Present perfect in Spanish and experiences

Have you already started studying Spanish or do you intend to do so?

Congratulations! 

Spanish is a beautiful language and we are sure you will love it. 😊

You know what? Today you are in luck because we are going to explain to you in detail one of the verb tenses most used in Spanish: past perfect

After reading this article you will know perfectly its shape and how to use it. 

For us, it is very important to give you quality information and that you learn something new with each article on our blog. 

So… let's get to it! 😁

Past perfect: Past tense

Maybe you're a little lost and wondering: what is the past perfect?

It is simply a past tense.

It can also be called past perfect compound. But be careful not to confuse it with past perfect simple, that's another time. 🤓

The past perfect appears both in indicative as in subjunctive. Today we are going to focus on the form and uses of the past perfect indicative.

Now I want to know something you've done recently:

• Where have you gone on vacation this summer?
• To New York? How wonderful!
• And how many days have you been?

Or tell me some of your most incredible experiences:

• Have you ever skydived? 😁😁😁

Do you see it? All those questions are about actions of the past. But let's not get ahead of ourselves, first let's see the shape of this time. 

How is the past perfect formed?: Morphology

The morphologyof the past perfect is actually quite simple. It is always formed in the same way withtwo components:the verb haber and a participle.

You'll see how easy it is!

Verb haber as auxiliary verb 

Heverb to haveIt is necessary for the past perfect form. 

Although heverb to haveIt does not transmit the action, thanks to it we know, for example, who is the subject who performs the action.

That's why we say that it works like aauxiliary verb, because it helps us understand who performs the action, among other things.

Inperfect tense, heverb to haveis conjugated inpresent. Here is the way:

People	HAVE
I	I have
You	you have
He/She/You	ha
We	we have
You	you have
They/Them/You	they have

Participle

The other pillar of the past perfect isparticiple.

What is a participle?

It is anon-personal wayof the verb. 

What does that mean? 

Well, as its name says, it has no person. 

That is, a participle can never go with only one subject, it would be considered incorrect and would not be understood. 

You need a verb. 

In this case, it is the verb haber. 😉

And how are participles formed?

It's very easy. There are two types:regular and irregular.

In theregular(they are the majority) we have to look at the endings of the infinitives:

If the verb ends in–AR, we replace that ending with the suffix–ADO.

If the verb ends in–EReither-GO, we replace those endings with the suffix-GONE.

Examples:

• SPEAK – SPEAKADO
• EAT – COMGONE
• LIVE – LIVEGONE

In the following table you can see threeexamples of past perfectwith the verbstalk,eatandlive:

Person	TALK	KNOW	LIVE
I	I have spoken	I have eaten	I have lived
You	you have spoken	have you eaten	you have lived
He/She/You	has spoken	has eaten	has lived
We	we have talked	we have eaten	we have lived
You	you have spoken	you have eaten	you have lived
They/Them/You	they have spoken	have eaten	have lived

Have you seen? The participle does not change, it remains the same in each person. 

How easy! 😄

In the case of thereflexive verbs, the pronoun is placed before theverb to have. We see it with himverb wash:

Person	Pronoun	WASH
I	me	I have washed
You	tea	have you washed
He/She/You	HE	has washed
We	us	we have washed
You	you	you have washed
They/Them/You	HE	have washed

irregular participles

Of course, we also have someirregular participles in Spanish.

How can we know what the verbs are inpast perfect irregular?

The truth is that there is no theory for this. 😅

You simply have to memorize them.

But... don't panic!

There are not many and they are alsofrequently used verbs, so it won't take you long to learn them by repeating and repeating.

Some of the most notable are the following:

• PUT – POSITION
• DO – DONE
• SAY – SAID
• WRITE – WRITTEN
• BREAK – BROKEN
• SEE – SEEN
• RETURN – RETURN

As you can see, they all end in'to'or in'cho'. 

Isn't it so difficult? 😎

And what about the verbs?beeithergo?

They tend to be irregular in many tenses, such as in the past perfect simple.

However, not here. 😊

Heverb to beIn the past perfect it is conjugated with the regular participle:been

Person	BE
I	I have been
You	you have been
He/She/You	has been
We	we have been
You	you have been
They/Them/You	have been

Heverb goIn the past perfect it is also conjugated with the regular participle:gone

Person	GO
I	I have gone
You	you have gone
He/She/You	has gone
We	we have gone
You	you have gone
They/Them/You	have gone

The past perfect of the verb tener is also regular:I have had.

Activities to practice the form 

Now you are going to show me that you master the form. 😉

In this article I propose twoexercises with the past perfectto complete.

here you gothe first. Then you have the solutions.

Don't look at them before you write them, okay? 

Trust you, I'm sure you do great. 

Complete the following sentences with thepast perfect compound form of the infinitives.

• This morning I (have breakfast) __________ eggs with fruit.

• Recently I (see)  ____________ a Spanish film by Alejandro Amenábar.

• Juan and Lucía (discuss) __________  recently and that's why they don't talk to each other. It's very uncomfortable.

• Teresa (buy) ___________ a new apartment in front of the beach. He already has three.

• Today you (arrive) ___________ late for work and that's why the boss is so angry.

• Have you ever (live) ___________ in another country?  Yes, I (live) ___________ in North America, in China and in Germany.

• I always (have) ___________ long hair. I can't imagine my face with short hair.

• This afternoon Pepe (break) ___________ the glass and (try) ___________  fix with glue, but it hasn't worked.

Solutions

1. I have had breakfast
2. I have seen
3. have discussed
4. has bought
5. you have arrived
6. you have lived / I have lived
7. I have had
8. has broken / has tried 

What can we use this tense for?: Uses of the past perfect

Great! You already know how this time is formed.

What is the past perfect used for?

Pay attention because I am going to explain the four main ones. uses of the past perfect in Spanish. After this you will be able to speak in the past tense.

Exciting, right?

recent past 

We start with the first use: the recent past.

How do we know if a past is recent or not?

There are a series of words that indicate it. In Hispania, Spanish school; we call them keywords, and they are the following:

• Temporal markers that have the demonstrative this: This morning / This week / This month / This year…

  Example: This month I have done a lot of sports.

• Temporal markers that happen withintoday: today, a while ago, 2 hours ago, a moment ago... Example: A moment ago they brought this package.

• Adverbs or other expressions that indicate a recent time: recently, lately...

  Example: Recently, I have read all the Harry Potter books.

Actions that began in the past and continue in the present  

The second use is that of actions that began in the past and continue in the present. 

It's a very long title, right? 😆

No problem, we'll give you a short phrase so you can understand it better: Before yes, now yes.

That is, actions that happened in the past and now they happen too, they are not finished. Here the main keywords are always or all life.

Examples:

• always I have gotten up early, even on weekends.
• all life It has been like that, it will not change….

We can also talk about something that never we have done. In that case it would be Not before and not now.

Example:

• Never I have driven a motorcycle.

Keywords that mark the relationship or not of an action: NOW, NOT YET and NOT YET

The past perfect It is also very useful if we want to express that we have already done an action or if otherwise we have not done it yet. 

When we use the construction “Ya + P. PERFECT” , it means that we have done the action.

Example:

• Pedro, have you done your homework?
• Yes, mom. Ya the I'm done.

When we say “still no/not yet + P. PERFECT” It means that we have not done it, but we would like to do it in the future or we are going to do it soon.

Example:

• I'm hungry. Have you made the food?
• No, I haven't done it yet the food / No, I haven't done it yet the food.

The meaning of not yet and not yet It's exactly the same.

Knowing these simple words is very useful for meeting new people and becoming interested in their lives. 

If you master the past perfect, you will be more popular and have more friends! 😎

Experiences

The last use of the past perfect is closely linked to the previous one.

We also talk about things we have done or not done, but this time they are experiences. The important thing in this use is not when, but the experience, if whether we have lived that experience or not.

If before we talked about everyday things like doing homework or preparing food, now we have life experiences that we will remember forever.

Do you have a list of experiences that you haven't done yet, but would like to do?

Then write them with the P. Perfect 😉

In this use it is common that when we ask someone about an experience we use the construction “Have you ever + Q. PERFECT?”  

Below, we give you some examples of questions with possible answers.

Examples: 

• ¿ever Have you swum among sharks?
• No, I have never swum among sharks. / I haven't done it yet. / No. How scary! I have not done it nor will I do it.

In the negative answers we can respond using 'not yet, not yet and also never'.  

• Have you ever been to El Palmar?
• Yes, I've been there twice and of course, I have eaten paella there.

In the affirmative answers we can respond with “Ya + P. PERFECT” and also say the number of times that we have done that action: once, twice, many times...

Activities to complete with the past perfect

If you've come this far, you already know how to use the past perfect.

Congratulations! Isn't it as difficult as you thought? 😀

Let's check if it is clear to you with the following exercise.

Now it's a little more difficult.

Complete the sentences with the verbs that we indicate in the past perfect:

• run
• write
• stroll
• tour
• prepare
• dinner
• look

• This morning I __________ the weather forecast and it looks like it's going to rain.

• It's incredible. Maria ____________ much of Europe by train. What an experience!

• Can we delay the meeting 30 minutes? I still don't ______________.

• Have you ever ____________ a marathon?

• This week Mario __________ every afternoon after work and says he feels very good, because that's how he clears his head.

• After several months, I already ___________ my Master's Final Project, finally!

• You still don't _____________ ? It's ten at night. What are you waiting for?

Solutions

1. I have looked
2. has traveled
3. I have prepared
4. you have run
5. has walked
6. I have written
7. have you had dinner

Games to work on the past perfect 

How about we see some games to better consolidate the form and use of the past perfect compound?

By playing you learn better. And in our spanish courses Games are a fundamental part of the learning process.

We are going to talk to you about two games that we use a lot to practice this verbal tense 😉

Experience bingo

Have you ever played Bingo?

It's exciting, right? 

We have our own experience bingo. 😁

The teacher distributes a sheet with questions about experiences to the students.  They are written in P. Perfect.

The students have to ask, conjugating the infinitives in the correct form of the past perfect, these questions to their classmates and write down their answers. 

The first person to find classmates who answer yes to all the questions wins.

You have to be very fast! 🏃

In addition to practice the past perfect orally, it is an ideal game to interact with classmates and thus get to know each other better.

Do you dare to play? 

Run, tickets are running out!

Experience race

Another very fun way to practice experiences is with career of experiences.

It is recommended to go outside to do it because it takes a lot of space.

Students line up and must reach a certain point. 

Imagine that we are on the terrace and there is a plant 5 meters from us. 

What is the way to get there?

Well walking. Obvious, right? 😅 Buuut... you can only take a step if you answer affirmatively to the experience the teacher asks.

For example: 

• The teacher asks: “Have you ever gone on a safari in Africa?”

Students will take a step only if they have had that experience.

The first person to reach the given place wins.

Sounds interesting, right?

If you want to win this game you already know: travel, experiment and have fun experiences, like make sand castles on the beach with your classmates. 😄

The past perfect is a fundamental topic in any Spanish school of the Cervantes Institute. 

At our school: Hispania, Spanish school; You will practice it with very professional and fun teachers. 

We offer face-to-face courses or also online Spanish courses, in case you prefer to study from home.

That's it for our article on the past perfect. We have talked about its form and its uses. 

We have seen some exercises and games, emphasizing experiences.

Now it's your turn. Tell us what exciting experiences you've had or interesting things you've done recently. 

See you soon! 😊

Article written by Carlos Martinez for Hispania, Spanish school 

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