Spanish Grammar Explained /
Perfect tense
The pretérito perfecto is another past tense we have in Spanish. The use of this past differs from country to country. We will work on this tense later on, so don't worry and just look at the construction and examples!
Construction
We need haber which is an auxiliary verb here (it doesn't have any meaning) and participles with "-ado", "-ido" for all the AR/ER/IR :
| Person | Auxiliar | Participles for -AR, -ER, - IR |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he | hablado comido vivido |
| Tú | has | hablado comido vivido |
| Él/ella | ha | hablado comido vivido |
| Nosotros | hemos | hablado comido vivido |
| Vosotros | habéis | hablado comido vivido |
| Ustedes, ellos | han | hablado comido vivido |
Este mes he trabajado mucho.
I have worked a lot this month.
¿Qué has hecho hoy?
What have you done today?
Todavía no he comido.
I haven't eaten yet.
Esta semana ha sido muy dura.
This week has been really tough.
Words that usually go with the pretérito perfecto:
- Este mes/año/día/semana... (this month/year/week...)
- Hoy (today) (only in Spain)
- Ya (already)
- Todavía no (not yet)
- Hace un rato/momento (a while ago/a moment ago)
- Últimamente (lately)
- Recientemente (recently)
- Nunca (never)
- Siempre (always)
- Alguna vez (ever)
Irregular participles:
hacer ⇒ ¿Has hecho la tarea ya?
abrir ⇒ Todavía no han abierto el nuevo supermercado.
ver ⇒ ¿Has visto el nuevo restaurante de la esquina?