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Spanish 2 Unit 8: The Present Perfect

This unit teaches the present perfect (I have eaten, she has written), its irregular participles and how it differs from the preterite.

Covers: Present tense of haber, Regular past participles, Irregular past participles, Accents on participles (leído, oído, traído), Pronoun placement with haber, Participles as adjectives with estar, Present perfect vs. preterite; acabar de

Study guide

The present perfect (el pretérito perfecto) describes past actions connected to the present, much like English have + past participle. It is formed with the present tense of haber plus a past participle: he, has, ha, hemos, habéis, han + hablado. He estudiado means I have studied; ¿has comido? means have you eaten? Do not use tener as the auxiliary; tener means to have in the sense of to possess. Regular participles are easy: -ar verbs end in -ado (hablado, estudiado) and -er and -ir verbs end in -ido (comido, vivido). Stem changes do not apply: dormir gives dormido and pedir gives pedido.

Several common verbs have irregular participles that you must memorize: abrir → abierto, cubrir → cubierto, decir → dicho, escribir → escrito, hacer → hecho, morir → muerto, poner → puesto, romper → roto, ver → visto, volver → vuelto. Compound verbs follow the same pattern: describir → descrito, devolver → devuelto, descubrir → descubierto, componer → compuesto. A second group keeps regular endings but needs a written accent because the stem ends in a, e or o: leer → leído, creer → creído, traer → traído, oír → oído, caer → caído. Verbs ending in -uir do not take this accent: construido, incluido.

In the present perfect, haber and the participle form a unit that nothing can separate. Object and reflexive pronouns go before haber: lo he visto, se han ido, nos lo han dicho. Negative words and adverbs like no, ya and todavía no also go before haber: ya hemos comido, todavía no he terminado. The participle never changes for gender or number with haber: ellas han llegado, not llegadas. When the participle is used as an adjective with estar or with a noun, however, it agrees: la puerta está abierta, los libros están escritos, una carta escrita a mano. Contrasting these two uses is a favorite test item.

Use the present perfect for actions in a time period that is not over (hoy, esta semana, este año), for experiences up to now (alguna vez, nunca, ya, todavía no), and for past actions whose result matters now. Use the preterite for actions at a specific finished time: ayer, anoche, el año pasado. In much of Latin America, speakers use the preterite more often than in Spain, but the present perfect is still standard with ya, todavía no, alguna vez and unfinished time periods, and never correct with a finished time like anoche. To say you have just done something, Spanish uses acabar de + infinitive in the present: acabo de comer (I have just eaten).

Key ideas

• The present perfect is haber in the present plus a past participle.
• Regular participles end in -ado or -ido.
• Many common verbs have irregular participles, such as hecho, dicho and escrito.
• Participles of verbs like leer and traer need an accent: leído, traído.
• Pronouns and adverbs go before haber; nothing goes between haber and the participle.
• With haber the participle never agrees; with estar it agrees like an adjective.
• Use the preterite, not the present perfect, with finished times like ayer.

Formulas and rules

Common mistakes

• Using tener as the auxiliary, as in tengo comido.
• Regularizing irregular participles, as in escribido, hacido or rompido.
• Making the participle agree with haber, as in han llegadas.
• Putting pronouns between haber and the participle, as in he lo visto.
• Using the present perfect with ayer or anoche.

Before the test, make sure you can

• Conjugate haber in the present and form the present perfect.
• Form regular participles and recall irregular ones.
• Write accents on participles like leído and traído.
• Place pronouns and adverbs before haber.
• Distinguish invariable participles with haber from agreeing ones with estar.
• Choose between the present perfect and the preterite based on the time frame.
• Use acabar de to say something just happened.

Words to know

alguna vez

ever

nunca

never

ya

already

todavía no

not yet

hasta ahora

until now

últimamente

lately

abierto

opened

dicho

said

escrito

written

hecho

done, made

puesto

put

roto

broken

visto

seen

vuelto

returned

muerto

dead

descubierto

discovered

acabar de

to have just

hoy

today

esta semana

this week

este año

this year

lograr

to achieve

Sample practice questions

30 more questions like these, from level 1 to 5, are in the practice set.