Beginning Spanish ¡Empecemos por aquí!

400 •  Chapter 5: Nuestro pasado She won the award. She has won . With the verb to eat , we can see that the past participle and the past tense are not the same. You would say “I ate ” but “I have eaten .” Awareness of this distinction can help us avoid a common error as English speakers: using a preterite form of the verb, such as “Tengo encontré” (I have I found) when you meant to say “He encontrado.” This error is significant enough that meaning is completely lost; your reader or conversation partner will have no idea what you were trying to express. Also, in Spanish you must include the participle; the verb haber cannot be left on its own. This is in contrast to English: —Who has seen that movie? —I have! —¿Quién ha visto esa película? —¡Yo! (or “¡Yo la he visto!” but never “¡Yo he!”) Another common error is treating the past participle as if it were an adjective and changing the gender and number to match the subject. This mistake is less likely to result in utter confusion, but it is also a more common mistake. It is common because many past participles do also exist as adjectives. For example, consider the verbs morir (to die) and aburrir (to bore). The past participles are muerto and aburrido . These words are also the adjectives dead and bored / boring . She has died. Ella ha muerto . (past participle) She is dead. Ella está muerta . (adjective) We have bored our students. Hemos aburrido a nuestros estudiantes. My students are bored. Mis estudiantes están aburridos . That class is boring. Esa clase es aburrida . We can avoid this error by remembering that when the participle follows the verb haber , it is part of a perfect tense and not an adjective; therefore, it does not change its form. When it follows the verb ser or estar , it will match the number and gender of the noun it describes. Finally, note that there are some differences in usage based on geographic location. In Spain, for example, the present perfect tense is much more widely used. It is common to hear the present perfect in contexts where speakers from Latin America would use preterite tense. 30. El presente perfecto Escoge la mejor manera de completar cada oración. 1. ¿Alguna vez __________________a la ciudad de México? a. has fuiste b. has ido c. haber fuiste 2. ¡Esa señorita es inocente! Nunca __________________a nadie. a. ha matado b. ha matada c. ha matando