When Present Perfect and Preterite are both acceptable options

Jerald W.C1Kwiziq Q&A regular contributor

When Present Perfect and Preterite are both acceptable options

Mis amigos y yo ________ juntos durante un mes.My friends and I were able to travel together for a month.(HINT: It refers to a past action)
Since both the  Present Perfect  "hemos podido viajar" and Preterite "pudimos viajar" are correct for this question (it is both limited to a set past  time period  and the speaker is obviously  involved in the action),  shouldn't the lesson explain that sometimes both options are acceptable?
Asked 1 year ago
InmaNative Spanish expert teacher in Kwiziq

Hola Jerald

Despite the lesson talking about when we use one or the other tense, the test-questions are set without any distinction. In this example for example you can use both because you can consider that "you and your friends were together during a month" seeing this time as finished and disconnected from now, the moment of speaking (pudimos viajar), or you can see it as "you and your friends have been together during a month" in a scenario where it's not relevant when this started and ended, the time is not important, so it's a more general statement. (hemos podido viajar) - they are both past actions but we're not considering nuances. 

I hope it clarified it.

Saludos

When Present Perfect and Preterite are both acceptable options

Mis amigos y yo ________ juntos durante un mes.My friends and I were able to travel together for a month.(HINT: It refers to a past action)
Since both the  Present Perfect  "hemos podido viajar" and Preterite "pudimos viajar" are correct for this question (it is both limited to a set past  time period  and the speaker is obviously  involved in the action),  shouldn't the lesson explain that sometimes both options are acceptable?

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