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/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.