Spanish Present Perfect
The present perfect is Spanish's first compound tense. Two pieces, no separation, predictable participle formation, eleven irregulars. Worth learning thoroughly because it's a common A2-B1 building block.
The structure
(conjugated) + past participle.
| Person | haber |
|---|---|
| yo | he |
| has | |
| / / | ha |
| / / |
Note (no accent), (accent on the e), (no s on the end - this is the only have-han pair where the difference matters).
The past participle is built from the infinitive stem:
- -ar verbs → -ado: hablar → hablado, trabajar → trabajado
- -er and - verbs → -ido: comer → comido, vivir → vivido, salir → salido
Put them together:
- he (I have spoken)
- has (you have eaten)
- ha (he / she / you-formal has lived)
- (we have worked)
- (you-pl have gone out)
- (they have arrived)
The eleven irregular participles
A small set of common verbs don't form their participle by the regular rule. These are the ones you'll meet in the top 1,000 lemmas.
| Verb | Participle | English |
|---|---|---|
| done, made | ||
| said | ||
| seen | ||
| written | ||
| opened | ||
| returned | ||
| put | ||
| died | ||
| broken | ||
| cubierto | covered | |
| resuelto | , solved |
Verbs derived from these inherit the same irregular participle: → descubierto, → devuelto, → deshecho, → compuesto.
Position of pronouns and adverbs
In Spanish, and the participle never separate. Any object pronoun or reflexive goes before , not between haber and the participle.
- he . (I have seen it.) - not "he lo visto" or "he visto lo"
- No he . (I haven't told you anything.)
- ha . (He has got up late.)
Adverbs also stay outside the auxiliary-participle cluster.
- he . (I have already eaten.) - ya goes before haber, not between haber and comido
- no ha . (He hasn't arrived yet.)
When to use it
In peninsular Spanish, the present perfect is the default for:
- Recent actions in a time frame that includes the present: hoy (today), esta semana (this week), este año (this year), este mes (this month).
- he . (Today I went to the cinema.)
- he . (This week I've worked a lot.)
- Past actions with current relevance (life experience, ongoing situations).
- He Madrid. (I've lived in Madrid.)
- he . (I've never eaten sushi.)
- Just-completed actions (often with acabar de or recién).
- . (I've just arrived. - acabar de + infinitive, parallel construction)
For completed actions in a closed past (ayer, la semana pasada, hace dos años), use the preterite instead. A preview of the next chapter:
- he . (I've seen him today.) - present perfect
- . (I saw him yesterday.) - preterite
Regional note
Latin American Spanish leans more heavily on the preterite and uses the present perfect less. Many speakers would say where a peninsular speaker says he . For exam Spanish targeting the peninsular standard, follow the time-frame rule above. For real-world use in Latin America, both are accepted.
Worked examples
- He . (I've studied a lot this year.)
- ¿Has ? (Have you seen the film?)
- ha París. (My sister has come back from Paris.)
- No . (We haven't done anything today.)
- . (They've opened a new restaurant on the street.)
- he México. (I've never been to Mexico.)
Common mistakes English speakers make
Trying to split haber and the participle to mirror English word order: he instead of he . The two pieces are welded together in Spanish. Treating the participle as an adjective and agreeing it with the subject: in the present perfect the participle is invariable - it's always , never "hemos comidas". Forgetting irregular participles and saying he or he instead of he and he .
See also
- The Spanish preterite page covers the past tense for closed time frames.
- The preterite vs imperfect page covers the two simple past tenses side by side.
- The intermediate Spanish grammar page covers the full compound-tense system.