Introduction

Pretérito perfecto is one of 4 Spanish past tenses. It is used similar as Perfect tense in English.

Example:
This morning I have eaten.
Esta mañana he comido.

This morning I have not eaten.
Esta mañana no he comido.

As You can see from example we are using conjugated verb haber (to have) + past participle.

How to form Pretérito perfecto

In table we are using past participle of verb hablar (to talk). As you cans see verb haber is conjugated in present for all persons. Past participle of verb is always the same.

So to properly use pretérito perfecto you need to remember two things:
1. Conjugation of verb haber in present
2. Past participle of verb.

In English verbs in infinitive have “to” in front of them, i.e. to talk, to drink, to study etc.
As You probably remember in Spanish verbs in infinitive always finish in one of three combinations: -AR, -ER or -IR.

To form past participle we just use root of the verb (verb without ending -ar/-er/-ir) and add ado for verbs ending in -AR and ido for verbs finishing in -ER or – IR.

Irregular verbs

Some of verbs are irregular. So participle is not created just by adding ado/ido to the root. Table below shows some of most used irregular verbs.

Usage of Pretérito perfecto

We are using Pretérito perfecto when talking about:

1. Past actions, terminated and related with present. Usually using phrase: “this”

Example:
This week I have been in Italy.
Esta semana he ido a Italia.


2. Past actions, made today

Example:
This morning I have breakfast.
Esta mañana he desayunado.


3. Past actions, related with present but without specific time

Example:
I have never saw a snow.
Nunca he visto la nieve

4. Action made / Action not made

Example:
I have already visited United States but haven´t yet visited Asia.
Ya he visitado Estados Unidos pero todavía no he visitado Asia

Exercises

Conjugates the verbs in parentheses in the pretérito perfecto.

Check solution

Recreate test

If you liked this post check our other posts. Maybe you need to refresh your knowledge of ir vs irse here, or hay vs está here.

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