The comparison in English is like that of "I give you" vs. "I present to you". اعطي = I give اقدم = I present For instance you can "present" to someone another person (i.e., you can introduce someone) but you can't really "give" someone another person (not ethically or legally, anyway). Or, for example, you can "present" قدم your research findings to colleagues at an academic conference, but you wouldn't "give" عطى your findings to them ("giving" them your findings would imply something totally different). اعطي واقدم are used roughly like English "give" and "present", respectively.

أعطيك شيئا means I give you something. أقدم لك شيئاmeans to offer something to you.أقدم لك شخصا means I present someone to you. Examples; -أنا اعطي درسا لأحمد -أعطى لنا الاذن بالخروج -أقدم لك الاستاذ أحمد -أقدم أوراقي في الكلية -أقدم الشاي للضيوف -قدم الاستقالة Sometime when we translate we translate the meaning of the whole text,not only قدم

أهلاً وسهلاً بك .. :) Generally speaking ,I believe they can be used interchangeably !! ,but as the guys said ,أقدّم لك ..can be translated as Present to you "someone or something" ..if to someone it's like introducing that person to another person and mention his name or his title ..أقدّم لك السيد أحمد ..أقدم لك زوجتي, الخ الخ . Imagine if you say to someone أعطي لك زوجتي instead of أقدّم لك زوجتي ؟؟ hahahah ..It's gonna be a terrible sentence !..it's like offering "giving" them your spouse ! lolz ..that's why no matter how similar some words look ,they still can change the whole meaning ,if used in the wrong context ! :O If you want "to present" something you can also use أقدّم لك ,which means >>to give it "but as a present" :) so ,present أقدم means to give أعطي but usually in the sense of gifting or awarding someone!. but here ,it's not wrong if use them interchangeably .to give a present ..to present a present. almost have the same meaning !. :) .

There is a bit difference between the two words,so they can be used differently in different sentences, like the difference between give and present, and they can be used for the same sentence. You should say أعطى and not عطي. You can use أمنحك شيئا too.

another difference أقدم لك is more formal I think أقدم لك هذا الدرع كهدية I will not say أعطيك هذا الدرع كهدية