The Perfect Tense
Uses:
In Spanish, the Perfect is used in 2 main instances:
1.To express a past action that maintains a connection to the time of speaking. This is usually expressed with an unspecified time reference (always, never, before, once, twice, etc.):
For example: “he visitado España una vez.”
2. To express a very recent past action that maintains a connection to the present. This is usually indicated by the word for "this" :
For example: “este mes he jugado al fútbol.”
Formation: Regular verbs
The Perfect Tense is formed by using the Present Tense of the auxiliary verb, haber, and a past participle.
The verb haber indicates who has done the action.
Below is the Present Tense conjugation of haber:
In addtion to haber, the Perfect Tense requires a past participle.
In order to form the past participles of regular verbs like hablar, comer, and vivir, we follow these steps:
1. We remove the infinitive ending to obtain the stem
hablar - ar = habl
comer - er = com
vivir - ir = viv
2. We add the correct ending to the stem:
-
ar → ado
-
er → ido
-
ir → ido
Therefore the past participles of hablar, comer, and vivir are as follows:
-
hablar → hablado
-
comer → comido
-
vivir → vivido
Formation: Irregular past participles
There are a few irregular past participles in Spanish.
Spelling change ído instead of ido:
-
atraer → atraído
-
caer → caído
-
creer → creído
-
leer → leído
-
oír → oído
-
traer → traído
1. Very important verbs:
decir → dicho
hacer → hecho
ver → visto
volver → vuelto
2. Important verbs:
abrir → abierto
escribir → escrito
freír → frito
morir → muerto
poner → puesto
romper → roto
3. Less important verbs:
cubrir → cubierto
prender → preso
resolver → resuelto
satisfacer → satisfecho
Click here to continue to exercises on the Perfect Tense
Published: 18/04/2016