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 helping verb past participle

He has eaten. We have seen.

They have left. You have finished.

I have studied. 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 past participle helping verb past participle

I have studied. We have seen

You have finished.

He has eaten. They have left.

She has fallen. You all have helped.

This is how you form the past participle in Spanish:

Drop the –ar and add –ado:

hablar hablado nadar nadado

pensar pensado almorzar almorzado

llegar llegado estar estado

Drop the –er or –ir and add –ido:

comer comido poder podido

aprender aprendido querer querido

asistir asistido venir venido

There are, of course, irregular past participles in Spanish as there are in English.

call have called

jump have jumped

look have looked

eat have eated???? have eatenbring have bringed???? have brought

R roto

E escrito

V visto

V vuelto

M muerto

A abierto

C cubierto

P puesto

H hecho

D dicho

D devuelto

Not exactly irregular but…

-er and –ir verbs whose stems end in a vowel have past participles ending in –ído

caer → caído creer → creído

leer → leído oír → oído

reír → reído 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 hemos estudiado

has estudiado habéis estudiado

ha estudiado han estudiado

Now you try…

he ________ hemos _______

has ________ habéis ________

ha ________ han ________

On your notes, see if you can figure out the present perfect forms for the verb hablar:

he hablado hemos hablado

has hablado habéis hablado

ha hablado han hablado

Is this what you came up with?

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 Click here to go to a brief practice exercise. 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 he has eatenpast perfect he had eatenfuture perfect he will have eatenconditional perfect he would have eaten

As you saw, the present perfect tense has a set of helping verbs that come from “haber”:

he hemos

has habéis

ha han

The same is true of the past perfect. The helping verbs for the past perfect are the imperfect form of “haber”:

había hablado habíamos hablado

habías hablado habíais hablado

había hablado habían hablado

Note that the endings on “haber” for the past perfect are the endings for the imperfect tense:

había habíamos

habías habíais

había 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.