“They haven't been reading the books we gave them.” (progressive)īoth of these tenses are used to say when something happened before something else. “We had dieted for two months without losing even one pound.” (simple)
“Stan had been using a belt to hold up his pants, but he lost it.” (progressive) “ Had you broken your arm before?” (simple)
“I had seen that movie before he told me about it.” (simple) They are formed just like the present perfect tenses, except that they use the past tense of the verb “to have.” The past perfect tense also has simple and continuous tenses. However, the present perfect progressive is usually used to stress that the action is not yet finished. “They have solved the problem!” (relevant to the present) “Dave has been drinking all day.” (relevant to the present) “Mark has lived in Cleveland for three years.” (continues) “I have been playing hockey all my life.” (continues)
Notice how the auxiliary verb and the past participle are not separated.Both the present perfect and the present perfect progressive tenses are used to talk about things that started in the past, but continue into, or is relevant to the present. Here are the same sentences in negative form. Note how the word order is different than the English equivalent. To make this sentence negative, the word “no” is placed before the reflexive pronoun (me).įor a review of reflexive verbs click and. Compare how the present perfect differs from the simple present, when a reflexive verb is used. With reflexive verbs, the reflexive pronoun is placed immediatedly before the auxiliary verb. Pablo has not given a lot of money to his sister. Pablo no le ha dado mucho dinero a su hermana. To make this sentence negative, the word “no” is placed before the indirect object pronoun (le). Pablo has given a lot of money to his sister. Pablo le ha dado mucho dinero a su hermana. Object pronouns are placed immediately before the auxiliary verb. To make the sentence negative, add the word “no” before the conjugated form of haber.Īgain, the auxiliary verb and the past participle are never separated. The auxiliary verb and the past participle are never separated. The present perfect tense is often used with the adverb “ya”. The present perfect tense is frequently used for past actions that continue into the present, or continue to affect the present. In the first example, we use “ha” because the subject of the sentence is “Juan.” In the second example, we use “han” because the subject of the sentence is “Juan y María.” We do NOT use “han” to agree with “cuentas.” The auxiliary verb is conjugated for the subject of the sentence, not the object. Notice that we use “ha” to agree with “Juan”.
Let’s look more carefully at the last example: Note that when used to form the present perfect tense, only the base form (pagado) is used. Past participle used in the present perfect tense: However, when used in the perfect tenses, the past participle never changes. When used as an adjective, the past participle changes to agree with the noun it modifies. When you studied the past participle, you practiced using it as an adjective. The following examples all use the past participle for the verb “comer.”įor a review of the formation of the past participle. Remember, some past participles are irregular. You have already learned in a previous lesson that the past participle is formed by dropping the infinitive ending and adding either -ado or -ido. In Spanish, the present perfect tense is formed by using the present tense of the auxiliary verb “haber” with the past participle. (main verb: studied auxiliary verb: have) The present perfect is formed by combining the auxiliary verb “has” or “have” with the past participle.īecause the present perfect is a compound tense, two verbs are required: the main verb and the auxiliary verb. Subjunctive VIII: Actions not yet completed Subjunctive III: Verbs that change orthographically Subjunctive II: Conjugating regular and stem-changing verbs