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Spanish: A wolf in sheep’s clothing | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| outcast Bilingual Heptaglot Senior Member China Joined 4736 days ago 869 posts - 1364 votes  Speaks: Spanish*, English*, German, Italian, French, Portuguese, Mandarin Studies: Korean | Message 73 of 73 08 August 2011 at 12:05am | IP Logged |
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To add to the (already perhaps too long) explanation above, just to show how you can combine tenses to form what many call a ''cinematographic'' effect which Spanish can achieve with it's tenses and the concept of perfective vs imperfective action AND time reference, consider all the following:
(1) Desayuné y leí el periódico. (2) Desayuné y leía el periódico. (3) Desayunaba y leía el periódico. (4) Desayunaba y leí el periódico. (5) Había desayunado y leí el periódico. (6) Había desayunado y leía el periódico. (7) Hube desayunado y leí el periódico. (8) Hube desayunado y leía el periódico. (9) He desayunado y (he) leido el periódico. (1) Preterite + Preterite: Here, the two actions happened once, at a definite time, and were completed succesfully. By using the Preterite for both, it shows the two actions are independent and separate. (2) Preterite + Imperfect: This sounds like an unusual construction for every day conversation. In this case the order of the tenses suggest that something happened while you were reading the paper ("Desayuné y leía el periódico. Entonces sonó el teléfono."). Therefore, it would rarely stand as a sentence alone. You would see this type of tense usage in novels. The first action was completed (perfective, in the preterite), but the second was interrupted (imperfective). (3) Imperfect + Imperfect: Here the two actions are IMPERFECTIVE. The sentence could describe a habitual action in the past (you would have breakfast and read the paper as a habit), meaning indefinite time. Another interpretation could be you were doing both actions at the same exact moment, but still the timeframe is indefinite . Yet a third interpretation could be that both actions were interrupted meaning the actions were not completed succesfully(if you wanted to state what interrupted them, you would place that event in the preterite) Thus: "Desayunaba y leía el periódico cuando sonó el teléfono" (I WAS havING breakfast and readING the paper when the phone RANG). You had not finished the two actions when the phone rang. (4) Imperfect + Preterite: Here, the tense usage indicates that while you were having breakfast, you read the newspaper, and you finished that action while still doing the other. Thus, reading the newspaper is an action that was completed succesfully and at a definite time (while you were having breakfast, thus preterite is used), and the action of having breakfast is left imperfective (unknown if it was completed, and indefinite time). (5) Past Perfect + Preterite: Here, the first action has a split perfective aspect. The action itself of having breakfast was completed succesfully (as in the preterite), but the time of the action is indefinite (as with the imperfect). You can't achieve that effect with the simple preterite or imperfect, but the Past Perfect does. So besides being the tense used for describing an action that happened before another action (both in the past), it can be used to split perfectivemess of action and time ("había desayunado"). The effect of keeping the completed action of having breakfast imperfective in time allows you to keep the time reference of the 1st action separate from the time reference of reading the paper. So the first could have happened right before, or hours before the 2nd action. The 2nd action is obviously perfective (completed succesfully and in a definite time). (6) Past Perfect + Imperfect: Same as the one above, except that the 2nd action is imperfective (probably not completed or interrupted somehow, and at indefinite time). (7) Anterior Preterite + preterite: Here, you are linking both actions as an inseparable pair. Both actions happened in the same time reference. You had breakfast and read the paper. The order in which you performed these actions was by design on the agent's part. What is the difference between this and (1) you may ask? In number 1 both actions are perfective but separate, independent. Tecnically, you could have read the paper without having breakfast beforehand, and viceversa, you could have had breakfast without reading the paper afterwards. By using the Anterior Preterite you are indicating the two actions are to be considered as a single larger (sequential) action. You are also indicating that they probably happened in a short amount of time or one right after the other (contrary to number 5 where the two actions have independent timeframes, because here you are linking the two they could not have happened far apart). Which is why the Anterior Preterite can't be used on it's own, it needs a 2nd action to be able to conform the larger activity (and why probably in colloquial language is has lost ground). This subtle difference of joining two actions as one entity in time, once you ''discover it'', becomes a powerful writing instrument. (8) Anterior Preterite + Imperfect: Same as the above except the 2nd action is imperfective. I wanted to write this because since I got into discussing the different tenses, just to keep it for the record on how useful correct tense usage can be in Spanish. EDIT: I forgot the Present perfect. But usually it is used on its own, and not in combination with other tenses: (9)He desayunado y leido el periódico. (9) Here, this past tense indicates that the completed actions (thus a perfective tense), happened very recently (if you want to get technical, the moment BEFORE the statement was made). Though in Spain (not in Latin America) this ''time'' frame could extend to something happening that same day. Rarely longer than that, anything beyond 24 hours from the time of completion of the action to the statement being made or written, one switches to the Preterite. The Present Perfect can also mean something else: that the actions still have an influence on the present (because the actions happened so recently). Again, if the Present Perfect in Spanish was used in it's strictest term, the action of having breakfast and reading the paper were completed the moment before you said or wrote that sentence. Thus, they have an "influence" still on the present moment of speaking. Edited by outcast on 08 August 2011 at 12:35am 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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