12.1: Present Perfect Flashcards
The present perfect is used to express actions that we have and have not done. It combines the present tense of the verb haber with the past participle.
haber yo: he tú: has él, ella, usted: ha nosotros(as): hemos vosotros(as): habéis ellos, ellas, ustedes: han
You will remember from Capítulo 11 that to form the regular past participles, you need to add -ado to the end of the stem of -ar verbs, and -ido to the stem of -er and -ir verbs.
hablar - hablado
beber - bebido
vivir - vivido
The following verbs have accents in their past participles:
creer - creído
leer - leído
oír - oído
traer - traído
These are the irregular past participles you learned in Capítulo 11
abrir - abierto cubrir - cubierto decir - dicho despertar - despertado (not irregular when it is used in the present perfect, unlike when it is used as an adjective with the verb estar.) devolver - devuelto escribir - escrito hacer - hecho morir - muerto romper - roto poner - puesto ver - visto volver - vuelto
When using the past participle with estar, it must agree in gender and number with the subject because it functions as an adjective. However, when using the participle with haber, it is part of the verb and does not agree with the subject.
Ella ha trabajado mucho esta semana.
Ellos han ido a la costa.
When using direct object, indirect object, or reflexive pronouns, they are placed in front of the conjugated form of haber.
No se han despertado todavía.
Ya lo he visto.
In Spanish, the present perfect is generally used as it is in English to talk about something that has happened or something that someone has done. It is usually either unimportant when it happened or it has some relation to the present.
¿Alguna vez has ido a las montañas?
Have you ever gone to the mountains?
He perdido el mapa y no sé dónde estamos.
I’ve lost the map and don’t know where we are.
The following expressions are often used with the present perfect:
alguna vez - ever no... todavía - not ... yet, still ... not nunca - never recientemente - recently ya - already
Ya hemos ido a esa playa.
We have already gone to that beach.
No han llegado todavía.
They have not arrived yet.
¿Alguna vez has escalado una montaña?
Have you ever climbed a mountain?
Investiguemos la gramática
In Spain, it is much more common to use the present perfect rather than the preterite when referring to anything that happened that same day.
Hemos nadado en el mar esta mañana.
We swam in the sea this morning.
