Perfect Tenses

Past Participle All perfect tenses are made up of two parts: the helping verb and the past participle of the main verb: helping verb past participle helping verb past participle He has eaten. We have seen. They have left. You have finished. I have studied. She has fallen.

This is how you form the past participle in Spanish: Drop the –ar and add –ado: hablarhabladonadarnadado pensarpensadoalmorzaralmorzado llegarllegadoestarestado Drop the –er or –ir and add –ido: comercomidopoderpodido leerleídoquererquerido asistirasistidovenirvenido

You have to memorize the irregular past participles in Spanish just as you do in English. volvervuelto (NOT volvido) ponerpuesto (NOT ponido) abrirabierto etc. cubrircubierto escribirescrito vervisto morirmuerto decirdicho hacerhecho romperroto

Helping Verb Now you need a helping verb to go with your past participles. What we use is the present tense of the verb “haber.” he habladohemos hablado has habladohabéis hablado ha habladohan hablado Use these verb forms with all your past participles: he comido, has querido, ha vuelto, hemos trabajado, etc.

Pluperfect (Past Perfect) (Pluscuamperfecto) The past perfect (also called the pluperfect and, in Spanish, the pluscuamperfecto), remember, is the past of the past and translates with “had” in English. ALL perfect tenses get a helping verb and a past participle: present perfecthe has eaten past perfect he had eaten future perfecthe will have eaten conditional perfecthe would have eaten

As you saw, the present perfect tense has a set of helping verbs that come from “haber”: hehemos hashabéis hahan The same is true of the past perfect. The helping verbs for the past perfect are the imperfect form of “haber”: había habladohabíamos hablado habías habladohabíais hablado había habladohabían hablado

Note that the endings on “haber” for the past perfect are the endings for the imperfect tense: había habíamos habías habíais había habían The present perfect is the PRESENT tense of “haber” + the past participle. The past perfect tense is the IMPERFECT (PAST) tense of “haber” + the past participle.

The FUTURE PERFECT TENSE is the past of the future, in a manner of speaking. It shows something that will be complete at some point in the future. By the year 2050 we will have found a way to make a car run on water is the future. Some time before then, a car running on water will be a reality. In 2050, our future, that invention will be a past (completed) act.

Following are the future perfect forms of “haber”: habréhabremos habráshabréis habráhabrán Put these helping verbs with a past participle to form the future perfect: future perfect ↓ ↓ habré hablado – I will have spoken

The conditional perfect is a little trickier. It refers to a point in the past when something would have been completed. There’s always an implied “if clause.” I would have eaten all the cake (if I could have). Although the time isn’t specified, it is always some point in the past.

Following are the conditional perfect forms of “haber”: habríahabríamos habríashabríais habríahabrían Put these helping verbs with a past participle to form the future perfect: conditional perfect ↓ ↓ habría hablado – I would have spoken