Los perfectos
Perfect Tenses
•Any perfect tense is a compound tense. But
what is a compound tense?
•Easy!! A compound word is 2 words put together like:
home + work= homework
play + ground= playground.
•A compound tense is 2 verbs used together to form
1 tense.
Past Participle
All perfect tenses are made up of two
parts: the helping verb haber and the past
participle of the main verb:
helping verb
past participle
He has eaten.
They have left.
I
have studied.
helping verb
past participle
We have seen.
You have finished.
She has fallen.
¿Qué es el presente perfecto?
The present perfect is formed by
combining:
The
helping verb
HABER
(“have” or
“has”)
+
the past
participle
Past Participle
All perfect tenses are made up of two
parts: the helping verb and the past
participle of the main verb:
helping verb
I have
You have
He has
She has
past participle
helping verb
past participle
studied. We have seen
finished.
eaten.
They have left.
fallen. You all have helped.
This is how you form the past participle in Spanish:
Drop the –ar and add –ado:
hablar
pensar
llegar
hablado
pensado
llegado
nadar
almorzar
estar
nadado
almorzado
estado
Drop the –er or –ir and add –ido:
comer
aprender
asistir
comido
aprendido
asistido
poder
querer
venir
podido
querido
venido
There are, of course, irregular past participles in
Spanish as there are in English.
call
jump
look
eat
bring
have called
have jumped
have looked
have eated????
have bringed????
have eaten
have brought
R
E
V
V
roto
escrito
visto
vuelto
M
A
C
muerto
abierto
cubierto
P
H
D
D
puesto
hecho
dicho
devuelto
Not exactly irregular but…
-er and –ir verbs whose stems end in a
vowel have past participles ending in –ído
caer → caído
leer → leído
reír → reído
creer → creído
oír → oído
traer → traído
Click here to go to a brief practice exercise.
Para formar en español
• In Spanish we form the present perfect by
combining the present tense of the verb
haber (the helping verb, or el verbo
auxiliar) with a past participle
– For example:
• Yo he bailado.
I have danced.
• Nosotros no hemos estudiado para el
examen.
We haven’t studied for the test.
The present tense of haber
he
hemos
has
habéis
ha
han
Para formar…
Here are the present perfect forms of
estudiar:
he estudiado
has estudiado
ha estudiado
hemos
estudiado
habéis
estudiado
han estudiado
Now you try…
On your notes, see if you can figure out
the present perfect forms for the verb
hablar:
he ________
hemos _______
has ________
habéis
________
han ________
ha ________
Is this what you came up with?
he hablado
hemos hablado
has hablado
habéis hablado
ha hablado
han hablado
Let’s try another…
Now see if you can form the present
perfect forms of the verb tomar:
__ ________
____ _______
___ ________
_____
________
___ ________
__ ________
Is this what you got?
he tomado
hemos tomado
has tomado
habéis tomado
ha tomado
han tomado
Let’s try another one…see if you can
come up with the present perfect tense of
ir:
__ ___
_____ ___
___ ___
______ ___
__ ___
___ ______
Is this what you came up with?
he ido
hemos ido
has ido
habéis ido
ha ido
han ido
Many of you may have assumed that ir
had an irregular past participle. Afterall, it
does have an irregular present participle.
But ir is actually regular in this form.
Click here to go to a brief practice exercise.
Pluperfect
(Past Perfect)
(Pluscuamperfecto)
The past perfect (also called the pluperfect and,
in Spanish, the pluscuamperfecto), remember,
is the past of the past and translates with “had”
in English. ALL perfect tenses get a helping
verb and a past participle:
present perfect
past perfect
future perfect
conditional perfect
he has eaten
he had eaten
he will have eaten
he would have eaten
As you saw, the present perfect tense has a set of helping
verbs that come from “haber”:
he
has
ha
hemos
habéis
han
The same is true of the past perfect. The helping verbs for the
past perfect are the imperfect form of “haber”:
había hablado
habías hablado
había hablado
habíamos hablado
habíais hablado
habían
hablado
Note that the endings on “haber” for the past perfect
are the endings for the imperfect tense:
había
habías
había
habíamos
habíais
habían
The present perfect is the PRESENT tense of “haber” +
the past participle.
The past perfect tense is the IMPERFECT (PAST) tense
of “haber” + the past participle.
Guess what the future perfect tense is composed of.
But that’s another lesson.
Click here to go to a brief practice exercise.