When is present perfect used in spanish

Me he visto en el espejo. Now that you know how to conjugate and structure sentences in present perfect, we can review how this tense is commonly used.

The present perfect tense is more commonly used to describe actions that occurred in a recent past, such as today, this morning or this afternoon. Whereas actions that occurred, for example, yesterday or last week will normally be expressed using the simple past tense.

However, the first sentence tells us that action took place in the past, without mentioning a particular moment in time ie. The second sentence tells us that the action only happened once ie. I visited Barcelona at a specific point in time. Even if the time or date is not given, the listener will understand that the action happened once. The subjunctive for present perfect is used to speak about past actions related to the present, as well as future actions that may or may not be completed.

As we mentioned earlier, the present perfect subjunctive is normally used when conveying emotions, possibility, feelings, doubts, uncertainty, opinions, desires, and expectations.

Next, we will examine how the present perfect subjunctive can be connected both to the past and the future. Here we are talking about a possibility. Adjectives II Days of the Week Numbers: Unit Two Ser and Estar I Ser and Estar II Ser and Estar III Ser and Estar IV Negation Questions Adjectives Tener, venir Weather Expressions The Personal "a" Contractions Unit Three Stem-Changing Verbs: o:ue Stem-Changing Verbs: e:ie Stem-changing verbs: e:i Estar, Ir, Dar Acabar de Volver a Ordinal Numbers Months, Seasons, and Dates Comparisons of Inequality Comparisons of Equality Superlatives Unit Four Pronouns as Objects of Prepositions Object Pronouns I Object Pronouns II Object Pronouns III Verbs Like Gustar Present Progressive Verbs with Irregular 1st Persons Unit Five Numbers: Telling Time Por and Para Comparatives Demonstratives Time Expressions With Hacer If you want to learn the Spanish present perfect tense, you only have to know one verb conjugation, how to form a past participle and a few phrases that trigger this tense.

As a tense, the Spanish present perfect gives so much in terms of versatility and simplicity. The Spanish present perfect is also the first tense I recommend Spanish students learn in order to start talking about the past in Spanish. Moreover, I recommend you start with this tense because it is the easiest Spanish past tense to learn and you can use it in a lot of situations even when it is technically wrong.

That said, when you combine the present perfect with the phrases in this post you will avoid any grammatical errors. To form past participles for regular ar verbs, you need to remove the ar and replace it with an ado.

For example:. To form past participles for regular er and ir verbs, you need to remove the er or ir and replace it with an ido. As follows:. Now you can combine haber and past participles to form the present perfect. Here are a few quick examples more examples later on :.

English: I have eaten. English: They have said it. English: We have gone to the market. Another post I wrote this week explains how to form the past participles in more detail and includes a list of all of the irregular past participles.

What this graph is demonstrating is that a past event could occur in one of the following time frames:. These three descriptions broadly describe the use of the present perfect tense this article , the past simple tense and the past imperfect tense. To reiterate, any event that started and stopped in a time frame that is related to the present moment requires the use of the present perfect tense. For example, if you went to the bank this morning, then this action has happened on this day today.

There are a lot of nuances and questions that can arise around this topic. For instance, you may think that you are now in the afternoon and the morning is over so this would call for the past simple. Since the present perfect requires an event to start often recently and continue into the present moment, then all phrases that trigger the present perfect will imply this timeline for the events of the sentence.

It can be set in the future if you plan on doing something later that night, like in this example:. Esta noche iremos al cine. We are going to the cinema tonight.

But if it relates to something that has already happened that night, you have to use the present perfect. He comido mucho esta noche. It have eaten a lot tonight. We have watched three films tonight.

If you were to say the same after you woke up the next morning, you would use the preterite and anoche last night instead of esta noche:. We watched three movies last night. First of all, they have a demonstrative, which is a clear indication that you are going to need the present perfect. Secondly, they are perfect for describing what has happened during the last week, month or even year, as long as that week, month or year has not ended yet!

Have a look:. Esta semana no he podido trabajar. I have not been able to work this week. La semana pasada no pude trabajar. I was not able to work last week. Este mes he comprado dos coches.

I have bought two cars this month. We have been to Venice this year. My neighbor has had an accident this morning. The adverb nunca is yet another word that very often triggers the present perfect. We know it can be used in different contexts and it can refer to the past, the present and the future , but when we want to describe personal experiences or the lack of them during our lives, we use it with the present perfect.

A lot of my students ask me why we have to use the present perfect when talking about life experiences. The answer is very simple: You should know by now that we use this tense when something started in the past and continues until today. When we are born, our lives start and as long as we are still alive, they keep on going, hence the use of this tense:.

Nunca he estado en Estados Unidos. I have never been to America. We have never watched that movie. You have never eaten pizza with pineapple.

I have not seen your brother lately. Have you studied Spanish lately? If an action has been happening for some time lately, we can add a present participle to the present perfect of estar this is what we call present perfect progressive in English :.

I have been reading a lot lately. We have not been traveling a lot lately. They have been working lately. We are not ready yet. Grab a pencil and a piece of paper and write down some sentences with them in this tense!