A STUDENT GRAMMAR OF SPANISH
He escrito could not be easily be used in the second case. However, escrib´ı could be used in the first case if the point at which the person speaks is the evening, and not, say, mid-day or two o’clock in the afternoon. It is all a question of relation between the time of speech and the time referred to. Compare two further examples related to getting up in the morning. ¿Has dormido bien?
Have you slept well? / Did you sleep well?
would be used first thing in the morning but in the evening one would probably ask: ¿Dormiste bien anoche?
Did you sleep well last night?
Further examples illustrating the differences No he ido a Espa˜na este a˜no I haven’t been to Spain this year (includes the present time) No fui a Espa˜na este a˜no I didn’t go to Spain this year (excludes the present time) Le escrib´ı a mi padre el Martes I wrote to my father on Tuesday (excludes the present time) Le he escrito a mi padre varias veces I’ve written to my father a few times (includes the present time) M´exico ha producido muchos autores eminentes Mexico has produced many eminent writers (includes the present time) M´exico no produjo muchos autores eminentes en el Mexico did not produce many eminent siglo dieciocho writers in the eighteenth century (excludes the present time) The perfect and the preterit are used with no distinction in such statements as: Lo hice / lo he hecho hace cinco minutos
I did it five minutes ago
Interestingly enough, the English perfect could not be used here.
2.3 The preterit and perfect in Mexico (See also the perfect, unit 5, level 1.) As in most other South American countries, in Mexico the perfect is used much less than in Spain. For instance, in two examples quoted above, only the preterit would be used: ¿Dormiste bien? (after just getting up) Lo hice hace cinco minutos
Did you sleep well? I did it five minutes ago
Further examples Me lav´e los dientes (just now) ¿Viste la pel´ıcula? Votaron al presidente (today) Subi´o el precio
I’ve cleaned my teeth Have you seen / Did you see the movie? They’ve voted for the president The price has gone up
Of course the last example could mean: the price went up (i.e weeks ago) 68