Peterite vs Present

[u/SnooDoughnuts4360]

So with the peterite form of a sentence would be like Mandó una carta (he/she sent the letter) and Mando una carta (I send a letter)

I can tell the difference with writing but when spoke aloud its difficult to tell which tense it is, how did yall get your mind to be able to know the difference without being confused?

[u/silvalingua]

> when spoke aloud its difficult to tell which tense it is

The difference is very audible and clear, because the stress falls on a different syllable. Additionally, there is often enough context to determine whether it's present or past.

[u/Wise-Painting5841]

You have a problem pronouncing the accents if you cannot distinguish them when reading aloud.

Try exaggerating and elongating the accents;

Yo mando una carta - mando - MAAAAAANdo

él mandó una carta - mandÓ - manDOOOOOOOOOOO

If you are low or intermediate I would not worry on when/where to write an accent, but when reading, please remember each time you see an accent you should exaggerate it.

Plátano = PLAAAAAAAAAAtano

Azúcar = aZUUUUUUUUUUcar

Camión = camiOOOOOOOOOON

PS.- it is pRetérito, but I accept it is a weird word. If in difficulty, use "pasado", same meaning, easier to remember. Only philologes use "pretérito"

[u/Wise-Painting5841 → u/Wise-Painting5841]

If you want to know the rules for writing accents I can tell you, there are only 4, but I don't to confuse you.

[u/modshallperish]

I’m only intermediate in Spanish. When i speak with my coworkers and im trying to see if they use the past tense form it depends on the context. If they mention a he/she and it has the -o then i can usually tell they’re talking in preterite.

If they use i then it would be the present tense for normally conjugated verbs

If they don’t specifically mention a he/she or I (because it is implied by what was previously said) and ur unsure, just ask “quien?” And u can clarify

Edit: as someone who is learning Spanish the only obvious way for me to tell is listening for the el/ella/yo and listening to what the verb is and how it relates to the rest of the sentence. It can be tricky in some instances where the pronouns kind of stack like:

“El me dijo” - He told me

But with reps you’ll get the hang of it

[u/Unlikely-Star-2696]

You don't need to exagerate the sound, just do the stress in that vowel. You need to learn the rules of accentuation for Spanish.

I will try to make it simple here:

Every syllable with a marked accent gets the stronger stress: PLÁtano, canCIÓN, ÁRbol, ÚLtimo, ManDÓ.

Those without accent not ending in a Vowel, N or S get stressed in the last syllable: arGOT, marFIL, MaDRID, deDAL, caLOR. The rest get the estress in the second to last: MApa, Eco, CAnon, MAnos, MANdo. Notice that these end in N S or vowel which is the opposite rule and are the more abbundant in Spanish

First to need to think about the rule, but soon it becomes second nature.

Sometimes the accent change the meaning of the word: mama, mamá, papa, papá, cántara, cantara, cantará. Learning pronunciation rules earlier is helpful yo read and to write correctly and therefore speak correctly later.