediatez:

Cuando hube comprado: As soon as I had bought...

Cuando había comprado: When I had bought...

Great as always. - Daniela2041, Jan 10, 2017

I think the one answerer had difficulty with hube tenido because it is not a verb that lends itself to immediacy. :) - bosquederoble, Jan 10, 2017

Answer 2

hube is obsolete. Stick to using the imperfect había.

Había tenido and tenía stand for the past perfect and past simple in English, so the nuances are equally applied in Spanish; but I don't see why brought up the subjunctive and indicative mood. What's the question?

Answer 3

The only times I recall the Pimsleur audio course using the preterite form of "haber" was when they were saying "there was..." as in "hubo un retraso.." (There was a delay..") - the past tense of "Hay..." = "There is..." "Hubo" was more of a quick thing while "habia" was a longer thing, like, "There was a lot of traffic" = "Había mucho tráfico."

Please let me know if I'm incorrect here.

That is correct, it is very uncommon to use haber in preterit with pp nowadays, so it is not even listed as a perfect form. It is nice to be aware of it if you see it, but I wouldn't use it. - bosquederoble, Jan 10, 2017