El Presente Perfecto: Part 1 - the Past Participle

Hola estudiantes...


I apologize for the long delay in blogs.  I've been extremely busy in the design of the new Viper Languages website, which will be up soon and will include free lessons, games and articles regarding languages such as Spanish, Chinese, Portuguese, German and much more.

Today's lesson will be mainly for more advanced students, although any one can take a look and attempt to understand and advance your ability with the Spanish language.  We will be discussing the verb haber and how to form the present perfect tense.. (or, en español, el presente perfecto).

Se forma con el verbo "haber"en presente, más un pasado participio.  (It is formed with the verb "haber"en the present, plus a past participle.)

Knowing how to form a past participle is an obvious requirement for using the present perfect.  This week, the forming of the past participle will be the focus. Next Friday, we will combine it with the verb haber in order to create complete sentences. The end goal will be say things like "I have eaten" or "I have been to Mexico three times." 

The word "been" in the previous sentence (I have been to Mexico...) is the past participle.  In English, we form it various ways depending on the verb.  However, the past participle often times ends in "en" or "ed."  Examples are:

• Eaten (I have eaten.)
• Taken (I have taken four trips to Spain.)
• Walked (I have never walked that far.)
• Sprayed (I've already sprayed the whole house and it still stinks!) 

In Spanish, it is easier to form, because there are fewer irregular conjugations.  Most verbs can be transformed into the past participle very easily.  Here's how...

-ar verbs

For verbs ending in "ar" (hablar, bailar, andar..), the "ar" is replaced with "ado"

• hablar = hablado
• andar = andado
• intentar = intentado
• alabar = alabado

-er verbs 

For verbs ending in "er" or "ir" (ir, salir, comer, comprender), the "er" or "ir" is replaced with "ido"

• entender = entendido
• vender = vendido
• beber = bebido
• salir = salido

 See if you can complete the following table by saying aloud the missing conjugations:

 

infinitivo	pasado participio
estar	estado
distinguir	distinguido
poder	podido
ayudar
asegurar
saber
responder
apoyar

Not too hard, right? Remember, though, there are some irregulars.  Here are the main eleven irregular present particples:

1. decir = dicho
2. escribir = escrito
3. hacer = hecho
4. leer = leído
5. morir = muerto
6. oir = oído
7. poner = puesto
8. romper = roto
9. ver = visto
10. abrir = abierto
11. volver = vuelto

That is the basics of how to form the past participle.  Next week, we'll combine this conjugation with the verb haber (conjugated in the present tense) in order to complete the lesson and create sentences in the present perfect..