[General Notes] [Present
Perfect] [Pluperfect] [Future
Perfect Tenses] [Conditional Perfect]
[Other Perfect Tenses]
Use perfect tenses
in order to emphasize relevance of an action/event which took place (or
will have taken place) to another action/event. Spanish perfect tenses
are quite similar in this sense to English ones, although for example,
in English Present Perfect has become a dominant tense when tallking about
the past, while that is not the case in Spanish, where Imperfect and Preterite
are commonly used.
To form perfect tenses use haber + past participle. See conjugation
of haber.
For formation of past participle see conjugation of regular,
irregular
and stem-changing verbs.
Use the present perfect
when discussing events that have taken place in the past but are relevant
to the present or past events that may be repeated or continued in the
future. One often uses ya (already,yet) in questions and affirmative
sentences while todavía (still, yet) in negative ones with
the
present perfect:
-¿Quieres ver Mujeres al borde de un attaque de nervios?
- No. Ya he visto esa película cuatro veces.
-¿Ya has comido?
- No, no he comido nada todavía. |
Note that English construction I have just finished doing it
is being translated using verb acabar -- Yo acabo de hacerlo.
To form the present perfect use haber and a past participle.
he
has
ha |
hemos
habéis
han |
+ past participle |
Use the pluperfect (pluscuamperfecto)
when referring to an action that preceded another action in the past. This
tense is identical to the past perfect in English:
Lief Ericson ya había visitado America cuando llegó
Colón.
To form the pluperfect use the imperfect of haber and a past
participle.
había
habías
había |
habíamos
habíais
habían |
+ past participle |
One can use the future perfect
and the future perfect progressive to make certain emphasizes although
it rarely happens. For example
| Yo veré. |
I will look. |
Sometime, for sometime. |
Simple Future |
| Yo estaré viendo. |
I will be looking. |
Continued process |
Future Progressive |
| Yo habré visto. |
I will have looked. |
By the time you arrive. |
Future Perfect |
| Yo habré estado viendo. |
I will have been looking. |
Continued process by the time you arrive. |
Future Perfect Progressive |
To form the future perfect use the future of haber and a past
participle or estado and present participle
habré
habrás
habrá |
habremos
habréis
habrán |
+ past participle
or
+ estado + present participle |
Use the conditional
perfect (it exactly corresponds to Future in the Past Perfect in English)
when discussing situations in the past which are contrary to the fact (3rd
type of conditional sentences), i.e. when talking about something that
would have happened:
Si hubiera ido a la fiesta, habría visto a Isabel.
If I had gone to the party, I would have seen Isabel.
Yo le habría hablado a mi hermano.
I would have talked to my brother.
To form the conditional perfect, use
habría
habrías
habría |
habríamos
habríais
habrían |
+ past participle |
For formation of past participle see conjugation of regular,
irregular
and stem-changing verbs.
One can also form other perfect
tenses. Some of them are discussed elsewhere, like Present
Perfect Subjunctive and Pluperfect
Subjunctive. Some of them may exist theoretically like Present
Perfect Progressive or Conditional
Perfect Progressive but in reality they are hardly used. For when they
should be used, see the rules for the "paternal" tense.
Also some textbooks mention Preterit Perfect (Antefuturo) although
I do not think it is used at all. Just for the sake of it, here is conjugation
of hablar:
|
Preterit Perfect
|
Conditional Perfect Progressive
|
hube hablado
hubiste hablado
hubo hablado
hubimos hablado
hubisteis hablado
hubieron hablado
|
habría estado hablando
habrías estado hablando
habría estado hablando
habríamos estado hablando
habríais estado hablando
habrían estado hablando
|