Pretérito Perfecto

¿Has estado en España?

Pretérito Perfecto is yet another Spanish tense, that describes actions performed in the past. Unlike Indefinido and Imperfecto, it’s not exactly used for telling stories or making a narration. Pretérito Perfecto isn’t for actions themselves. It’s needed to talk about the results of actions.

He comprado el libro — I’ve bought a book

¿Has cerrado la puerta? — Have you shut the door?

Los chicos ya han terminado el colegio — The boys have already finished school

¿Habéis encontrado la llave? — Have you found the keys?

Hemos visto esta película — We’ve seen this movie

In all these examples the key point is not the action, but it’s outcome. Building such sentences, we are not interested, when the actions happened, or how long they lasted. We only stress out their results.

For example, when we ask somebody Have you shut the door?, it doesn’t really matter how or when a person did it. We just need to know, if he or she has done it at all or not.

You may think of Pretérito Perfecto as a binary tense, that expresses a result among two opposite options, whether something has been done or not. Yes or not. True or false.

¿Habéis hecho los deberes? — Have you done the homework?

When a teacher asks pupils, if they have done their homework, he isn’t interested in details. This question isn’t about when or how long they were doing it. It’s about the end result. Done or not done? Yes or not?

It’s easy to draw a parallel of the Spanish Pretérito Perfecto with the English Present Perfect. The similarity is quite evident, and the translation is in most cases straightforward. Anyway, try to understand this tense from the Spanish perspective.

Forms

Verbs in Pretérito Perfecto have quite simple forms. They follow this pattern:

Haber + Participio

comprar

yo he comprado — I have bought

tú has comprado — you have bought

él, ella, usted ha comprado – he, she, you have bought

nosotros hemos comprado — we have bought

vosotros habéis comprado — you have bought

ellos, ellas, ustedes han comprado — they, you have bought

Try it yourself:

terminar

yo …

tú …

él, ella, usted …

nosotros …

vosotros …

ellos, ellas, ustedes …

comer

yo …

tú …

él, ella, usted …

nosotros …

vosotros …

ellos, ellas, ustedes …

There are two elements that form Pretérito Perfecto – haber (to have) and participio (participle).

Let’s observe both of them, starting with the participle.

Participio

Participio is a participle. In simple terms, it’s an adjective made from a verb. You should be familiar with them from the first lessons.

cerrar — cerrado

comprar — comprado

comer — comido

construir — construido

abrir — abierto

Participles are built with two suffixes – ado and ido.

ar: ado

er, ir: ido

Try it yourself:

hablar — …

viajar — …

dormir — …

corregir — …

There are some irregular participles, that have their own forms:

abrir — abierto

escribir — escrito

hacer — hecho

poner — puesto

romper — roto

You’ll find a more complete list of irregular participles at the end of this lesson.

It’s worth noting, that participles in Pretérito Perfecto don’t change their forms. The ending should always be -o.

Haber

The verb haber is the only element, that changes in different persons: he, has, ha, hemos, habéis, han.

Haber is an obsolete verb, that meant to have.

Now it’s almost never used, except for some grammar tenses, playing the role of an auxiliar verb. In the modern Spanish it’s replaced by tener. Haber was widely used many centuries ago and had the same meaning as tener. Yo he – I have, tú has – you have, etc. This can help you understand the essence of Pretérito Perfecto more deeply.

If you translate the following sentence literally, you’ll see what people’s way of thinking was, when there was no Pretérito Perfecto tense in Spanish.

He comprado el libro – Literally, I have the book bought. I have it right now already bought

Take a look at another couple of examples with literal translation:

¿Has cerrado la puerta? – Do you have the door shut?

Hemos hecho los ejercicios – We have the exercises done

This is how Pretérito Perfecto appeared. Before it was just the present tense, but these expressions became so common, that the haber + participle construction was transformed into a separate tense, the Perfect tense.

Now you are able to understand better, why it shows a result, rather than an action. Do you have this understood?

¿Tus padres han hecho limpieza? – Have your parents done the cleaning?

Hemos aprendido muchas palabras – We have learned many words

El Barcelona ha perdido el juego – Barcelona (FC) has lost the game

Try it yourself:

I’ve read the book

We’ve received the message

Have you slept well?

My friends have been to Peru

Have you heard this song? (vosotros)

Irregular participles

There are much less irregular participles in Spanish, than in English. This is a list of the most common ones. Memorize them all.

abrir – abierto

cubrir – cubierto

decir – dicho

escribir – escrito

hacer – hecho

volver – vuelto

ver – visto

poner – puesto

morir – muerto

resolver – resuelto

romper – roto

Try it yourself:

Have you seen David?

What has he said?

Where have you put the keys? (usted)

The poet has written a new verse

Have your children come back from Cuba?

We have opened the first supermarket in this village

These verbs are the basic ones, from which other same-root verbs are produced, using a prefix.

devolver – devuelto

envolver – envuelto

prever – previsto

descubrir – descubierto

proponer – propuesto

, etc.

Try it yourself:

The scientists have discovered a new bacteria

Diana has given the camera back

What has the city mayor proposed?

Pretérito Perfecto is used to show results of actions, which happened in the past. It’s not convenient for telling whole stories. It can be part of a narration, like a quote or a dialog, but you can’t consequently describe past events, creating a large story, using Pretérito Perfecto.

Showing a result of an action is the main, but not the only use case of Pretérito Perfecto. You’ll find out more about when else it can be applied in the next lesson.