The term postpreterite , accepted by the Royal Spanish Academy ( RAE ) as postpreterite , refers to a verbal tense . This is the tense also known as simple conditional .
It is important to remember that conditionals, in the field of grammar , are those tenses that place the action expressed by the verb at a point that is prior to the moment of expression, although subsequent to another moment in the past .
In the specific case of the simple or post-preterite conditional, the action is expressed as if it had not yet finished. It is common for the past tense to be used to refer to a hypothetical event .
Thanks to the existence of this verb tense, we can construct the so-called conditional sentences , which are essential in our communication. One of its most common uses is to justify an action or its omission. Let's see below some examples of this type of sentences:
«If I had more time, I would definitely return to my studies», «I could review my articles better if they asked me for them with more time», "It goes without saying that if I had more money I would buy a bigger house, but with this job I will never achieve it".
Depending on the case, it is possible to omit the subordinate verb (for example: "if I had more time "), as long as it can be deduced from the context. In the sentence "I would resign today" it can be understood that the subordinate verb is surely "if I could" .
The post-preterite, therefore, is used to name future actions that are considered from the past . It is also used to indicate possibilities or probabilities .
Let's look at an example : “After the president announced the names of the new cabinet members, his private secretary would announce his resignation.” As can be seen, “announce” refers to an act that took place in the past, but after another (the communication of the names of the new members of the cabinet).
“Only after praying an Our Father and a Hail Mary, the boy would begin to prepare his bed” is another example of post-preterite. The protagonist would “start” organizing a sleeping environment after having prayed, and not before.
The post-preterite, on the other hand, serves to express speculations or conjectures : “It would be enough to visit him more often so that Pedro would be calm again,” “It was around eleven at night when the phone rang,” “They told me that the light “I would return in two hours.”
This verb tense is located in the indicative mood , which contains others that allow you to express objective ideas and inform the interlocutor, always from the most important role. The other tenses that we can find in this mode are the following: present, imperfect past (or co-preterite ), simple past perfect and simple future.
The sentences that we can make using these tenses are the fundamental ones for communication, and that is why they are the ones that we first learn in our childhood. For example, in the present indicative mood we can say "I'm hungry" , something that a small child usually expresses to his or her elders; Only with the subjunctive mood do we access ideas like "if they had told me more in advance, I would have been able to prepare a longer exposition."
In the field of journalism it is very common to find headlines with verbs in the past tense to refer to situations or facts that cannot be stated, that are not known with certainty . Depending on the source, there are those who approve of this use and those who reject it because it does not correspond to the definition of the verb tense. For example, in a magazine dedicated to the world of celebrities you can read "the actor cheated on his partner last summer" , meaning "we believe that the actor cheated on his partner last summer" .