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What's the preferred past participle of imprimir, imprimido or impreso?
For example:
He imprimido el email que me enviaste.
He impreso / Tengo impreso el email que me enviaste.
What's the correct way to say printed?
Answers
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This is a difficult question.
If you're fluent in Spanish, read this excerpt from Diccionario panhispánico de dudas, which says:
Los únicos verbos que en la lengua actual presentan dos participios, uno regular y otro irregular, son imprimir (imprimido/impreso), freír (freído/frito) y proveer (proveído/provisto), con sus respectivos derivados. Los dos participios pueden utilizarse indistintamente en la formación de los tiempos compuestos y de la pasiva perifrástica, aunque la preferencia por una u otra forma varíe en cada caso (véase el Diccionario panhispánico de dudas, s/v imprimir, freír, proveer):
Hemos imprimido veinte ejemplares / Habían impreso las copias en papel fotográfico.
Nos hemos proveído de todo lo necesario / Se había provisto de víveres abundantes.
Las empanadillas han de ser freídas dos horas antes / Nunca había frito un huevo.No debe asimilarse el caso de estos participios verbales irregulares con el del nutrido grupo de adjetivos procedentes de participios latinos, como abstracto (del latín abstractus, participio de abstrahere), atento (del lat. attentus, part. de attendere), confuso (del lat. confusus, part. de confundere), correcto (del lat. correctus, part. de corrigere), contracto (del lat. contractus, part. de contrahere), tinto (del lat. tinctus, part. de tingere), etc. Algunas de estas formas pueden haber funcionado como participios verbales en épocas pasadas del idioma, pero hoy funcionan solamente como adjetivos y, por lo tanto, no se usan en la formación de los tiempos compuestos ni de la voz pasiva de los verbos correspondientes (no se dice *Han contract matrimonio o *Son correctos por el profesor , sino Han contraído matrimonio o Son corregidos por el profesor). Por lo tanto, la consideración de estos verbos como «verbos con doble participio» carece de justificación gramatical.
It's subtle, so if you don't understand the distinctions, just go with imprimido for past participles and impreso as an adjective.
In general, the irregular form is preferred when used as an adjective.
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If you're talking about from a printer, impreso is correct. If you're talking about 'by hand', it's impreso a mano.
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Both are correct although the irregular form is more common.
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I don't know from a linguistic standpoint, but imprimido is never used, and it's mostly considered incorrect.
This, at least, is in Argentina. If you say imprimido no matter in what context, people will laugh, because it's utterly wrong just as saying I thinked
2What? Both forms are correct when used as participle (as the OP asked). In Spain both forms are used commonly, and the RAE accepts both, as @Serabe pointed. – greuze – 2017-03-02T12:15:05.180
That the RAE is not a definitive reference, it accepts some terms that are rarely used by anyone and some barbarisms. It also accepts murciégalo for example, which is clearly an error. – Petruza – 2017-03-02T14:46:30.083
I can only speak with experience of how it's used in Argentina. Additionally, I can say I never heard or read imprimido from any spanish speaking country, but I can't have any conclusion from other country's use.
2I think you are wrong about the RAE, it IS really the definitive reference, as it gathers rules of Spanish spoken in all the world. In their statutes: Se dedica a la regularización lingüística mediante la promulgación de normativas dirigidas a fomentar la unidad idiomática entre o dentro de los diversos territorios que componen el llamado mundo hispanohablante; garantizar una norma común, en concordancia con sus estatutos fundacionales: «velar por que los cambios que experimente [...] no quiebren la esencial unidad que mantiene en todo el ámbito hispánico» – greuze – 2017-03-02T14:57:39.673
1Respecting murciégalo, it is clearly stated in your link that is nombre masculino desusado and Usado como vulgar, where is the error there? – greuze – 2017-03-02T15:00:06.423
The error is that it's a vulgar version created as an error when trying to say Murciélago, the correct original word. – Petruza – 2017-03-03T19:46:26.273
So the RAE dictionary is a definitive reference for a kind of special standard spanish that isn't spoken in any particular real place. It includes all uses, I'm letting the OP know that in a real country were a real kind of spanish is spoken, those words are not used. – Petruza – 2017-03-03T19:48:23.207
3At least in Perú, the irregular form is always prefered: "impreso" or "frito". The cult form is "impreso" and "frito", "imprimido" or "freído" is more used for less educated people and kids. In school, they teach you to don't say "imprimido" and "freído". In written media, "impreso" it's the usual form. – Ricardo – 2012-01-17T15:43:00.660
Like @Ricardo says, in Argentina it's the case also, imprimido and proveido are considered uneducated and plain errors. freido in the other hand, now that I think, it's generally accepted but only as participle. – Petruza – 2017-03-02T14:38:37.697