1. Los perfectos

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. ¿Qué es el presente perfecto?
The present perfect is formed by combining:
The
helping verb HABER (“have” or “has”)
the past participle +

5. 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.

6. 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

7. 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 eaten
bring have bringed???? have brought

8. R roto
E escrito
V visto
V vuelto
M muerto
A abierto
C cubierto
P puesto
H hecho
D dicho
D devuelto

9. 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

10. Click here to go to a brief practice exercise.

11. 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.

12. The present tense of haber
hemos
has
habéis ha
han

13. Para formar… Here are the present perfect forms of estudiar:
he estudiado
hemos estudiado
has estudiado
habéis estudiado
ha estudiado
han estudiado

14. Now you try…
On your notes, see if you can figure out the present perfect forms for the verb hablar:
he ________
hemos _______
has ________
habéis ________
ha ________
han ________

15. Is this what you came up with?
he hablado
hemos hablado
has hablado
habéis hablado
ha hablado
han hablado

16. Let’s try another…
Now see if you can form the present perfect forms of the verb tomar:
__ ________
____ _______
___ ________
_____ ________

17. Is this what you got? he tomado hemos tomado has tomado habéis tomado
ha tomado
han tomado

18. Let’s try another one…see if you can come up with the present perfect tense of ir:
__ ___
_____ ___
___ ___
______ ___
___ ______

19. Is this what you came up with?
he ido
hemos ido
has ido
habéis ido
ha ido
han ido

20. Many of you may have assumed that ir had an irregular past participle
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.

21. Click here to go to a brief practice exercise.

22. 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 eaten
past perfect he had eaten
future perfect he will have eaten
conditional perfect he would have eaten

23. había hablado habíamos hablado
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

24. 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.

25. Click here to go to a brief practice exercise.