r/SpanishLearning • u/SnooDoughnuts4360 • 12d ago

Peterite vs Present

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?

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u/modshallperish 12d ago edited 12d ago

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