preterito anterior
I have been told that the "preterito anterior" is now not much used (eg hube ...; hubiste ...; hubo ...)
Is this right? Should I take a wide berth on trying to learn this part of the indicative verb tense?
Annie.
10 Answers
Hi Eddy,
It is the name I have seen most often in English grammars, including the famous A New Reference Grammar of Modern Spanish, and even in Wikipedia.
The tense (using the Spanish terminology) in indicative is formed using the imperfect indicative of "haber" plus the past participle:
había visto
habías visto
....
In subjunctive is formed using the imperfect subjunctive of "haber" plus the past participle:
hubiera visto
hubieras visto
...
I have checked -just in case- the super thick Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language, and they use this term as well, but they prefer instead "past perfective", and it does not match the Spanish counterpart in many examples, so we have to be very careful about how to use these words: "pluperfect" is a convenient word to translate "pluscuamperfecto".
If u want to practice very elementary spanish, yes, u do not need to learn the complete conjugation of the verbs. On the long run the more u learn the better. Depends how much use of the language u want to do.
Some of you at the beginning seem not to understand what the "pretérito anterior" is. It is not simply the preterit. The preterit anterior is formed with the preterit of "haber" (the forms cited in the original post) PLUS a past participle. Check out this Wikipedia section: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_verbs#Contrasting_the_preterite_and_the_past_anterior
You're right that this tense is almost never used, and basically never, ever used in speech. It should not be difficult to learn, though, because you ought to know the preterit forms of "haber" anyway, and the meaning is pretty self-explanatory if you come across it in literature.
lazarus1907 said:
In spoken Spanish this "pretérito" is rarely used, and it is systematically replaced by the pluperfect. You'll find it occasionally in written Spanish, but it is not an essential tense.
So the next time I go to a bullfight I should expect to hear people saying "Maldita la madre que te habia parido! (sorry about the unbalanced/orphaned exclamation point) ''
Gracias. 
Lazarus
Cannot find the pluperfect tense, Is it called another name ie past subjunctive or something else'
Yes...that's in line with what I was told - grasias!
In spoken Spanish this "pretérito" is rarely used, and it is systematically replaced by the pluperfect. You'll find it occasionally in written Spanish, but it is not an essential tense.
Of the preterite tense, hubo is still used quite a bit.
Hubo un accidente grande en la carretera.
I assume you are only talking about this one verb. The preterite in general is still widely used and very necessary.
This is true for the verb haber- have but we do use it with all the other verbs, so my advice is... learn it
