Ser Perfect Preterite

Question

I am wracking my brain but cannot think of an example of how I could use ser in the perfect preterite...would this be used or is it just not possible??

I apologise as it is probably really obvious!!

Thanks.

Welcome to SpanishDict. You must give an example. - rac1, Mar 2, 2017

Please don't apologise....It wasn't that easy and my level is high intermediate. Perhaps the Spanish natives will find it easy lol - FELIZ77, Mar 2, 2017

Thanks!! Feel like less of an idiot ;) - Peaches7, Mar 6, 2017

Answer 1

Hello Peaches,

Welcome to our SpanishDict community forum

Could you please give us an example of this conjugation because different people including Spanish teachers refer to Spanish verb tenses by different names? This can cause confusion!

I use Barrons 501 Spanish verbs but there is no tense mentioned by that name.

Do you mean the Perfecto compuesto de indicativo?

eg: He sido, has sido, ha sido etc...?

I have just found it in Spanishdict's grammar section.The authors of Barrons 501 Spanish verbs call it: Pretérito anterior in the main verbs section for some strange reason, although it does mention the perfect preterite in brackets in the introductory section where it explains how to use the different verb forms!

eg: Hubimos hablado = We had spoken

I can only come up with one possible made up example using the verb ser:

Cuando el edificio hube sido construido en el siglo cuatro, la gente no tenía materiales para la construcción tantos avanzados como hoy.

When the building had been constructed in the fourth century, the people did not (use to) have such advanced building materials as they do today.

Barron's authors mention in the more detailed section explaining about the verb that this tense is not often used in spoken Spanish today, natives preferring to use the pluperfect (pluscuamperfecto de indicativo) or the preterite. The perfect indicative they say is more often found in formal written documents like history and literature.

I hope this helps

Corrijan mi español si es necesario, por favor

This is so useful, thanks so much. - Peaches7, Mar 6, 2017

Answer 2

This is not a common tense, see this answer by Lazarus:

http://www.spanishdict.com/answers/192284/cul-es-la-diferencia-entre-habia-y-hube

Now, coming back to your question, "hube sido" is a dying tense which is practically not used in spoken Spanish (it sounds pedantic). The subtle and useless difference is that "hube venido" means "había venido justo en ese momento". While you might want to learn it to be able to read literary (and specially literature from other centuries), in practice both forms are almost the same.

Our section:

http://www.spanishdict.com/answers/173873/preterit-perfect#.WLhQ5lXx6M8

And another:

http://www.dummies.com/languages/spanish/when-to-use-the-spanish-pluperfect-and-preterit-perfect-tenses/

Preterit perfect: The preterit perfect is used primarily in formal or literary Spanish. Here are some examples of the preterit perfect tense: • Una vez que hubimos visto toda la película, salimos del cine. Once we had seen all of the movie, we left the theater. • Tan pronto como ellos hubieron terminado el trabajo, recibieron el dinero. As soon as they had finished the work, they received the money. • Tú apenas hubiste llegado, cuando la fiesta empezó. You had hardly arrived, when the party began.

Two sentences from linguee (there are more):

http://www.linguee.es/espanol-ingles/traduccion/hubo+sido.html

Por un lado, el Tratado de Lisboa fue finalmente implementado una vez que hubo sido ratificado por los 27 Estados Miembros.

On the one hand the Lisbon Treaty was finally implemented after it had been ratified by all of the 27 member states.

Después de que la información que faltaba hubo sido presentada por el solicitante y evaluada por el Estado miembro ponente [...]

After the missing information was subsequently delivered by the applicant and evaluated by the rapporteur Member State and [...]

:) - FELIZ77, Mar 2, 2017

Thank you!! So helpful :) - Peaches7, Mar 6, 2017