A pesar de que los tiempos cambiaron, él mantiene sus ideas revolucionarias.

Sentence Discussions Spanish
#1
English Translation

Despite the fact times changed, he maintains his revolutionary ideas.

I would feel more comfortable using the perfect, “han cambiado”, to go along with the present tense of the main clause. Maybe likewise in English?

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#2

I don’t know, but this ended up being very interesting going at it with AI. For starters, if you’re an English speaker you probably like that one because I think it’s the only form we have in English. Check this out:

  • In English, we’d only ever say “times have changed”. But are both these forms common in Spanish?
  • " Yes! While in English, “times have changed” (present perfect) is the standard, in Spanish, both forms—“los tiempos cambiaron” (preterite) and “los tiempos han cambiado” (present perfect)—are commonly used, depending on context and regional preference."
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#3

In this case it seems like the AI gives a sensible response, but I still can’t help wondering how it be sure of everything it says.

My native tongue is Swedish. I used to think we had the same thinking with regard to the perfect tense as English, but I often find English speakers using the past tense where I would have expected the perfect. Then, trying to learn Spanish via English doesn’t make it easier.

#4

The most natural way for me to say it is:

A pesar de que los tiempos cambian, el mantiene sus ideas revolucionarias.

In preterite:

A pesar de que los tiempos cambiaron, el mantuvo sus ideas revolucionarias.

In present perfect:

A pesar de que los tiempos han cambiado, el mantiene/ha mantenido sus ideas revolucionarias.

Hope it helps.

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