TutorTube: Present Perfect

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TutorTube: Present Perfect Spring 2021

Introduction

Hello and welcome to TutorTube, where The Learning Center’s Lead Tutors help

you understand challenging course concepts with easy-to-understand videos.

My name is Darren Churn, Lead Tutor for Spanish. In today’s video, we will

explore the Present Perfect Tense. Let’s get started!

What is the Present Perfect?

When looking at tenses in Spanish, it is best to understand them in English first.

The present perfect tense in English is best understood as “I have …ed.” This

simplified explanation includes “I have, you have, he/she has, we have, and

they have” along with the past participle version of the verb. In Spanish, we get

the same idea. Instead of saying “have” the verb “haber” is conjugated based

on the subject.

Present Perfect “Haber”

“Haber” in the present perfect has its own set of conjugations. The yo form is

“he.” Tú is “has.” Él/ella/usted “ha.” Nosotros “hemos.” And ellos/ellas/ustedes

“han.” These correspond to each of the different subjects used when

conjugated in Spanish.

Forming the Past Participle

In order to form the present perfect, a past participle must be paired with the

correct conjugation of haber. For regular past participles, there are two different

endings for -AR verbs and -ER/-IR verbs. If a verb ends in -AR, the ending is

dropped from the infinitive and replaced with “-ado.” Both -ER and -IR verbs

end with “-ido.” Let’s do an example. If I said, “I have helped,” I would

conjugated haber and then put ayudar into the past participle form. The

sentence is now “He ayudado.” He has eaten” is “Ha comido.”

There are also irregular past participles. Below are some examples.

Figure 1

These irregulars will be used instead of adding “-ado” or “-ido” to the end of the

verb. “I have returned” is “He vuelto.”

Present Perfect Subjunctive

Along with the present perfect, there is the present perfect subjunctive. The

subjunctive tense is used for Wishes, Emotions, Impersonal Statements,

Recommendations, Doubts, and Ojála, aka “WEIRDO.” When forming the

present perfect subjunctive, there will now be two separate clauses: a present

tense clause and the present perfect subjunctive clause. Before discussing the

sentence structure further, there are new conjugations to learn.

When looking at haber in the present perfect subjunctive, we get the following

conjugations: yo – “haya,” tú – “hayas,” él/ella/usted – “haya,” nosotros/-as –

“hayamos,” and ellos/ellas/ustedes – “hayan.” With all of these conjugations,

the part participle is still added after the verb “haber.”

The sentence structure of the present perfect subjunctive includes two individual

clauses. The beginning there is a present tense clause which is followed by

“que” which is then followed by our present perfect subjunctive clause. Let’s

look at some examples. A good example is “I hope that he has bought a car.”

In this example, our present tense clause is “I hope.” In Spanish, this translates to

“Espero.” Then we add “que.” The we have our present perfect subjunctive

clause of “he has bought a car.” In Spanish, we use the él/ella/usted form of

haber for the tense and the past participle for comprar, which is “comprado.”

The entire sentence is “Espero que haya comprado un coche,” “I hope that he

has bought a car.”

Another example that revolves around doubt is “My father doubts that I have

finished my homework.” Our first clause is “My father doubts” which is “Mi padre

duda.” Our second clause is “I have finished my homework” which is “haya

terminado mi tarea.” The entire sentence translates to “Mi padre duda que

haya terminado mi tarea.”

Outro

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