The Perfect Tense

Year 12

What is the Perfect Tense?

The perfect tense is a verb form used to talk about what has or hasn’t

happened; for example, I’ve broken my glasses; we haven’t spoken about

it.

Using the perfect tense

- In English, we use the perfect tense (have, has, or their shortened form ‘ve and ‘s followed by a past participle such as spoken, eaten, lived, been) to talk about what has or hasn’t happened today, this week, this year or in our lives up to now.

- In Spanish the perfect tense is used in a similar way

• He terminado el libro– I’ve finished the book

• Nunca ha estado en Bolivia– He’s never been to Bolivia

• Ya se han ido– They’ve already left

Forming the Perfect Tense

As in English, the perfect tense in Spanish has two parts to it. These are:

• the present tense of the verb haber (meaning to have).

• a part of the main verb called the past participle.

Forming the Past Participle

To form the past participle of regular –ar verbs, take off the –ar ending of the infinitive and add –ado

hablar (to speak) - hablado (speaking)

To form the past participle of regular –er or –ir verbs, take off the –er or –ir ending of the infinitive and add –ido

comer (to eat) - comido (eaten)vivir (to live) - vivido (lived)

The Prefect tense of some regular verbs

The following table shows how you can combine the present tense of haber with the past participle of any verb to form the perfect tense.

Present of haber Past participle

yo he hablado

tú has trabajado

él/ella ha comido

nosotros hemos vendido

vosotros habéis vivido

ellos/ellas han decidido

Note!!

You should not confuse haber with tener. Even though they both mean to have, haber is only used for forming tenses and in certain impersonal expressions such as hay and había meaning there is, there are, there was, there were and so on.

Verbs with irregular past participles

Some past participles are irregular. There aren’t too many, so try to learn them.abrir (to open) - abierto (opened)cubrir (to cover) - cubierto (covered)decir (to say) - dicho (said)escribir (to write) - escrito (written)freír (to fry) - frito (fried)hacer (to do) - hecho (done)morir (to die) - muerto (died)oír (to listen) - oído (heard)poner (to put) - puesto (put)

Reflexive verbs in the perfect tense

The perfect tense of reflexive verbs is formed in the same way as for

ordinary verbs. The reflexive pronouns (me, te, se, nos, os, se)

come before he, has, ha, and so on. The table on the next page shows

the perfect tense of lavarse in full.

Subject pronoun

Reflexive pronoun

Present tense of haber

Past participle

meaning

yo me he lavadoI have

washed

tú te has lavadoYou have washed

él/ella se ha lavadoHe/she

has washed

nosotros nos hemos lavadoWe have washed

vosotros os habéis lavadoYou have washed

ellos/ellas

se han lavadoThey have

washed

Don’t use the perfect tense with desde, desde hace and hace…que when talking

about how long something has been going on for. Use the present tense

instead.

Esta enferma desde julio he has been ill since july

Hace mucho tiempo que salen juntosThey have been going out together for a long time.

Key points

• The spanish perfect tense is formed using the present tense of haber and a past participle.

• In spanish the perfect tense is used very much as it is in English.