The Present Perfect

The Present Perfect is the tense that uses the Present Tense of "to Have" and a Past Participle.

If I invite you to a restaurant at 7:00pm, you might say to me, "Oh, Debbie, I have eaten dinner already!" I may respond by suggesting that we rent the movie "Titanic", to which you may reply, "Debbie, I have seen "Titanic" five times already." I may try again suggesting a coffee house, to which you say, "Oh, no! Debbie, I have given up caffeine!" At this point, I might say, "I have had enough!"

All of these verb constructions are in the Present Perfect. While you understand that these actions have taken place in the past (they are completed actions), they still have a sense of immediacy: They have taken place, but recently.

In Spanish, we use a form of Haber , "to Have", which is not to be confused with Tener, which means "to Have" in the sense of owning or possessing something. We put the form of Haber together with a Past Participle.

Past Participles in English are words like "eaten," "written," "walked," and "rung." We usually use them with a form of "to Have" in the sense of to "have done something." For example, "I have finished my project." "I have seen that man before." "I have had enough examples."

There is a wide variety in the construction of past participles in English: We say "I have walked," "I have sung," "I have written," and "I have gone." There are a lot of irregulars in English. Who hasn't wrestled with "swam" vs. "swum" or "swelled" vs. "swollen"?

But it is easier to form the Past Participle in Spanish: There are fewer irregularities and even the irregulars follow a pattern. To form Past Participles in Spanish, we add -ado to the stem of -ar verbs and -ido to the stem of -er and -ir verbs.

For example, let's look at estudiar:

1. Estudi - ar	2. Estudi-
3. Estudi + ado	4. Estudiado
I have studied Spanish all night.	He estudiado toda la noche.

With -er and -ir verbs, drop the -er and -ir, and add -ido.
For example, let's look at Perder:

1. Perder - er	2. Perd-
3. Perd + ido	4. Perdido
I have lost my dog, Fifi.	He perdido a mi perro, Fifi.
Fifi is lost.	Fifi está perdido.

There are some irregular Past Participles!
Click here to see them!

Note:

When Past Participles are used in the Perfect tenses, they do not change form. That is, they don't change according to gender or number. Past Participles change only when they are being used as adjectives (see below). In the Perfect tenses, they are being used as part of a compound verb. So the endings stay the same:

Tomás ha terminado la tarea.	Los estudiantes han terminado la tarea.
Alicia ha terminado la tarea.	Nosotros hemos terminado la tarea.

Past participles as Adjectives
In English, we can say a book is "illustrated", a window is "broken". We use a Past Participle to describe the "written" section of a test or the "sworn" testimony of a witness. These are past participles functioning as adjectives. The most important thing to remember about the use of past participles as adjectives in Spanish is that they must, as all adjectives in Spanish must, agree in number and gender with the noun they are modifying:

La revista ilustrada	Las revistas ilustradas
El libro ilustrado	Los libros ilustrados

Matching games with Past Participles!	Picture game on the Web!	Check out the Past Perfect!	Back to the Verbs Page!
Practice using Past Participles as Adjectives!	More Practice using Past Participles as Adjectives!	More practice!	Practice Past Participles with Java Games on the Web!
More Practice with the Present Perfect tense!