Beginning Spanish ¡Empecemos por aquí!

Module B: Important moments  • 399 But many common verbs, including ir , ser , querer and tener , which are so often irregular in other forms, follow the rules for past participles. Their past participles are ido , sido , querido and tenido , respectively. How is it used? The present perfect tense is generally used in the same way in Spanish as it is in English. One use is to express a past action without specifying exactly when it occurred. He visitado quince estados de los EEUU. I have visited fifteen US states. ¿Alguna vez has visto un OVNI? 33 Have you ever seen a UFO? ¡Fiona me ha mentido otra vez! Fiona has lied to me again! It can also express a condition or activity that began at some unspecified point and continues to the present moment: Kel ha estado enferma por una semana. Kel has been sick for a week. ¿Por cuánto tiempo has vivido aquí? How long have you lived here? Luisa siempre ha sido muy creativa. Luisa has always been very creative. Either way, there will be some relevance to the present moment. Consider the difference: Preterite: No comí el desayuno. I didn’t eat breakfast. Present perfect: No he comido el desayuno. I haven’t eaten breakfast. In many contexts, both verb forms work grammatically. The present perfect usually establishes a closer relationship to the present circumstances. Note that we cannot place anything between the two parts of the verb. “He nunca bailado” does not work; it needs to be “Nunca he bailado.” If the verb needs a pronoun, it must precede the conjugated verb (which is haber in this case). Reflexive verb example: ¿Ya te has bañado? ¿Puedo usar el baño? Indirect object example: ¡Mira! Mi abuela me ha mandado galletas de canela. Direct object example: —¿Sabes dónde está mi mochila? —No, no la he visto. Avoiding common errors Note that in English, the past participle is often the same form as the past tense: We danced yesterday. We have danced . 33 This is the abbreviation for objeto volador no identificado ; in English, an unidentified flying object (UFO).