El Presente Perfecto: Part 2 - Combining the past participle and the verb "haber"

Hola amigos...

Hoy, vamos a continuar la lección de la semana pasada.  Today, we are going to continue last week's lesson...

We talked about how to form the past participle...  if you need to, review that lesson first, as forming the past participle is mandatory for creating sentences using the present perfect.

In addition to knowing how to form the past participle, we have to know how to conjugate in the present tense the verb "haber."  Let's go ahead and look at how to do that:

haber (el presente)

yo he

tú has

él/ella/usted ha

nosotros hemos

vosotros habéis

ellos/ellas/ustedes han 

While the verb haber means "to exist" or "to be" ("Debe de haber un banco por aquí..." = "There must be a bank around here..."), these conjugations are not used like most verbs.  That is, when you say "yo he...," it almost always will be followed by a past participle, thus creating a sentence in the present perfect ("Yo he viajado." = "I have traveled.")

The present perfect is most often used to describe events that happened in the past, but continue to happen or continue to be true into the present.

For example, the following English sentences would fit that description:

• I have traveled to Mexico three times.  (Still true today)
• She has been eating for two hours.  (Happened in the past, but still going on.)
• We haven't had a chance to call yet.  (Going on in the past and still going on.)
• They have never seen that movie!  (Never have in the past and still haven't...)

So, how would we say those sentences in Spanish?  Of course, the answer is by using the present perfect tense that we just learned...

Let's look at the sentence: I have traveled to Mexico three times.

So, the present perfect is formed by the two words have traveled.  This verb translates very cleanly into Spanish - the first word would be the verb haber, conjugated into the present tense, while the second would be the verb viajar (to travel), conjugated into the past participle.

So, the translation would be:

(Yo) he viajado a México tres veces.

Of course, unlike English, the Yo is optional in Spanish, because it is clear who the speaker is talking about because of the Spanish verb he, which is conjugated in the first person.

She has been eating for two hours = Ella ha estado comiendo por dos horas.

We haven't had a chance to call yet. = Ya no hemos tenido la oportunidad de llamar.

They have never seen that movie!  = ¡Ellos nunca han visto esa película!

Notice that while in English the past participle and the verb to have can be separated by another word (They have never seen...), this is not allowed in Spanish.  The past participle always follows the verb haber (Ellos nunca han visto...).

PRUEBA

Try to translate the following sentences into Spanish

• I have not eaten.
• She has read that book five times.  
• We have not stolen anything! 
• They have been running for six hours.

I will close today's lesson with a quote from Scottish sailor John Paul Jones after being taunted and asked to surrender:

"Aun no he empezado a pelear”

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