Chapter 5Aventura 3

The Present Perfect

The Present Perfect

In English we form the present perfect tense by combining have or has with the past participle of a verb: he has seen, have you tried?, they haven’t eaten.

The Present PerfectTo form the past participle of a verb in Spanish, you add -ado to the stem of -ar verbs and -ido to the stem of most -er/-ir verbs.

The Present PerfectTo form the present perfect tense, we combine this past participle with the present tense of the verb haber.

The Present PerfectWe generally use the Spanish present perfect in the same way we use its English equivalent.

The Present Perfect

I have eaten

You have eaten

He, She, It has eaten

We have eaten

They have eaten

The Present Perfect

Yo he comido

Tu has comido

El, Ella ha comido

Nosotros hemos comido

Ustedes han comido

Ellos, Ellas han comido

The Present PerfectNo he reparado la bicicleta todavía.

I haven’t repaired the bicycle yet.

The Present Perfect¿Qué trabajos has tenido?

What jobs have you had?

The Present Perfect

Certain verbs that have a double vowel in the infinitive form (except those with the double vowel ui ) require an accent mark on the i in the past participle.

The Present PerfectCaerLeerOírCreerTraerReír

caídoleídooídocreídotraídoreído

The Present PerfectNotice that we place no and other negative words, object pronouns, and reflexive pronouns directly in front of the form of the verb haber.

The Present PerfectHas alquilado esa película alguna vez?

(Have you ever rented that movie?)

No, no la he alquilado nunca.